In the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-20 opening night win over the Baltimore Ravens, the Chiefs got impact performances from their biggest stars, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and defensive tackle Chris Jones making clear game-changing plays on their respective sides of the football. Interestingly, of the Chiefs’ top-five Pro Football Focus grades, four went to established and rising stars. The outlier appears to be in line to take a major leap in his third season.
1. Patrick Mahomes: 87.9
Posted by the PFF Chiefs Twitter/X account, Patrick Mahomes had the highest grade on the team with an 87.9 — an understandably high mark for a game that was much better than the box score indicated. With the exception of his interception late in the first half, Mahomes was nearly flawless. Going 20-for-28 with one touchdown and one interception isn’t terribly impressive, but among those eight completions, Mahomes had at least three catchable passes dropped that would have been big gains and/or likely touchdowns. (Two came on the same drive, first from Isiah Pacheco and second from JuJu Smith-Schuster. Samaje Perine couldn’t haul in a pass later in the game that wasn’t a guaranteed score, but Perine had nothing but grass in front of him as the ball tipped off his fingers. They weren’t all easy catches, but a bit of help from any of those three would have completely rejuvenated Mahomes’s stat line.)
2. Chris Jones: 83.0
It was a starring performance from the Chiefs’ longtime defensive cornerstone. In another box score betrayal, Chris Jones officially recorded three tackles and a strip-sack against the Ravens, which doesn’t even tell a fraction of his story. He was frequently the cause of Lamar Jackson’s escape attempts, while the secondary took away Jackson’s downfield options. Jones was a terror against Baltimore, and PFF‘s view reflects that fact.
3. Rashee Rice: 80.0
Even in an eye-popping debut for rookie Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice had the best game of any Chiefs offensive weapon on Thursday. Consistently getting open across the middle of the field and exhibiting impressive yards-after-catch abilities (as he did in his rookie season), Rice looked like a player ready to take on an even larger workload while terrorizing defenders in 2024.
4. Leo Chenal: 79.7
Leo Chenal is the outlier of this group, as the third-year linebacker entered 2024 poised to take on a major increase in workload. It began on Thursday, when Chenal lined up all over Steve Spagnuolo’s defense, often tasked with the difficult chore of spying Jackson. After the game, Jones discussed what made Chenal’s performance so impressive.
“He did a really good job,” Jones said. “We ask a lot from Leo. We ask him to play 3-tech in certain formations that we have. We ask him to play rover. We ask him to be an outside rusher. It just goes to show how durable Leo is for this defense.”
5. Creed Humphrey: 79.4
The Chiefs’ offensive line, including their usually excellent interior, had a fair share of struggles on Thursday night. PFF ultimately determined that Creed Humphrey wasn’t at fault for the majority of the issues, and the group should see improvement as left guard Joe Thuney gets back up to NFL speed after being sidelined for the vast majority of the offseason and preseason due to his pectoral injury, surgery and recovery.
