Football fans around the world are praying to see this happen in 2025. The Chiefs were without Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown for most of last year and Xavier Worthy was slow to find his footing in the NFL, killing any hopes of the Chiefs’ offense being fun. Between legal issues and his season-ending knee injury, Rice’s status for Week 1 is murky, but Brown is back and healthy. Worthy also started to break out at the end of his rookie campaign, notably going for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. While defenses are never going to let Mahomes have free rein on deep shots, some extra juice from the receivers should boost Mahomes’ aDOT beyond the near-league-low mark of 6.9 that it sat at in 2024.

The move, according to ESPN’s Field Yates, will save $49.4 million against the salary cap in 2025. The team redid Mahomes’ deal after splurging in free agency on LT Jaylon Moore and CB Kristian Fulton, among other players. Mahomes had been slated to count as a $66 million cap hit in 2025. Mahomes, who turns 30 in September, is signed through the 2031 season.

Mahomes was hammered for six sacks as the Chiefs’ protection completely collapsed, a la their Super Bowl LV loss to the Bucs. Besieged Mahomes didn’t help matters with two awful picks, one of which was housed for a pick-six. It had the feeling of a duct tape and glue production no longer “getting away with it.” As for the regular season, Mahomes’ statistical “slump” continued even as he led the Chiefs to a 15-1 record during his starts. He failed to eclipse 4,000 yards passing for the first time in seven years as starter and matched a career low with 26 aerial scores. Mahomes’ previous 26-TD campaign came when he was limited to 14 starts in 2019 by a knee injury. A painfully low average depth of target was accompanied by a career-worst 6.8 YPA. With any other quarterback, we would be talking about a drop-off, but weekly Chiefs observers know the deal. This is a super limited supporting cast, and Mahomes and company have opted for ruthless short-area efficiency over deep-game pyrotechnics. It’s an ongoing bummer for fantasy managers, but obviously the right call for Kansas City as it awaits for passing-game reinforcements. Once again limited to non-premium draft position ahead of a typically barren receiver free agent market, the Chiefs could look to add a front-line wideout via trade.

The theme of this dominance was: “Ope, let me just scooch on by you.” Mahomes took a first-and-goal from the 10 and ran it in without even being hit hard to put the Chiefs up 29-22 early in the fourth quarter. His first rushing touchdown came just after the two-minute warning in the first half, and he found Xavier Worthy in the air the drive before that to push the Chiefs to a 21-16 halftime lead. The Bills rallied to tie the game at 29, and sacked Mahomes on first-and-goal with 4:28 when Jordan Phillips picked up left guard Mike Caliendo and deposited him in Mahomes’ lap. But the Chiefs kicked a successful field goal to take the lead, stopped Allen on fourth down on their last drive, and Mahomes was able to drain the rest of the clock with a pair of flat passes to running backs Isiah Pacheco and Samaje Perine. Mahomes is dominant despite never appearing physically dominant. It makes him feel more unflappable than inevitable. He just knows too much about how to win an NFL football game, and really your team wasn’t that interested in winning anyway, right? The Chiefs will take on the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX two Sundays from now with a chance to become the NFL’s first franchise to win three titles in a row since the 1965-67 Packers.