What will be different about this game than the first game? Or are we going to follow the same script?

I don't think it'll be the same script.

I think, you know, when you look at the opening week and how that went, the Chiefs put a clown suit right on the Broncos at that time.

Big floppy shoes.

They got the ball out quickly.

I think that's one thing that they got to work on this week.

I think the last couple weeks Patrick Mahomes held on the football a little too long.

And so I think having Rice back could be big for them.

Do the Chiefs have a kicker problem they need to address?

I believe they do, yes.

Okay.

I don't necessarily want to call it a problem yet.

Okay? When I say that, like, I am giving the respect of let's take the last year and these, what, six games out of the mix.

Okay? Which is what you can't do.

I understand that.

You get these missed more kicks than anyone since the beginning of the record.

Remember when the Andrew Luck touchdown and the game against the Colts on the road? Like, ah,

this game's over.

Yeah.

Bye.

Yeah.

I think there's...

It's not a program culture.

What concerns you about this matchup? What do the Chiefs need to do to stay undefeated in Seattle?

What did you think of the performance of the Chiefs' wide receivers without Taequann Thornton and Rishi Rice?

Look, I thought it was good.

I heard you guys talking about this a little bit yesterday, but it was an interesting game.

Obviously, a game we all thought the Chiefs were going to win and win handily and control.

And they controlled the game the whole time.

And I liked your analogy yesterday of they just played with their food the entire time.

Right.

How'd that work out? The Chargers, they are not a competent football

Deciding to kick it out of the end zone.

To kick it out of the end zone.

Sometimes it's the kicker not executing the kick out of the end zone, or ri- you know, or short.

Um, [clears throat] a field goal block here, a punt.

You know, all those scenarios have happened- It feels, and I feel like more of the special teams ones this year have happened, were about decisions that were made, you know, toward the end of games around overtime, and and how much time was left on the clock and how many timeouts the receiving team has and, you know, all of that.

Um, I think it depends on obviously the organization.

Look, at the, at the NFL level, they're spending time on special teams.

Can Worthy be a consistent deep threat for this team, Mark?

Why?

I...

Um, outside of all the football stuff, okay, the one place that...

And obviously I know he's only been at two, but the Chiefs did a pretty darn good job of, of handling him, um, and his outspokenness a- and some of that, and there was a clear strategy around it in that building.

Um, part of, I think, some of the issues with, with where things went in Miami, um, you know, is, is just how the organization handled him.

And it's not controlling him, right, necessarily.

It's just doing what's best overall for the organization.

But they kept doing it.

Um, your reaction to, to all of that that happened on [laughs] Sunday.

Well, I feel bad for him, um, 'cause we saw it last year of him having the opportunity to make some plays and, and [clears throat] starting to get comfortable, I think, within this offense.

And it's been pretty clear with his size and his speed that he's the guy that was gonna take the top off the coverage.

And, um, especially as they've gone to more play action passes this year, or at least [clears throat] have a threat of the running game to be able to, to run more play a- true play action.

Uh, you're seeing the Chiefs being able to start pushing the ball down the field.

And sometimes it's only on two-man routes, uh, based on the play action game.

But made a couple plays in the game and, and that one was obviously a big one at the time and, you know.

Mm-hmm.

When you look at this matchup, what might concern you about what we'll see in Las Vegas on Sunday?

Well...

I guess the one thing for me, we talk about the offensive line, right? We already talked about that a little bit with Max Crosby on the outside.

Because to be frank, I'm just as concerned about the right tackle position going against Max Crosby as I am the left tackle position, right? So to me, it doesn't matter if they put Max Crosby in his normal left defensive end position or over on the right-hand side against the left tackle for the Chiefs.

But...

When you start looking at this Raiders team, you got a very veteran quarterback who, in the last several years of his career, is very streaky, right? In a good way and then also in a really bad way.

But he's been playing really well right now so far.

say, remember how many people said this was going to be a rebuilding year for the Chiefs? I

But

they still won the game.

I mean, he didn't have a great game.

And I'll say this again.

Like, sometimes it's just about the matchup of an individual guy over there.

Like, the guy on the other side of the ball is getting paid, too.

You know? And by the way, he's getting paid a lot more than the rookie left tackle.

Just being honest.

But has he even exceeded your expectations? What have you thought about the rookie's performance these first two weeks? He was better week two than week one.

I think, first of all, I appreciate you saying that.

But I will say this, too.

I think that...

he has exceeded my expectations the first two weeks here.

Now, obviously, week one, they gave him a lot more help than they gave this past week out there.

And rightfully so, getting him used to the speed of everything in the regular season and the schemes.

That is so much harder, and it makes a job for a rookie, I feel like that makes his job so much easier than if he had to go and play that same position a year ago.

It sounded like you did.

No, I don't have...

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Hold on.

I don't have any issues around that.

The thing I think that I have some issues with is, okay, well, I don't want to get myself in trouble here by saying this, but...

But...

were some pretty magnificent runs,

... was great.

Like, I, it's, they've got a threat.

And, and sometimes your speed rusher guy, it, you're gonna sacrifice a little bit of, of, [clears throat] you know, weight over there, right? And, and stoutness in the run game.

But what you sacrifice there, a little bit in the run game i- is, is, you know, less of a sacrifice than a guy getting off the edge.

And even if he doesn't get to the quarterback every time, 'cause he's not going to, okay? It's the National Football League.

But the threat of him coming off the edge and getting to a quarterback quick...

And, and last night, like, I referenced it earlier and you're referencing it again now, Nate, the, the way he was able...

Mm-hmm.

And Mahomes... to try to relieve all the fears of any of his fans watching the game with that wonderful 15-yard touchdown run, showing that he ain't going to be afraid to use his legs if he has to, and he looked pretty damn good doing it.

He did.

I'll also say this.

He didn't play all that well throwing the football last night, right? And there was some miscommunication on some and, you know, whatever, but – That's okay for me, right? Like, that to me is the piece where, you know, this receiver room is good enough for this team to win.

You know, they ran the ball 38 times last night.

Seven of those are counted as Patrick Mahomes running the football.

Several of those are probably the kneel downs, too, as a part of that.

It can take over a game.

The first practice of the week for KC is on Thursday.

The reason I say that a little bit in there is the team from Adam, this just says, obviously, that...

the team didn't believe it was major which they may not have right which also the second opinion may not have either like we're talking about a back injury that and steven you've had a back injury i've had back stuff ever like it's not fun especially when you're as big as josh simmons is right and play the position you are um it can be debilitating to you 100 percent um The unknown right now is the biggest elephant in the room around the whole situation with him.

And I think a lot of this stems from, number one, the Chiefs are not very transparent ever with any kind of injury, right? So they don't really do a whole lot to end the speculation on stuff.

And that's their prerogative, to be able to do that and want to do that.

But I think the other portion of this is why this hasn't died down is, number one, obviously people are worried about who's going to play left tackle on Monday night.

But this is also a player that last year left the team for a while, then also had some injuries last year.

Offensively, no matter who the left tackle is, I know it changes with who's out there, but what are you hoping to see the Chiefs do against the Broncos on Monday? What's the approach here?

How did your high school football experience go? Did you arrive by chopper by any chance? I did not arrive by

chopper.

It was a rough one for us Friday night.

Lost 31-10 at Blue Valley North.

Made a lot of early season mistakes.

We stalled out, I think, three or four times in the red zone with only three points to show for it.

Out of that, you're not going to win very many games if – You can just move the ball in between the 20s pretty well and not punch it in.

I've

But they were all undrafted free agents from this class.

I mean, what it says to me is that they've identified some pretty good football players that they feel are going to improve their team.

And not to put it this way, but do it on the cheap.

You got to find some value in some developmental type guys that moving forward here are not going to take up a lot of salary cap room.

And that's where I think they're at right now.

This.

Whether you want to say it or not, it's still a little bit of a transition year for this team, right? Everybody talks about it being last year with, obviously, Mahomes getting injured and the way the season went because we've been so spoiled the previous years.

I mean, should he be criticized for that?

Two weeks ago, it was

like 108.

I'll practice on both of them.

We practiced last night.

We practiced last night.

The wet bulb stuff was fine.

I'll be honest with you.

I mean, it is – I feel like it's 10 times hotter on the field than it is off.

It's Eric Bieniemy's job to figure out w- what way to get the best, get the most out of Rashee Rice, and so I thought those were some interesting words from EB.

That was an interesting, uh...

Those were a lot of interesting comments from him yesterday.

Um, a- and to me, I think there was a lot of honesty with that, um, in terms of they haven't quite connected yet, right? I think there's also, um, a very subtle...

Let me put it this way.

You don't hear a lot in the Chiefs media, even from Eric Bieniemy in years past, really calling guys out, right, in front of the media.

Andy Reid doesn't do it, right? They're very protective of it.

Bieniemy

What do you think?

Okay.

That's what I think.

You gave away a 2028 seventh rounder, correct? So two years from now, you gave away a seventh round pick.

He was not going to be on the Giants roster, clearly.

You know, and the Chiefs are taking a fire on him in regards to that.

So, I mean, they clearly – I mean, he could still get cut by this team.

What did you think of the game against Tampa? Anything stick out besides Butker making a 69-yard field goal and then missing an extra point and missing a potential game winner?

And, you know,

it's it's why I mentioned it, because it's first of all, we're never going to get the exact truth out of anything injury wise with the Chiefs.

And that's OK.

When I say it's OK, it's that's how it operates.

OK.

Also, when he said that he went to see a specialist, I didn't have a red flag initially on it, to be honest with you.

Guys are entitled to a second opinion, and one thing the Chiefs, under this regime at least, are not opposed to doing is having guys go see somebody that's a specialist outside of the organization.

don't

from.Any reason to be worried about thesedamn penalties that plagued the team last year, too?

Yeah, it was a concern, um, watching that game, um, on Saturday, but not a surprise necessarily.

Uh, when you look at first preseason game, right, uh, live action with...

Now the officials are up at training camp a couple different times working on stuff.

They were doing that when, when I was up there.

Um, [clears throat] there were a few flags thrown that day as well.

Um, I think the one thing that, that you hope once you get into these preseason games is that your younger guys and your backups, though, are playing penalty-free.

Double it.

using both arms and he's looked good.

Yeah, I think legit to me it's concerning, but at the same time I'm not as concerned because of the position he plays, number one.

I think also he's been doing more at camp than I think people realize.

You just haven't had the full contact portion of it, and that's just a precautionary measure at this stage.

Here's the reality.

They don't need him Saturday to play, right? They need him week one.

And may not even need him week one, but they need him week one.

What, in your opinion, based on who else is on the roster and what this offense is going to be, what are realistic expectations for Cyrus Allen this year, if he really is what he appears to be in camp?

Could he start week one?

Like there's always a possibility, yeah.

If he's the best player, they're gonna put him out there.

But I, I will preface all that by saying this too, that we're gonna find out what it looks like here over the next three weeks, right? Um, it's one thing to do this in training camp.

It's one thing, uh...

Now, he's going against some good guys, don't get me wrong, out there, but it's one thing to do this in training camp, it's another thing, um, to get out there on Saturday at 3:00 when it's gonna be ridiculously hot out, and the game speeds up no matter what, just because it's a game.

Now, it's a pre-season game, and the regular season's even faster pace-wise than what a pre-season game is.

They wanna kick their ass, you know, kick the opponent's ass down the field, and now they have, I think, the tools to do that.

Your thoughts on what Trey Smith had to say about running the football effectively?

Well, I agree with him.

I mean, this team – has to, I've always said this, they've got to run it effectively and efficiently.

And you might go, what does that mean, right? You've got to run it effectively enough that it's a threat every time for your offense.

It loosens up the defense for your passing game.

inefficiently is getting four yards a pop with it at a minimum.

And I know that's not always easy to do in the National Football League, but you've got to have that threat there.

Yes, it does, because the times they run the ball are going to be more effective than they were last year.

Have you, have you had a chance to see anything the first couple of days from camp posted on social media or any thoughts on the chance that's been given to Cyrus Allen and Jalen Royals and Nico Remigio, these guys that right now look to be battling for the four, five, and six spots on this team?

Yeah, haven't had a ton of chance or a lot of chances really to see, you know, other than some clips, right? Which most guys look pretty good in clips going against air, uh, or maybe in some one-on-ones.

But I think this is an important year for this Chiefs offense.

I, I'm, know it sounds understated when I say that, but, um, specifically for the wide receiver group.

Obviously having to deal with the Rashee Rice situation and his knee injury, and then of course the rest of his entire situation all summer.

Um, obviously you have Taquan Thornton back, but they need some young guys to really step up and take the next step.

Um, we didn't see anything out of Jalen Royals last year, and that really kind of concerns me.

Any, any hot takes about the way he looks as he's trying to make his way back from knee surgery?