FanPost

The Future Is Now: Why the Chiefs Can Win the Super Bowl in 2018

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The Kansas City Chiefs are going to beat the New England Patriots on October 14th.

How do I know this? Consider a number of factors:

  • Tom Brady will be 41 years old.
  • The Patriots lost defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
  • The dreaded Super Bowl hangover.

Those three points are all important (especially Brady's age - I strongly believe he'll fall off this season), but they tell only one side of the story. The bigger aspect of this game, as well as every other game for Kansas City in 2018, is that they will be a better team.

Let's go over this, shall we?

The Offense

The Chiefs have one of the most talented sets of skill position players in the NFL. To avoid being a homer, I'll say that they're top 5. However, the only team I can think of with more talent here is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce is a top 3 tight end in the NFL, and arguably the absolute best. Personally, I think that he is better than Gronkowski and would put up better numbers than him if installed in the Patriots offense of previous years.

Still, even with Alexander Douglas "Bill Lumbergh" Smith as his quarterback, Kelce has consistently produced at a high level. Outside of the 2015 season, he has been the most reliable option on the team.

Tyreek Hill

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Kareem Hunt

The NFL's leading rusher during the 2017-18 NFL season. He overcame a mid season slump that was due mostly to playing in an offensive scheme that every team other than the Oakland Raiders had figured out.

The man runs like a bull. Not like a Peyton Manning bull, but like a real bull.

Sammy Watkins

The new addition. We all know what he is capable of, especially against Sean Smith (not that it matters anymore). He may not be cut out to be a team's #1 option, but as a 4th option? I'd take him over Albert Wilson any day of the week.

Also worth mentioning is that he is a lizard person.

He is what Alex Jones warned us about.

Chris Conley

There's really not much to say about him other than that he knows the offense well by now. Kansas City was 5-0 with him, and 5-7 without him, so there's that.

"What does this matter? Only one of those players you just mentioned wasn't on the team last year."

First off, Tyreek and Kareem will both be going into their 2nd years as full time starters at their respective positions. Secondly, Sammy Watkins is a much bigger jump from Albert Wilson than you think, and having him as a 3rd receiving option will greatly improve the offense. Take away Kelce and Hill? There's still another 1,000 yard receiver on the field.

More important than all of this is something else that the Chiefs have. Something that nearly all great teams have in common.

A great defense?

Great special teams?

A fantastic touchdown song? (I wish)

No, what the Chiefs have is a potentially great quarterback. So great that he can make jorts cool.

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The most important piece of the puzzle towards Kansas City's improvement this season will be Patrick Mahomes.

We've seen what he can do. Alex, although a good quarterback, can only dream to make some of the throws that Mahomes can make.

This really is the most important part of the offense. When Mahomes rips apart defenses that drop only 6 or 7 defenders and/or load the box, defensive coordinators will be forced to adapt.

When this happened with Alex Smith, defenses simply loaded the box and ran zone defenses with disguised coverage. Hunt would be bottled up, and Alex would be unable to read the coverage pre-snap or post-snap resulting in an offense that was not very good to say the least.

This wouldn't work for Mahomes because 1) Mahomes doesn't rely entirely on pre-snap reads, and 2) Mahomes has the arm talent to destroy zone defense.

This means that defenses will have to regularly drop 8 into coverage, similar to how teams play Tom Brady. What does this mean? Kareem Hunt will have a field day.

I'm not saying Patrick Mahomes is the next Aaron Rodgers.

However, I am saying that Patrick Mahomes, when looking at his strengths, is not as much of a one trick pony as Alex Smith. When Smith was figured out last season, he morphed from a top 3 NFL quarterback to another Matt Cassel.

Mahomes will not be so easy to destroy.

In Conclusion

The Chiefs beat the New England Patriots 42-27 last season. This year, with a much improved offense, I think the Chiefs will score at least 42 points again. With Tom Brady (who's roughly 103 in football years) at quarterback, I think the Patriots will have a hard time scoring even 27 again.

Quarterback is the most important position in football, and the Chiefs have one that can elevate the entire offense.

Here's to 19-0, friends.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.