As the Kansas City Chiefs’ passing game adjusts to life without Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes warned fantasy football players that predicting the favorite receiver from week to week will be difficult. He said the Chiefs’ offense would have a different star each week.
In the preseason, Mahomes completed 18 passes to ten different receivers, which he said was an indication of how the passing game would go this season.
“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,'” Mahomes told reporters. “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.”
Mahomes then apologized to fans preparing their fantasy lineups for the season’s first weekend.
“It’s going to be every single week — it’s going to be someone different,” he said. “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.”
The biggest mystery for fantasy managers heading into the 2022 NFL season is how the Chiefs will replace the 159 targets that Hill received last year.
To answer the mystery, Kansas City signed free agents Juju Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling before drafting Skyy Moore.
On other hand, tight end Travis Kelce was targeted 134 times last year. Last season, Kelce caught 92 passes for 1,125 yards and nine touchdowns. It is possible that he will be the Chiefs’ top pass catcher in most fantasy drafts this season.
“It’s going to be hard for teams to game plan against,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, Travis is going to probably have a lot of catches. That’s just who he is.
“Other than that, it’s going to come from the whole group and I think the guys have kind of embraced that. … That’s what you want on a team and as an offense.”
Other Chiefs’ receivers
Other than Kelce, there are some options on the roster, including Smith-Schuster, Valdes-Scantling, Hardman and Moore. Smith-Schuster is the best option among Chiefs receivers, according to ADP.
Hardman is the only one of those four receivers who has caught a pass from Mahomes in a regular-season game. Last season, Hardman had two touchdowns and 59 receptions for 693 yards. He scored six touchdowns as a rookie in 2019 and is expected to surpass that total this season.
Smith-Schuster and Hardman have better fantasy values than Moore and Valdes-Scantling based on the average draft position at the National Fantasy Football Championship.
“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,” Mahomes said.
“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.”
Kansas City will play against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium for the 2022 season opener on Sunday.