The latest USA TODAY power rankings have the Kansas City Chiefs taking quite the nosedive.
USA TODAY’s Nate Davis is as stunned as the rest of Chiefs Kingdom was by the trade of Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. Right now, he doesn’t see a path to the team taking a step forward in 2022. Instead, he sees the team taking a step back as they build things up in the post-Tyreek Hill era. For that reason, he lowered the Chiefs four spots in his offseason power rankings from No. 3 to No. 7.
“The stunning trade of WR Tyreek Hill could mean a step back in 2022 before two or three subsequent steps forward – given the draft capital and cap space his departure created.”
It’s hard to blame Davis for his hesitation surrounding the team in the wake of the Hill trade. He’s an irreplaceable player with an irreplaceable skillset. Even with the draft capital and cap space that they acquired, there are no guarantees they’ll come away with players that make the team better than they were with Hill on it. Fans in Kansas City certainly feel more confident about the draft after Brett Veach hit on Nick Bolton, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith in 2021, but only time will tell if that works out.
One thing that is overlooked in this whole situation is that the Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes as their quarterback and Andy Reid as their head coach. Mahomes has proven to be great in the instances when Hill wasn’t on the field. As for Coach Reid, you can take all the coaches in the AFC West and combine their records and they don’t even have 9% of his career wins.
Maybe Kansas City is a little less dynamic on offense without Hill in the mix, but they’ll be just fine when push comes to shove.
