National Football League

Is the Kansas City Chiefs' demise looming?

Published Jul. 14, 2022 7:54 p.m. ET

Is the Chiefs' demise real?

Kansas City unloaded a crucial foundational piece at the beginning of the offseason, shipping off perhaps football's fastest receiver when it sent Tyreek Hill to Miami for five picks on March 23.

It was a clear monetary move from the front office, who believed it would be able to sustain itself in the AFC West behind the play of one Patrick Mahomes, who the team locked up for the next decade with a deal close to $500 million.

But according to Emmanuel Acho, Kansas City is way ahead of itself with its self-evaluations, and while a number of its AFC foes improved during the offseason, K.C. got unquestionably worse.

Justin Reid not worried about Patrick Mahomes-Tyreek Hill split

Marcellus Wiley and Emmanuel Acho debate whether the Chiefs' demise has been overhyped or not.

"[Their] demise is real," Acho said Thursday on "Speak For Yourself." "I was riding for them two years ago when they said they were going to win five, six or seven… Of the AFC playoff teams last year, I would submit five of the seven got better, or at least stayed the same. The Browns, Bengals, Ravens, Broncos, Raiders, Chargers got better. The Bills stayed the same. The only AFC team that got worse was the Titans, because they lost A.J. Brown. I believe the Colts will have a better quarterback in Matt Ryan.

"When you lose Tyreek Hill, a six-time Pro Bowl caliber player, you get worse."

The discussion was sparked by newly acquired safety Justin Reid, who declared that the team's offense would be just fine despite Hill's loss.

"The Chiefs offense is going to do what we always do," Reid said Wednesday on NFL Network. "We're going to come out, we're going to put up 100 points. We have the greatest football quarterback in the game. And when you have a quarterback, and you have an offensive system, a coordinator that is able to just mix things up all the time, you're always going to put up points."

Marcellus Wiley's thoughts were in accord with Reid's. In his view, Mahomes, nor Hill, are the reason the squad's offense is so prolific.

"People think that this system has been built on Patrick Mahomes, but it's built on the creativity of Andy Reid," Wiley said. "I played against him when he was in Philadelphia, and I used to have my eyeballs split in two different directions, saying, ‘What the hell was that he just ran?’ And he didn't have star receivers [most of the years] he was in Philadelphia.

"This was a playoff team before Patrick Mahomes got there, and you always have championship contention with [Mahomes and Reid.]"