Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes has warned fantasy football players who will be looking to select players from his team for their squads as the 2022-23 NFL season gets underway.
The Chiefs will have a new look about them in the novel campaign. The team is without Tyreek Hill, who has taken his talents to Miami in what was, at the time, a shocking turn of events.
It will be interesting to see who will step and fill the star wide receiver's boots. For fantasy players, the uncertainty is most unpleasant.
Mahomes has been very complimentary of the Chiefs’ depth in the position during the offseason, noting that everyone will get a chance and be involved in on-pitch affairs as the team looks to return to Super Bowl glory.
He was quoted as saying last week saying the following:
"I think the biggest thing is just going to be that it's going to be a different player every week that has the 'big game.'
"It's not going to be just necessarily Tyreek and Travis (Kelce) every single week, where it's like one or the other is having a big game, or both. It's going to be every single week; it's going to be someone different. So, I'm sorry to all you fantasy football guys, but it's going to come from everywhere so you're going to have to kind of choose the right guy every week."
Kelce is of course the next best thing given Hill’s exit but there are options among the likes of JuJu Smith-Schuster, a former Pro Bowl star, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Rookie Skyy Moore is also keen on impressing while Mecole Hardman will still be around. The latter is the one Mahomes is most familiar with. Wideout Justin Watson is also likely to see significant targets during the season.
In the running back department, Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the big name but there are viable options in Jerick McKinnon and rookie Isiah Pachecho.
Defenses will have to prepare for multiple possibilities when gearing up to face Mahomes and the Chiefs this season, something which also promises to be tricky for avid football fantasy team owners.
According to NFL.com's fantasy rankings, Smith-Schuster is the top WR on the Chiefs roster but Mahomes doesn’t view it as being that clear cut.
The Chiefs have opened their season with a 44-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals, having gone into the game as 10/27 betting favorites while the Cards went in at 11/5.
Fans, of course, have plenty of betting options where the Chiefs are concerned, with BetMGM Kansas bonus code one of the best.
Kansas City is the second-favorite to win the AFC this season at 11/2, behind the 11/4 Buffalo Bills. The Los Angeles Chargers are next at 8/1.
They’re also second behind the Bills when it comes to Super Bowl betting odds; the teams are 5/1 and 10/1 respectively, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are back among the favorites at 7/1 on the back of Tom Brady’s quick decision to unretire after calling it quits at the end of last season.
Mahomes, who doesn’t have fantasy football to worry about, is excited to head into another season with the Chiefs.
"I think it's just going to be welled-up, diverse offense where everyone's going to get the ball, so it will be hard for defenses to game plan against, but I'm interested to see how defenses are going to go against us.
"Are they going to do the shell stuff that we saw most of the year, are they going to do what the Bengals did to us at the AFC Championship Game or are they going to go back to going with defenses they feel the most confident with? So I'm excited for that, but we have answers for it all and we're excited just to get out there and play."
Meanwhile, the Chiefs have waived Matt Bushman after placing him on the injured reserve list. The tight end was waived last week with an injury designation amid 53-man roster cuts and then reverted to the reserve injured list, but he has now been cut with an injury settlement.
Bushman impressed in the Chiefs’ last preseason game, against the Green Bay Packers, leading the offense with 73 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions.
He was unfortunate to fracture his clavicle on his last catch, though. There is still the possibility of a return for the TE as he was waived from the IRL.
When he’s back to full health, Bushman could be re-signed to either the 53-man roster or practice squad if he clears waivers. WR Gehrig Dieter went through something similar with the Chiefs in the past.
In the Chiefs' win over Arizona, Mahomes was 30-of-39 for 360 yards, five touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 144.2 QB rating. Kelce has eight catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, while JuJu had six catches for 79 yards. Edwards-Helaire had two catching TDs.
