The Kansas City Chiefs have announced that they will face the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season. The game will take place on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS.
Kansas City holds a 9-3-1 career record over Arizona with their lone game during the Patrick Mahomes era coming at Arrowhead Stadium in 2018. The Chiefs won that game 26-14, but that was a season before both Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury were with the team.
Bringing the heat đ„ pic.twitter.com/8paUn9dDEl
â Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) May 12, 2022
Kingsbury, of course, is Patrick Mahomesâ former college coach at Texas Tech. The two faced off during the preseason last year, but this is the first time theyâll meet on the gridiron in the NFL. Itâll be a big moment for Kingsbury, who in part landed his job in Arizona due to his success developing Mahomes at the collegiate level.
Week 1 is great timing for Kansas City to be facing the Cardinals. Theyâll be without five-time All-Pro WR Deandre Hopkins, who was suspended for six games to start the 2022 NFL season due to a violation of the leagueâs performance-enhancing substances policy. They did trade with the Baltimore Ravens during the 2022 NFL draft to acquire Murrayâs former teammate at Oklahoma, Marquise Brown. That should help offset the loss of Hopkins, but itâs still a huge hit to the Cardinalsâ offense.
Another benefit for the Chiefs is that there wonât be much tape of the teamâs new-look offense sans Tyreek Hill. Teams just wonât have much to go off of for Kansas City, likely defaulting to paying a ton of attention to Travis Kelce. That could play right into the Chiefsâ hands when it comes to their offensive game-planning.
