The 2023 NFL season is officially underway, and the Kansas City Chiefs have a losing record for the first time since Week 7 of 2021. The Detroit Lions came into Arrowhead Stadium Thursday and shocked the football world with a 21-20 comeback victory, handing the reigning Super Bowl champs their first loss of the season. What are the areas of concern for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, who were without stars Travis Kelce and Chris Jones?

 

1. The Chiefs badly need Travis Kelce back

Travis Kelce has a great track record from a health standpoint. This was the first game he has missed due to injury since 2014. The Chiefs aren't worried that Kelce's knee injury has long term implications, but they need him to play Week 2 in Jacksonville.

It sometimes feels like the rules don't always apply to the Chiefs. While the rest of the NFL scrambles to stack up elite receivers, the Chiefs traded away Tyreek Hill and won a Super Bowl the following season. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are such a great combo that it doesn't matter if they have weapons or not. At least, that's what we thought.

It turns out there's a limit to what the Chiefs can overcome, and losing Travis Kelce is past that limit. He's the other critical piece of the puzzle. The Chiefs didn't play a perfect game, or even a great game against the Lions. However, they lost this game because of the mistakes their sub-par receiving corps made.

Multiple dropped passes came at the worst times for the Chiefs. On the Chiefs' final drive of the game, trailing by one point, Mahomes' receivers dropped three balls that should have resulted in first downs, including one on 4th-and-25. Not to mention the Kadarius Toney drop that ended up in the hands of Lions' safety Brian Branch for a defensive touchdown. Those are the moments Mahomes always looks to Kelce.

Mahomes did as much as he could in this game, but someone capable has to be on the other end of his passes. This team needs Travis Kelce to be an elite team.

 

2. The Chiefs are going to pay Chris Jones

The Chiefs' defense didn't struggle as a whole against the Lions, who are a good offensive team. They allowed only 14 points (seven of Detroit's points came from the pick-six). However, they weren't able to get the timely stops when it mattered, and they also didn't get to the quarterback enough, recording just one sack.

The Lions leaned heavily on the run game on their final touchdown drive, which gave them the lead. The middle of the Chiefs' defense wasn't strong enough when it needed to be.

Then, on the last drive of the game, the Lions got the ball back and needed one first down in order to run out the clock. They ran the ball three straight times and easily got the first down to seal the win. Clearly the Chiefs missed Jones' presence at the interior of the defense.

The point isn't that the Chiefs' defense was bad, but Chris Jones is one of the best defensive players in the NFL. He's one of the three most important players on the Chiefs. Mahomes and Kelce's greatness makes up for a lot of roster deficiencies, but overall, this isn't that great of a roster. Kansas City has to keep Jones, and it's worth spending some extra dough on him. This deal is going to get done soon.

 

3. The Chiefs' run game is ugly

The Chiefs totaled 90 rushing yards, and Patrick Mahomes accounted for 45 of them. Those 45 yards weren't on designed runs either. Clyde Edwards-Helaire surprisingly got the start at running back, and Isiah Pacheco rotated in. Jerick McKinnon got a few snaps, but wasn't heavily featured in the offense.

Outside of Mahomes' scrambles, the Chiefs rushed the ball 17 times for 45 yards. That's an average of 2.6 yards per carry. Just brutal.

The Lions aren't exactly known for having a stout run defense either. Detroit allowed the third-most yards per carry in the entire NFL last year.

Are the Chiefs' running backs no good? Was the offensive line blocking poorly on run plays? Was it a bad game plan or a bad execution of a good one? It seems like the answer was all of the above on Thursday, and Kansas City has to figure this one out. The Chiefs cannot rely on Mahomes to carry the run game on top of everything else he does. He's so valuable, they shouldn't want him running at all.