Here's why the Chiefs are more dangerous now than ever before

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — To look at the Chiefs of today compared to two years ago at this time is to see a complete team with myriad paths to victory. No longer does Kansas City have to rely on Patrick Mahomes.

Since he became the full-time starting quarterback at the outset of the 2018 regular season, running the football has never been something that caused these Chiefs to shudder. They rank ninth in the league in average per carry (4.56) and second in first-down rate (one every 3.64 attempts) over the last in that span (including their performances in playoff games).

But what has changed is the degree to which the Chiefs are willing to run when coverage dictates it.

In Week 1, Houston laid back and blanketed Kansas City’s receiving targets. Mahomes and the Chiefs responded by entrusting the offense to rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and they ran more than they passed for the first time since Mahomes became their starting quarterback in the 34-20 win.

The final tally for the Chiefs that night? Thirty-four runs and 33 pass plays. Edwards-Helaire wasn’t particularly effective near the goal line, but everywhere else he ran riot, and averaged 5.5 yards per carry, finishing the day with 138 yards.

Five-and-a-half weeks later, Buffalo dared Mahomes and the Chiefs to run once again in their Monday afternoon game in Orchard Park, N.Y. Edwards-Helaire carried the football 26 times — one more rush than he posted in Week 1 — and averaged 6.2 yards per carry.

Kansas City ran even more often against the Bills than it did against the Texans, keeping it on the ground on 46 of 73 plays — a 63.0-percent tally that, in terms of raw ratio, took the game back three decades.

So, now that the Chiefs have established that they will call a foe’s bluff, now how do you defend them? Even with their new-found willingness to keep it on the ground when coverage dictates it, their per-game scoring average this season is 29.2 points, just 0.7 points per game off of the 2019 pace that was good enough for a world championship.

“Yeah, believe it or not, they’re a better offense than they were last year because of the addition of Edwards-Helaire,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. “He’s a great back. He had 161 yards rushing the other night and he’s run the ball well all season.

“They have another dimension to their game, and when you add him to who Mahomes can deal the ball too — the wideouts and the tight ends — they’re double tough to stop.”

And devoting more attention to Edwards-Helaire and new pickup Le’Veon Bell could mean a gap in coverage, which Mahomes would surely exploit.

And by the way, Kansas City is also 28-0 in the last three seasons when it runs at least 35.0 percent of the time. Of course, some of that is a function of game flow; when the Chiefs are ahead, they’ll run it more to limit exposure to mistakes. When the Chiefs run on fewer than 35.0 percent of their snaps since 2018, they are 5-10. But it’s also about effectiveness and efficiency on the ground; in that span, the Chiefs are 23-1 when rushing for at least 100 yards and 10-9 when they don’t.

Now, more than ever, the Chiefs offense poses the pick-your-poison conundrum in devastating fashion.