FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright BELIEVES Kansas City Chiefs Are STILL A TOP Super Bowl Contender

FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright BELIEVES Kansas City Chiefs Are STILL A TOP Super Bowl Contender

I I think they should. And I can just tell you again, I guess this is kind of a fake news hat situation. Again, the hat is fake. The news is real. The hat all the fake hat doesn’t even fit over my ponytail. Anyway, um, in the building they think this team should be and in some ways is better than last year’s that they are last year that they had fundamental issues that they were constantly trying to like you know the a leak in the boat that they were trying to fix in that they did not have a left tackle all year long and the receiving core was just wildly injured. And so because of that, they were trying to, you know, scotch tape things together. They don’t feel that way about this team at all. And I think that’s also evidenced by the fact that rightly or wrongly they could have added Bree Hall. They were like, “Yeah, we’ll do it for a fourth, but not a third.” Like they think that they do have enough. So, and I agree with them in that. So, I do think that that they should believe they’ll turn it around. I also think there needs to be very honest conversations about why are we not playing making the winning plays in the winning moments? Why are we making the same special teams mistakes and penalties? Why defensively did Bo Knicks and the Broncos know what Blitz was coming? Yeah. On the third and 15, you know what I mean? What are the things we need to do? And which of they have three first ballot no doubt Hall of Famers playing, right? I would argue the only one who is right now playing his best that he can is Travis. That he can. Yeah. I mean, Travis is not playing like Pete, but at 36 years old, he’s second of all tight ends in yards. He’s having a better year than he’s had in two years. Chris Jones has not had a great year. And Patrick has had a great month, month plus, which gave him the numbers that are carrying him right now. But the last two weeks and the first two weeks, Patrick wasn’t great. And so, I think that’s you rely on your legendary players to, you know, do legendary things down the stretch. First of all, I think very few NFL individual players or teams would feel like at five and five they don’t have a chance. Like I just think athletes in general at this level, world class athletes, they feel like every time they step on that field they can win. We’re looking at it the outside world thinking, “Oh, they’ve lost two straight or you know this team’s” They’re not thinking that. They’re not thinking that. So, and and imagine now a team with their pedigree that’s won three Super Bowls, that’s been to what, five of the last six. There’s no way they are or should be thinking this over and then you gave some of the empirical evidence like you gave some of the stats. They’re the fourth best defense in the league scoring defense. Yeah. Well, and that’s huge because that then takes off a massive burden off of uh obviously Mahomes and that offense. Here’s the thing, and here’s the Super Bowl odds. I don’t get lost in this at all. I really could care less about the odds. I’m only even showing you this because before the Broncos game, they were number one and then they dropped to five. Um, and it does become a lot more of just a math an analytical thing. Um I I I think at the core of it, do people really believe that the Colts are more likely to win the Super Bowl than say the Kansas City Chiefs? Like, you know, just it’s just I don’t know. It’s just interesting. Um we’re going to find out when they play each other, right? We’ll we’ll see. I think that this question is flawed, and this may surprise some people. I don’t think the Chiefs have anything to turn around. They haven’t been bad. They haven’t been able to make the winning plays. And as Nick is saying, Mahomes hasn’t been the best version of himself. Although I’d argue he’s been who he’s been over these last three years. This is who he was in 23 and 24 and 25. Uh, you know, he’s just he hasn’t been that prime peak Patrick Mahomes that we that we know him to be. Um, and quite frankly, you you can make that argument with with a with a handful of quarterbacks right now that they’re just you’re just kind of like, ah, this this doesn’t quite feel like what we saw in 21 or like, yeah, like still really nice moments and and great highlights, but like you just feel slightly off. And I feel like I could say that about Josh Allen, about Lamar, about Mahomes. you’re like, h, weirdly enough, was this supposed to be Joe B Joe Burrow’s uh season, but then obviously he gets injured, unfortunately for him. Um, and I don’t know what that means, honestly. Mahomes has the longest pattern of this and we can say, hey, it was because he was missing a left tackle and his in and his receivers were injured and all of that is justifiable. you know, all of that is leg is legitimate contributing factors, undeniable, but also um multiple things can be true where it’s like that was a contributing factor, but also we haven’t seen Patrick Mahomes truly play his best um in quite some time. That that is the reality right now. And I don’t I I talked to someone who I respect a lot. He said he thinks that Patrick Mahomes is um and he’s not, you know, he’s a huge Mahomes fan and he’s like I I think we’re already seeing, you know, a start of the decline of Patrick Mahomes in terms of how quick he’s able to get the ball out, the velocity on it and whatnot. And like I’m not making that statement. I’m not like I I I I still think that if you support him enough that he will be wildly successful and still put up, you know, elite top numbers. throwing us aside the the important moments and making the right plays at the right time and whatnot, just the the bottom line numbers of just like, you know, numerically, statistically, hey, look, look what this guy’s doing. Um, but that is where things start to get a little weird because like he does have enough support. Rasheed Rice, Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, Travis Kelce is playing good enough. The O line is playing good enough. It It just is. It’s not this disaster. He’s not running for his life. It’s not what the Raiders have going on or what the Chargers have going on, you know, and you’re just like, I expect Patrick Mahomes where if he gets pressured like 12, 13, 14 times a game, which is kind of the average these days, you know, it’s the the the bulk of the NFL, you always have outliers at the top and the bottom, but you know, if if your quarterback is getting pressured eight to 10 to 12 times, you’re like 14 times, you’re like, “Okay, that’s good. That’s that’s, you know, it’s to be expected.” And so it’s like when you have a game where where Patrick Mahomes is not perfectly protected, it’s like, okay, well that’s why he’s Mahomes, right? That’s why Josh Allen is Josh Allen. That’s why Lamar is Lamar. Like they’re not supposed to just only need these perfect causes and conditions to be able to succeed. And so we are seeing a slightly less resilient Momes. And that was highlighted even in the Super Bowl where it was like, yeah, he was pressured, but again, not at this like insane like Justin Herbert’s been pressured now more times than Patrick Mahomes in terms of number individual game numbers. Like at this point, Justin Herbert has like six games where he was pressured more times than what Patrick Mahomes dealt with uh in that Super Bowl. And Patrick Mahomes just did a bad job at dealing with it. I’m not telling you that I think that he should have been able to win. I’m not saying because I said that right off the bat when they lost that Super Bowl that I was just like I don’t blame Patrick Mahomes at all. I defended him right off the bat and I was like the Eagles were the better team like what I’m not going to expect Mahomes to be able to you know just beat a better team so casually. But I did think it was fair to point out that like he did not do good in in the moments that it was times like we were like hey you need Mahomes to be Mahomes. It it wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. And so then you’re just kind of like well that is a little weird. And that is why I pointed out like Jaylen Herz, Jayen Herz was protected more, but in the moments when protection broke down, Jaylen Herz made the plays. Jaylen Herz was able to scramble, rip off 18, 19 yards, throw on the run. Mahomes would get like one, he would avoid a sack, but get one yard or he’s running and trying to scramble, he throws an interception, right? Like it was just not what you’ve grown accustomed to. Um, I’m still a massive, massive, massive believer in Momes. And like I keep always saying Mahomes Andy Spaxs. That’s continues to constantly be what I always say. Mahomes Andy Spaxs. Mahomes Andy Spaxs. I’m not prepared to start to say I don’t know. I’m starting to lose faith in that. I I mean Mahomes would absolutely have to fall off an absolute cliff and I probably will never lose any faith in Andy and Spags. Um they’ll just retire honestly. That’s the way how I see it. And the only reason why I could lose faith in Mahomes is because he you lose your phys your physical skills, right? So you’re it’s easier for you to lose faith in a player than say like like a coach. I’m just not going to be like I think Spags is dated and he doesn’t understand defenses anymore. Like I’m just not going to say that and I’m not going to say that about Andy either. Um so it is it is an interesting situation here. But like I know their record is five and five. I know it’s not ideal. They obviously had a rough start to the season with the injuries. Uh Mahomes is not playing the best version of himself. This defense has been great. I think some of the offensive numbers as they were trying to talk about, oh, they’re still top in this. And even their defensive numbers, the books are a little cooked. When you absolutely dominate and annihilate the commanders, it’s like, congrats. The Raiders, congrats. Right? Like that skews it. When you went up against functional offenses and functional defenses, it didn’t look like that. So, I I I would say like, you know, if we look at their um their uh you know, their points per game, both offensively and defensively, if I can bring it up, you’re ninth in points per game and you’re fourth in points per proport, you know, against, you know, defensively. And again, a lot of those numbers are going to be juiced up, you know, going up against the Baltimore Ravens, who were decimated on defense. We all know that they were absolutely circling the drain. Um, and Lamar Jackson was not good by any stretch of the imagination. And again, we continue to see that. Um, you beat you held Russell Wilson to nine points. It’s like, okay, congrats. Um, you held the Las Vegas Raiders to zero and scored 31. We know how awful the Raiders are. You held um oh my gosh, I can’t I can’t I keep forgetting his name. Uh the quarterback of the Washington Commanders, not Jane Daniels, the Pack I can’t believe I can’t think of his name right now to seven points and their defense has been awful, right? But it’s like you went up against the Buffalo Bills, you gave up 28, you only scored 21. It’s like, okay, you went up against the Denver Broncos, you only scored 19. You gave up 22, which is pretty good, but they only scored 10 points against the Raiders. I think it was in 10 points against the Jet. I think both games were 10-7. I think that’s what it was. And so you’re like, okay. Um when the Chargers were actually healthy, he gave up 27. Uh the Eagles, who have not had the high this highpowered offense, who’s you know is I think the most the biggest diehard Eagles fans would say that their offense has been struggling. Um you know, they scored 20 and their defense at that point hadn’t been their defense has gotten better now. uh in the beginning of the season, you wouldn’t say that their defense has been elite necessarily and you only scored 17 on them. And again, you can kind of say, well, there was the interception, which is totally fair. That could have been a touchdown, could have been 24 points there. Uh, also, that’s when you didn’t have Rasheed Rice or Xavier Worthy. I think that’s all fair to kind of discuss, honestly. So, it’s just like it is kind of how you balance it out. Like if I was doing like real quick math and just trying to guess here, I’d say really their defense is more likely 20 points per game. Um, and their offense is probably around that. When you factor in the fact that earlier on in the season you had injuries like and so like that was also going to weigh you down, but now you kind of got a boost going up against exceptionally bad teams and it’s like, you know, so where does that kind of balance out? Um, so it’s probably right around there. um maybe slightly lower, maybe slightly higher. Um but to me right now, some of these numbers, you know, you always have to just really look at what do you do against the better teams. You can’t just look at these bottom line numbers, the point differential. You know, everyone’s really all into that. And um I think it’s useful and it’s necessary, but you really do got to look for outlier games. Beating the Las Vegas Raiders 31 to zero is the definition of an outlier game. And so when I come here and say that game means nothing to me and I have Chiefs fans be like, “What are you talking about? That’s crazy.” And it’s like, “Well, look what you just did against the Broncos. Look what you did against the Bills because we had backto-back weeks with whether they beat the Raiders and the Commanders.” And I was like, “That doesn’t mean anything to me. That does not move the needle for me at all. These teams are exceptionally bad right now.” And I got and again, Chiefs fans were not happy with that take, but it proved to be 100% accurate because then they then lost to the Bills and then lost to the Broncos. But losing to those teams doesn’t give me panic because it’s Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos have an elite defense and are the number one seed in the NFL right now. So, it’s just like I’m not going to panic over that. You start to panic when you lose to the Indianapolis Colts. If you lose to the Dallas Cowboys, if you struggle against the Houston Texans, even though the Chargers are decimated with injuries, it’s like, yeah, it’s a divisional game and that game felt way too hard. Even if you end up winning that game, you’re like, “Dude, the Chargers have no one right now. How is that game even remotely close? And then if you lose to the Broncos again, then you’re like, “Oh man, you just got swept by the Broncos.” So, it’s just like I I don’t know if there’s anything to turn around. You know, the playoffs become tricky mathematically. Although, it’s just like I don’t know. You’re you’re if you were a betting man, you’d bet that the Chargers are just going to, you know, not be able to pull this thing thing off right now with all their injuries. and you’d say, “Okay, we’ll probably replace the Chargers or Mason Rudolph and the Steelers and the Ravens, you know, like you there there’s there’s options there.” Um, but I mean, yeah, I don’t know. I mean, even the Detroit Lions uh scored 17, easily could have been way more than that if just a couple things went their way. Um, the Eagles made that Lions offense, nothing could go their way. nothing could go their way. Um, and yet I’m sure the the Eagles probably technically are considered a worse defense than the Chiefs. Yeah, the Eagles are technically ranked eighth and they’re giving up 20 points per game. Yet, in some of these big games against the Packers, uh, against the Lions, you know, held them to seven points and nine points. Um, held the Chiefs to 17, right? Like, so, um, yeah. I don’t know. It’s just interesting to me. The the the conversations about the Chiefs right now are definitely a lot more complicated than it’s ever been in the past. Um but at five and five, they still have the fifth best Super Bowl odds and they’re still right there. And if and it they before the Broncos, they were number one. And if they beat the Broncos, I assume they would have maintained that number one spot. And so if you want to make it a straight math game where you’re like, well, technically there’s a chance they don’t make the playoffs, therefore that’s why they have to drop and that has to be factored in. That’s totally fair. That’s totally fine. But if we’re looking at it from a non-mmathematical aspect and we’re just like, listen, I believe that the Chiefs should be favored to win the Super Bowl and then they lose to the Broncos, that game is not enough for me to be like, they were Super Bowl, they were the number one Super Bowl contender, now they lost to the Broncos. Now I’m putting them below the Rams, the Eagles, the Bills, the Colts, and tied with the Seahawks. That that I I just wholeheartedly disagree with. But again, that’s not based off of math. This is based off of math. But those are just my thoughts. I’d absolutely love to hear yours. What do you guys all think about the Kansas City Chiefs? Do you still believe the Chiefs? Do you believe that the Chiefs can still turn this thing around? Do you think there’s something to turn around necessarily or they kind of just have to keep playing how they’re playing and just the games will fall eventually in their favor? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I read every single comment. So whether you agree with me or disagree with me, either way, let’s get in some discussions. Let’s get in some fights. But ultimately, let’s just have some fun. And please do consider subscribing. We’re building an amazing community here and absolutely love to see you part of it. I want to build something that we all generally feel connected to, something that we’re really excited to be part of. I think we’re well on our way to doing it. Please don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up as it really does help with the visibility and the algorithm. Thank you so much. See you next time.

FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright BELIEVES Kansas City Chiefs Are STILL A TOP Super Bowl Contender | NFL
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