The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 11 in a game that they probably should have won, considering they had several chances to do so. Patrick Mahomes set his team up to be on the winning side of the ledger, as did the Chiefs defense, which limited the Eagles to just 238 yards of offense and sacked Jalen Hurts five times. Still, the Chiefs lost, so there are people to blame. So, here are the three Chiefs most to blame for the heartbreaking Week 11 loss to the Eagles on Monday Night Football, including wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, tight end Travis Kelce, and general manager Brett Veach.
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
There are bigger things that lost the Chiefs the game to the Eagles in Week 11 than one play, but you can’t ignore the binary truth. Patrick Mahomes hit a wide-open Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the hands on a long bomb with under two minutes to play that would have led to the WR walking (or maybe sliding) in for a touchdown, and MVS dropped it.
It was a brutal play that cost the Chiefs the game.
The fact that Valdes-Scantling is even out there speaks to a larger issue (more on that below), but the fact is the wideout is making $10 million a year to catch balls like that, and he didn’t come through when it mattered most.
Valdes-Scantling had no catches on three targets in the game, he has just 14 catches on 27 targets for 249 yards and a touchdown on the season, and he now has 21 drops in his career. The guy can fly, but he can’t catch, and that cost the Chiefs this game.
TE Travis Kelce
Patrick Mahomes suffered four drops by his pass-catchers in the fourth quarter, including one by superstar Travis Kelce. The tight end finished with fine numbers. He caught seven balls for 44 yards with a touchdown.
For most NFL tight ends, that would be a great night. For Kelce, an all-time great who averages more yards per game (71.8) than any TE in league history, that’s not so good.
Kelce looked chippy and frustrated all game and made some uncharacteristic mistakes.
Do I want to be the one to say it? No. Am I going to? Yes.
Kelce flew to Argentina on his bye week to see his girlfriend, Taylor Swift. It’s not quite Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson in Cabo during the playoffs, but it’s not a great look when you come back and play like this.
In the last several months, Kelce has gone from probably one of the top 50 most well-known NFL players to the most famous football player — and one of the most talked-about celebrities — in the world. There is no way that isn’t a bit of a distraction.
Kelce is not locked in right now, and we all know it. He said as much in not so many words in his recent Wall Street Journal profile where he describes all the time and mental energy he is putting into his relationship with the world’s biggest pop star.
Look, I hope Kelce and Swift are happy and stay together and have giant, guitar-playing babies. However, if you don’t think his personal life hurt the Chiefs at least a little in Week 11, you’re lying to yourself.
GM Brett Veach
The Chiefs’ Week 11 loss to the Eagles wasn’t just a product of the players on the field. It also falls on the man who put those players there, general manager Brett Veach.
Kansas City stinks at wide receiver. The team has Kadarius Toney, Rashee Rice, Justin Watson, Skyy Moore, and Valdes-Scantling, and none of those players are elite or even very good. Toney can show flashes at times, and Rice could get there eventually, but this is not a good WR corps right now.
The lack of WRs cost the Chiefs the game, so Veach is on this list. That said, time will tell whether this is a fatal flaw for Kansas City or a calculated risk that will pay off again for the franchise with another Super Bowl.
When the team traded Tyreek Hill and went with scrub receivers, that was a choice. The calculus was, let’s spend more money on defense (which is paying big dividends this season) and let Patrick Mahomes figure it out with one elite weapon in Travis Kelce. It worked last season, and Veach doubled down by getting even worse at WR by letting JuJu Smith-Schuster go.
So, this isn’t to kill Veach or say he made the wrong decision. But like with Kelce, the fact that Veach is somewhat responsible for THIS loss with his team-building decisions is undeniable.
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