Patrick Mahomes Left With No Help as Andy Reid Faces Tough Challenge For Chiefs QB

Since 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs’ season hasn’t ended before the AFC title game. That’s seven straight conference championships, three Lombardi trophies, and Patrick Mahomes rewriting passing records like it’s a hobby. He leads the franchise in every major quarterback category – passing yards (32,352), touchdowns (245), and completion percentage (66.6%). And is behind Aaron Rodgers in NFL history for the highest career passer rating. The dynasty talk isn’t hype anymore. It’s just math. Alas, even dynasties bend under the weight of time.

The Chiefs went 15-2 last year, yet their point differential was only +59 – numbers you’d expect from a ten-win team, not from the NFL’s supposed juggernaut. They survived on Mahomes’ brilliance and Andy Reid’s playbook magic. But here’s the problem: when your running backs can’t run and your wideouts are in street clothes, the quarterback is the entire offense. If Kansas City’s ground game bottoms out again, Mahomes won’t just carry the team. He’ll have to sprint uphill with it strapped on his back.

CBS Sports analyst Pete Prisco didn’t sugarcoat it: the running back room is a mess. “Yeah, a lot of concerns about the running back room, and I think they do, too, as well,” Prisco told CBS Sports HQ. “Isiah Pacheco is a good player, but he’s coming off an injury. Kareem Hunt is banged up right now, and he’s 30. They brought back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. So, I mean, they’re desperate for running back help.”

He even floated the idea of Kansas City calling Jacksonville about Tank Bigsby. “You look at their running game and you say, ‘It’s got to be better than what it’s been.’ But are those guys capable of making it better than it’s been? So for me, that’s the biggest concern…I don’t think this running back room is good enough right now, the way it’s constructed for the Chiefs.” When your RBs are either hurt, old, or reclamation projects, you’d better pray your QB doesn’t mind throwing the ball 50 times every Sunday night.

General manager Brett Veach has tried to spin the situation with optimism. This week, he talked up the 1–2 punch of Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt. He said about Pacheco: “He’s a guy that we think is gonna have a big gear. He’s a dynamic player.” And as for Hunt, he said, “We think that Kareem coming back after a year of being here, and now and having a full offseason, has a good foundation now, and I think he’s looked better at camp.” But let’s be honest. When your seventh-round bruiser has just recovered from a broken fibula and your 30-year-old back is already limping, there’s not a lot of “dynamic” happening.

Add in Clyde Edwards-Helaire, whose career arc has gone from first-round pick to practice squad survivor, and this feels like rubbing salt on the wound. Patrick Mahomes might be the league’s most gifted passer, but even he can’t keep defenses honest without a run game worth respecting. And that’s the trap. Every defense facing Kansas City in the first half of 2025 knows the Chiefs’ backfield is a weak link. Mahomes will still deliver – he always does – but if every week becomes a 40-throw survival test, cracks will show. It’s not sustainable for a seven-month grind. Even dynasties have breaking points, and right now the Kansas City backfield looks like the point of failure.

Andy Reid’s WR headache

If the run game wasn’t shaky enough, here comes the other problem: Rashee Rice. The NFL suspended him for six games under the player conduct policy after pleading guilty to felony charges from last year’s Dallas car crash. Rice can’t return until Week 7 against the Raiders. That means Mahomes enters September without the one receiver who was supposed to stabilize a shaky wideout group. And the Chiefs are missing him for six brutal matchups: Chargers, Eagles, Giants on Sunday night, Ravens, Jaguars on Monday night, and the Lions on Sunday night. Three of those are prime-time showcases.

The league originally floated a ten-game suspension. Six is lighter, but it’s still a gut punch. Kansas City survived last year’s Super Bowl push with essentially no Rice after his early-season knee blowout. But the offense wasn’t the same. This year, Travis Kelce is 35, Marquise Hollywood Brown is often hurt, and Xavier Worthy is still learning on the fly. Someone has to step up until Rice gets back. But nobody looks like a lock to do it. And by mid-October, Rice will be trying to get back in rhythm after sitting out 13 months of football.

That’s the balancing act facing Reid. Scheme Mahomes free, hide the run-game weaknesses, and hope the wideouts don’t collapse before Rice returns. The Chiefs have always been at their deadliest when defenses had to pick their poison. Right now, opponents don’t have to choose. They know where the ball is going. They know who has to carry the load. It’s Mahomes or bust. And not even Andy Reid’s playbook can scheme away that level of pressure.