The Kansas City Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl for the third time in four years, a stunning achievement unrivaled in today’s NFL. Unlike the Los Angeles Rams last season, the Chiefs aren’t a one-year wonder — far from it. Head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach have constructed a roster built for the long haul and an organization that will continuously compete for championships.
Let’s run through the most important factors that led the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl, beginning with an all-time duo at quarterback and tight end.
Top 5 Reasons the Kansas City Chiefs Made Super Bowl 57
1) Having Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce Certainly Helps…
While several factors led the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, boasting Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce is an excellent place to start. Mahomes and Kelce are the top players at their position, and they’re in the conversation for the best quarterback and tight end in NFL history, respectively.
Mahomes has been Kansas City’s starter for five seasons and hosted five AFC Championship Games in that span. This year, he set a new career high for passing yards (5,250) while leading the league in passing touchdowns (41), touchdown rate (6.3%), passing first downs (272), and QBR (77.6). Mahomes earned a first-team All-Pro nod and is the overwhelming favorite to win the MVP award.
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Meanwhile, Kelce isn’t slowing down despite having just wrapped up his age-33 campaign. He finished the season with 1,338 receiving yards (491 more than second-place Mark Andrews). That 491-yard gap in TE receiving yardage is the same distance between Andrews at No. 2 and Zach Ertz at No. 23. League-wide, only Justin Jefferson and Tyreek Hill posted more receptions than Kelce’s 110, and only Davante Adams had more receiving scores.
The Mahomes-to-Kelce connection is virtually unstoppable. Kelce somehow managed new single-game highs in targets and receptions against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round. And with the Chiefs down three receivers in the AFC Championship Game — and the Cincinnati Bengals gearing up to stop him at all costs — Kelce still put up a 7-78-1 line.
No pair of teammates have more of a symbiotic relationship than Mahomes and Kelce, and the Chiefs will likely remain the Super Bowl favorites for as long as they’re in Kansas City.
2) …and Chris Jones Is Pretty Good, Too
The Chiefs’ defense will always be in the shadow of Mahomes, Kelce, and the rest of Kansas City’s offense. However, the 2022 version of the Chiefs’ defense is the best unit Mahomes has ever played alongside during his five years as a starter.
This year, KC’s defense ranks 15th in expected points (EPA) added per play. While they aren’t an elite unit by any means, finishing in the middle of the pack does represent an improvement. From 2018-21, Kansas City’s defenses’ average EPA per play rank was just 22nd.
Steve Spagnuolo’s defense is better than the sum of its parts, but they do have one star-level player: defensive tackle Chris Jones.
With Aaron Donald dealing with injuries, Jones took over as the NFL’s best interior rusher in 2022. He posted 15.5 sacks, third most in the league behind Nick Bosa, Myles Garrett, and Haason Reddick, and 3.5 more than any other DT. Jones also managed 93 pressures, third most in the NFL — no other interior player had more than 70, per PFF.
Jones didn’t only accrue counting stats. He finished first among DTs with a pass-rush win rate of 21%, meaning he beat his block in fewer than 2.5 seconds on a fifth of his pass-rushing attempts. No other defensive tackle was within three percentage points of Jones.
Like Mahomes and Kelce, Jones feels inevitable. The Bengals knew they had to key on Jones in the AFC Championship Game, but he was still a one-man wrecking crew that produced two sacks and 10 pressures against Cincinnati.
3) The Chiefs Weren’t Afraid To Trade Tyreek Hill
The Chiefs received an absolute haul from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for Tyreek Hill last offseason. Kansas City picked up a 2022 first, a 2022 second, a 2022 fourth, and fourth- and sixth-round picks in 2023 from the Dolphins, who subsequently inked Hill to a four-year, $120 million extension.
Depending on which trade value chart you use (and how willing you are to discount future picks), Miami sacrificed the equivalent of a top-five draft choice.
Hill went on to produce as the NFL’s second-best receiver in 2022, behind only Justin Jefferson. He set career highs in targets, receptions, and yardage, led the league in yards per route run (3.07), earned a first-team All-Pro selection, and helped turn Tua Tagovailoa’s career around.
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Yet, despite missing out on that incredible Hill performance, the Chiefs somehow got better on offense. They ranked first in offensive efficiency, improving from 0.14 EPA per play in 2021 to 0.179 this season. Kansas City went from seventh to first in offensive DVOA and moved from 5.9 yards per play to 6.1 in 2022.
Of course, having Mahomes and Kelce on the roster helped KC push forward without Hill. But credit to Reid and Veach for realizing they could move on from Hill without suffering a degradation of their offensive production. It probably doesn’t make sense for a club with one of the best signal-callers of all time to spend $30 million on a receiver, no matter how talented that pass catcher is.
Instead, the Chiefs signed JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Justin Watson to modest free agent deals. They selected Skyy Moore in the second round of the 2022 draft, then acquired Kadarius Toney from the New York Giants at the trade deadline. There’s no star on this WR depth chart, but Mahomes doesn’t necessarily need a true WR1.
4) Kansas City Dominated the 2021 and 2022 NFL Drafts
The Chiefs have seven players — Mahomes, Jones, Joe Thuney, Frank Clark, Kelce, Justin Reid, and MVS — earning at least $10 million annually. With that type of top-heavy roster, it was always going to be imperative for Veach and his college scouting staff to hit on their draft picks and lock in discounted rookie contracts.
Luckily for Kansas City, Veach and Co. came through the 2021 and 2022 drafts with flying colors.
In 2021, the Chiefs used their second-round pick on linebacker Nick Bolton, who’s become a three-down LB in his second pro campaign and is the best second-level defender on KC’s roster. Five selections later, they nabbed Creed Humphrey, in the running with Jason Kelce as the NFL’s best center. The Chiefs concluded their draft by finding a starting guard — Trey Smith — with the No. 226 pick.
This past year, Veach had far more selections to work with as a result of the Hill trade. He drafted three rookie corners — Trent McDuffie (first round), Joshua Williams (fourth), and Jaylen Watson (seventh) — who all saw significant playing time in their rookie seasons.
If veteran L’Jarius Sneed (concussion) can’t play in the Super Bowl, that trifecta will represent Kansas City’s starting nickel package against the Philadelphia Eagles.
But that’s not all! The Chiefs’ 2022 draft class also produced edge rusher George Karlaftis, who played 64% of the team’s sacks and put up six sacks; Moore, whose 29-yard punt return put KC in a position to win the AFC title game; Bryan Cook, the Chiefs’ third safety; and Isiah Pacheco, Kansas City’s leading rusher.
This run of Chiefs draft hits will set up the club’s roster for years to come. And it’s instructive for teams like the Bills — who have already paid their quarterback — and those that are about to, like the Bengals, Eagles, and Chargers. With so much cap space devoted to the top of a roster, rookie contracts are the sustaining force that can keep clubs competitive even when things get expensive.
5) Andy Reid and the Chiefs’ Coaching Staff Are Elite
Reid remains the best head coach in the NFL, and he also deserves credit for the Chiefs’ track record of personnel success, in which he has a heavy hand. All the questionable clock management, crazy red-zone plays, and ring-around-the-rosies aside, Reid is an elite play-caller who wasn’t afraid to lean into 12 and 13 personnel (multiple-tight-end packages) when the situations called for it.
Reid’s historically hired and promoted well, as 11 of his former assistants have gone on to find head coaching opportunities elsewhere. Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has a chance to become No. 12 this offseason.
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Even Reid’s position coaches bring clout. Matt Nagy had plenty of struggles as the Chicago Bears’ head coach, but he’s overqualified as a quarterbacks coach in Kansas City. Thirty of the NFL’s 32 teams would probably trade their offensive line coach for Andy Heck.
On defense, Steve Spagnuolo — a long-time Reid disciple — is consistently at his best during the NFL playoffs. He’s a creative schemer who finds ways to throw things at opposing offenses that they didn’t plan for, and he maximizes the talent on his depth chart. How many other coordinators would feel comfortable heading into the Super Bowl with three rookies starting at cornerback?
Just like rookie contracts help the Chiefs to continuously churn their roster, Reid’s ability to add and develop coaching talent will keep Kansas City afloat for years.