{"id":822166,"date":"2026-03-20T00:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/822166\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:46:19","slug":"3-ways-justin-fields-could-impact-chiefs-offense-with-mahomes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/822166\/","title":{"rendered":"3 ways Justin Fields could impact Chiefs\u2019 offense with Mahomes back"},"content":{"rendered":"

As fans of the Kansas City Chiefs <\/a>continually check for updates on their favorite quarterback\u2019s rehabilitation process, the organization went out and acquired a notable backup for Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n

New York Jets<\/a> quarterback Justin Fields \u2014 a former first-round pick of the Chicago Bears<\/a> \u2014 was targeted in a trade by general manager Brett Veach, and will move forward as the projected second-string quarterback in 2026. He is only under contract for the upcoming season, but could be very impactful in that short time.<\/p>\n

Obviously, he will be important to the team during the offseason as Mahomes works back to full strength; he has started 53 games in his five-year career<\/a>. However, as the two-time MVP expects himself to be leading the team in Week 1, Fields can still provide value to the first-team offense while understudying Mahomes.<\/p>\n

Here are three ways Fields can be an asset to the Chiefs\u2019 offense, outside of filling in for a recovering Mahomes:<\/p>\n

1. The return of the quarterback sneak<\/p>\n

It has been six years, five months and three days \u2014 2,345 days in total \u2014 since Kansas City collectively grew nauseous watching Mahomes reach for his knee after attempting a quarterback sneak against the Denver Broncos<\/a> in Week 7 of the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

The near-nightmare has affected the Chiefs\u2019 play-calling ever since, striking fear into the coaching staff to call a traditional quarterback sneak. We have seen the secondary tight ends motion behind the center and take the snap, but that did not prove to be an effective wrinkle.<\/p>\n

Instead of overthinking a way to catch the defense off-guard, Fields can simply substitute for Mahomes and be trusted to run the foundational play. Most NFL teams can successfully call the sneak without needing the trickery that Kansas City feels the need to tag with it at times. With such a strong trio of interior offensive linemen, the Chiefs should feel comfortable converting sneak attempts without any elements of surprise.<\/p>\n

During the 2025 season, Fields was constantly asked to move the chains on the ground in short-yardage situations: on second, third or fourth down needing three or fewer yards, Fields earned a first down 15 of 18 times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Counter plays off the sneak<\/p>\n

The beauty of actually running the quarterback sneak \u2014 and doing so effectively \u2014 is the ability to run counters off of it. These are not available to a team that doesn\u2019t call the play in the first place, but an offensive staff like Kansas City\u2019s could cook up some worthwhile plays to utilize Fields\u2019 athleticism when a defense is anticipating the quick-hitting, inside run.<\/p>\n

The first play of this clip shows Fields faking a handoff and using a naked bootleg to score a touchdown. The Chiefs utilize the under-center, roll-out looks situationally, and the threat of Fields sprinting to the edge could help lighten the box for the running back, or open up space for receivers on a play-action look.<\/p>\n

In short yardage or red-zone scenarios, the passes coming out of the under-center look should be quick and easy; if they aren\u2019t there, Fields should never hesitate to abandon any throw and get downhill. A well-coached Fields should rarely be putting the ball in harm\u2019s way if the plays are executed correctly.<\/p>\n

3. More threatening \u201cWildcat\u201d packages<\/p>\n

In the time since Mahomes dislocated his knee in Denver, the Chiefs have still trusted him on designed runs like read-option plays. He scored a touchdown in the 2024 season\u2019s AFC Championship against the Buffalo Bills<\/a> on such a design.<\/p>\n

The team has also shown off packages that put former running back Jerick McKinnon, wide receivers Mecole Hardman and Rashee Rice \u2014 even tight end Travis Kelce \u2014 in position to take a shotgun snap and make a quick read of an unblocked defender. The plays have worked at times, but Fields is an obvious option to take the reins for these creative packages moving forward.<\/p>\n

Fields has been running zone-read looks from the shotgun formation for years, and he has the elusiveness and explosiveness to make the most of the times where the read defender bites too hard on the running back.<\/p>\n

Similar to the second point of this post, Fields\u2019 quarterbacking abilities also give the playcalling a longer list of choices when these specialized packages are used.<\/p>\n

The quarterback-run game is a bigger part of the Chiefs\u2019 offense than you might think. Despite missing the final three games of the regular season, Mahomes finished 2025 with the fifth-most rushing yards (422) among quarterbacks and scored five touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n

He cannot be expected to replicate that coming off tearing his ACL, but many of Mahomes\u2019 impactful runs have come in situations where Fields could reasonably be substituted. The sprint outs, the read-option looks near the goal line, these calls may not be executed as cleanly by Mahomes as we\u2019ve seen before in 2026.<\/p>\n

It may lead to Fields taking snaps away from Mahomes in more situations than anyone could have imagined before last year\u2019s season-ending injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As fans of the Kansas City Chiefs continually check for updates on their favorite quarterback\u2019s rehabilitation process, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,80177,1193,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-822166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-analysis","10":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-roster","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116258749152202224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}