Welcome back to the Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Each week, watch for your opportunity to submit your Kansas City Chiefs questions in The Feed, which is found on AP’s home page.
After putting the NFL on notice with dominant win over the Detroit Lions — and with the ever-hated Las Vegas Raiders coming to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 7 — let’s see what is on our readers’ minds.
Do you believe the Chiefs will let wide receiver Rashee Rice loose right away? Or will they ease him into action to protect his knee?
A few weeks make a big difference. The Chiefs could not have imagined a better scenario for Rice’s return from his six-game suspension — and a major knee injury suffered 13 months ago — though fantasy owners awaiting return on investment might disagree.
For about the first ten quarters of the Chiefs’ season, Rice was almost treated as a mythical figure — the long-awaited savior of a stagnant offense. Since the second half of Week 3’s victory over the New York Giants, however, Patrick Mahomes and the offense have more than come to life.
Kansas City certainly needs Rice to unlock the unit’s full potential, but the team no longer needs him to turn the unit around. That wasn’t the case a month ago. In addition, the two players who have largely absorbed Rice’s targets — JuJu Smith-Schuster and Travis Kelce — look healthy and are playing their best football in recent memory.
In front of a home crowd against a divisional foe, expect the Chiefs to have some things dialed up for Rice in his season debut. Look for him in the red zone and on medium-range third downs. But it might take a couple of weeks — perhaps by game against the suddenly vulnerable Buffalo Bills in Week 9 — before Rice returns to the volume we saw last season.
But after the Week 10 bye, I expect Rice to be the undisputed focal point of the offense.
I hear a lot of fans saying we should trade for one position or another. But are the Chiefs actually buyers at the trade deadline — and if so, what position do they truly need to improve?
I have tepid expectations for Kansas City at this year’s trade deadline. To start, the Chiefs will likely begin next offseason more than $30 million over the salary cap — and currently have only 35 players signed for 2026. That doesn’t lend itself to giving up draft capital. The team would be wiser to roll its current cap space — roughly $4.1 million — into next year.
Looking around the league, there also aren’t many obvious sellers. With leaguewide parity and a seventh playoff seed in each conference, most teams will still consider themselves contenders by the November 4 deadline.
A running back addition would make some sense. The Chiefs should be interested in any available dynamic starter — though plenty of teams share that same need. Since rookie Brashard Smith is the only back under contract for 2026, Kansas City could also explore buy-low options: players buried on depth charts who are still on rookie deals.
In a perfect world, the Chiefs would add an impact pass rusher — but at midseason, those are hard to find. The most realistic upgrade might be a rotational defensive tackle who can handle early downs and keep Chris Jones fresher for key passing situations.
Is rookie defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott still being “ramped up” after getting dinged in the preseason, or is there a reason defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo continues to avoid using him?
Unfortunately, just as Norman-Lott appeared fully recovered from his preseason ankle injury, he reportedly injured his shoulder in practice during Week 5, missing the Jacksonville Jaguars’ game. After playing about 30% of defensive snaps in Weeks 2–4, he logged only 20% on Sunday against the Lions.
The Chiefs definitely need Norman-Lott’s help to relieve Jones on the interior. We’ve seen flashes — like his WWE-style sack of Jalen Hurts in Week 2 against the Eagles — but Kansas City must be cautious. He didn’t carry a heavy workload in college — and he’s already dealt with both upper- and lower-body injuries this season. Another setback could result in a lengthy absence.
Assuming health, I’ll be watching closely after the Week 10 bye. The snap count Norman-Lott sees in Week 11 might tell us what to expect for the rest of his rookie season.
On the SNF broadcast, multiple people said the consensus around the organization is they feel better about the overall state of the team than they did at this same time last year. Is that enough to calm the nerves of Chiefs fans after the team weathered a somewhat brutal schedule with a 3-3 record?
When Rice’s suspension was announced, many thought a 3-3 start would be acceptable — though most probably envisioned different wins and losses. Losing close games stings, but the context matters.
The product on the field should calm some nerves. The current version of the Chiefs’ offense might actually be more electric than the Super Bowl LVII-winning 2022 unit. Mahomes’ passer rating on Sunday was 132.2 — his highest mark in nearly three years. With his top weapon returning, he could soon be surrounded by the most complete supporting cast of his career.
That said, maybe we should slow down on the national media’s sudden lovefest. Defensive concerns remain. The Chiefs’ defense has allowed +0.07 EPA per rushing down — currently the third-worst figure in the NFL.
Kansas City has indeed weathered a brutal early schedule, but the road doesn’t exactly ease up. Six of the team’s remaining 11 games are against 2024 playoff teams, and five are against opponents with four or more current wins.
Before that gauntlet begins, Kansas City needs to build on Week 6’s success this Sunday against the Raiders. Despite their 2-4 record, Maxx Crosby and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham are capable of frustrating Mahomes. Rookie running back Ashton Jeanty will have studied how Detroit’s backs gashed the Chiefs in the first half last week.
We should feel encouraged — but sustaining success is harder than rediscovering it. The Chiefs’ middling start leaves them with very little margin for error the rest of the way.
Thank you for reading this week’s Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Keep watching The Feed for a chance to ask your questions.
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