The Kansas City Chiefs had every reason for an offseason full of urgency after the year ended without an appearance in the AFC title game for the first time during the Patrick Mahomes era, but missed the playoffs altogether.
Add in Mahomes tearing his ACL after being asked to do far too much, and it was clear the team needed to make meaningful offensive changes over the next few weeks. This was driven home by Mahomes himself, who commented on the situation and the need for a change.
The comments came via FOX4 Kansas City's Rob Collins, "I just want someone that loves football, that cares about football, that wants to do everything they can to win, to hold people accountable and to bring new ideas every single day."
This is extremely telling, suggesting the Mahomes had grown frustrated with the lack of accountability or creativity within Kansas City's offense. Something that the franchise is actively working to change, already making five notable coaching changes.
Sam McDowell from The Kansas City Star pointed this out, "That's five changes to the Chiefs' offensive coaching staff: OC, RBs, WRs, assistant RBs, offensive assistant."
It is exactly the type of change Mahomes was asking for, and should bring fresh voices and perspectives into the room. Even new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who previously served in the role, will be a welcome change from the past three seasons.
Chiefs Finally Listen to Mahomes, Make Necessary Coaching Changes
It is important to note that in Bieniemy's final season with the franchise, the Chiefs scored 29 points per game. This was a total that would crater each of the next three seasons under Matt Nagy, with the offense never averaging more than 22 points and two of the three seasons falling at 21 points per game. This points to a coaching failure and a lack of consistency from a franchise that benefits from employing the league's best quarterback.
Seeing the franchise so willing to listen to his request for change brings renewed hope that this past season was an outlier, and not a sign of things to come. Mahomes is coming off a season in which the quarterback gained 422 rushing yards out of necessity, by far the highest total of his career. The fact that Mahomes set this career-high despite missing the final three games of the season due to an ACL tear is not worth celebrating.
Never has a player been more valid in asking for changes, and the Chiefs are meeting his demands by bringing in fresh voices into the room. To demand accountability and continue to keep the dynasty alive, these actions were needed. Fans can only hope that the new coaching pieces prove to be the right decisions for a franchise that has had a lot of recent shocking missteps.
For Mahomes, it is at least refreshing to see decision-makers displaying a sense of urgency and searching for answers after relying on the quarterback to fix every problem over the last three seasons. No question, this is the right direction for the Chiefs and should remain the theme in an offseason focused on retooling after the failures of 2025.