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The Kansas City Chiefs held off a pesky Raiders team on a quiet day for Patrick Mahomes. Is this new offensive identity built to last?
Oct 4, 2026; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) celebrates with tight ends Jake Briningstool (88) and Noah Gray (83) after scoring a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders during the fourth quarter at Allegiant Stadium.
Mandatory Credit: David Brytus-Imagn Images
The Kansas City Chiefs walked away with a 30-27 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, and it was far from easy.
First and foremost, credit goes to the Raiders. This is a competitively solid football team that hung around the entire time in a back-and-forth game. Most people predicted Kansas City would come out on top, and it did, but Las Vegas made the Chiefs earn it.
What stood out most to me was how the Chiefs got there.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed 15-of-30 passes, which is not a stat line that usually leaves you feeling good about an offense. In years past, I don’t think I would have walked away from a game like that feeling OK about this unit. This time, I do, and running back Kenneth Walker is a big reason why.
Kenneth Walker has changed the Chiefs’ identity
Kansas City put up 30 points on a day when Mahomes wasn’t at his best. That says a lot about the new ideology of this offense.
We knew things would look a little different after the Chiefs handed Walker that free-agent contract to pull him away from the Seattle Seahawks this offseason. Still, the running game had been putrid in K.C. over the last couple of years. You needed to see it before you believed it.
Well, here it is. The Chiefs are averaging 162 rushing yards per game, and over 130 of that belongs to Walker, who had another impressive day against Las Vegas. For the first time in a long time, this isn’t just Mahomes and a bunch of spare parts.
There will be games where Mahomes drives the offense. There will be other games where he has to be more of a passenger, and I thought he was a bit of a passenger Sunday. That is great for the sustainability of this group. If the passing game sputters, Kansas City can lean on the ground attack, and vice versa.
This is the most balanced offense we have seen in Kansas City in quite some time, and a complete ideological shift in just one offseason is impressive.
Injuries are piling up at wide receiver
My fellow A to Z Sports analyst Easton Freeze isn’t quite as sold.
He agreed the Chiefs looked a lot better out of the gate than he expected, especially with Mahomes coming back from a season-ending lower body injury. He has his questions about the declining situation at wide receiver, though, and isn’t sure that group won’t bite Kansas City in the long run.
That concern got louder Sunday. Wide receiver Tyquan Thornton suffered a gruesome ankle injury after hauling in a 50-yard catch. His adrenaline was pumping so hard that he didn’t seem to realize his ankle wasn’t in the right place. A teammate initially told him he was fine, until Thornton pointed to his own leg.
The good news is that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said Thornton flew back with the team rather than staying in the hospital overnight. It could have been much worse, but losing their most explosive receiver is a bummer.
Rashee Rice is also dealing with a tweaked hamstring.
If you ask me, the running game is what keeps this from becoming a crisis. A productive ground attack opens up explosive plays over the top, like we saw during the first couple of years of the Mahomes era. It also means the Chiefs don’t have to pull Kareem Hunt out of the back of the closet just yet.
Still, I share some of Easton’s doubts about how this holds up over four months of the regular season.
Should the Chiefs answer Tyreek Hill’s call?
Then there is Tyreek Hill, who posted on X essentially telling the Chiefs to hit him up. Freeze’s first reaction was that it wouldn’t change much.
Austin Stanley sees it differently.
He is done doubting Kansas City’s ability to do what the prime Bill Belichick Patriots did, which was bring back players everyone had written off and make them competent again. The Chiefs did it with Hunt. They have turned back the clock on tight end Travis Kelce. They keep patching together a receiver room he keeps doubting, and the wins keep coming anyway.
I’ll meet him halfway. Walker’s presence makes a Hill return more likely to work. Hill isn’t the player most of us remember, and he won’t be the Hall of Fame-caliber receiver he once was. He doesn’t need to be. Right now, the bar at receiver in Kansas City is really low.
With Walker carrying the load, the Chiefs have more ways to win than they have had in years. We will see if the receiver room holds up long enough to make it count.
Kansas City Chiefs News
The Kansas City Chiefs are short on healthy wide receivers after their Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Three familiar faces who already know the offense remain available in free agency.