Chiefs @ Jaguars
Final Score: Jaguars 31, Chiefs 28
Writer: Matthew Bevins (MattBQBList on Reddit/BevoHGD on Instagram)
The Chiefs and Jaguars came out on Monday night to tie up Week 5 with a bow. Patrick Mahomes headed out to Jacksonville to face the dysfunctional Jaguars offense, spearheaded by Trevor Lawrence, who looked to find some consistency. It didn’t start so hot, however, as the Chiefs drove down the field, ending their first quarter with a Travis Kelce touchdown. With some solid playcalling, the Jaguars were able to get Brian Thomas Jr. involved with two first-quarter receptions, but hit a brick wall at full speed with two crunched out Lawrence rushes with only three yards ahead of him for a touchdown, giving the Chiefs back the ball on the 3-yard line.
Three Up
- Patrick Mahomes – Mahomes had a forgettable quarterback season for fantasy standards last year, taking his pro team to the Super Bowl while likely not taking that many fantasy managers to theirs. Suffice to say, Mahomes is somewhat quietly putting together a top 3 potential fantasy QB season so far, looking better than quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts and staring down an injured Lamar Jackson. He’s running a tad, and also has Xavier Worthy with Rashee Rice returning shortly. His fake handoff to a rollout touchdown was pretty, and was a bit of a swagger stone in what his season has been so far.
- Brian Thomas Jr. – In just the first half, Brian Thomas Jr had just 3 targets, but converted two and had one stripped off on a penalty. Lawrence is continuing to find ways to try to get Thomas involved, and it seems more likely than not that they’ve just been out of sync, dealing with a relatively subpar start to the season from Lawrence. He also played 30 of the 33 snaps in the first quarter, proving the team still trusts him as their dominant 1A Wide receiver, despite early outputs.
- Tyquan Thornton – Tyquan Thornton is wax on, wax off over the past few weeks, as he looked like a future game changer for the year, but when we saw Xavier Worthy back just last week, Tyquan found himself saved last week by his single target and reception ending up in the endzone. Maybe Thornton has found himself a spot here, though, as he quickly latched on for 3 receptions and 90 yards.
Three Down
- Xavier Worthy – We have all seen just how much of a game-changer that Worthy can be, but this game has to have you a bit worried for the future of his season. Worthy has been nursing an injury and hasn’t played much of this season due in part to a low-ankle sprain. Just part of the way into the third quarter, we saw Worthy come up a bit limp on his ankle and hop back out on the field after just a play. You still have to be worried, however, and I wonder if this injury snakes its way through injury reports for a lot of this season.
- Brenton Strange – Brenton Strange seems to be that guy who piles up mentions on “sneaky tight-end pickups”, but gives you roughly one week of value and disappears. Maybe one day he’ll be just that pick up you need, but this week he got hurt and only got you a small handful of yards.
- Trevor Lawrence – Another week, another game where the Jaguars show themselves as a pretty solid overall team that has a quarterback problem. Lawrence rolled into the fourth quarter with 12 completions, reeling off two back-to-back drives where the Jaguars looked untouchable. He also decided to throw his 9th interception of the season, killing a pretty big chance to knock the Chiefs out with a pretty early knockout at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Kansas City Chiefs
Quarterback
Patrick Mahomes: 28/37, 307 yards,1 TD, 1 INT| 6 carries, 60 yards, 1 TD
Patrick Mahomes does things that just don’t get appreciated anymore, due in large part to his resume. Mahomes had some solid plays showcased, finding Travis Kelce early and often, attempting to build a solid basis for the game. Mahomes then got them into the goal line and pulled a play-action rollout into a sweet unguarded touchdown. Mahomes, as mentioned above, is becoming somewhat of the sneaky pick for quarterback of the year, as he’s compiling stats, as well as getting back on the run. Mahomes now has three games of over forty yards rushing this year and is showing a bit more out-of-pocket maneuvering. Mahomes finished the game with 60 yards on the ground and continues to help make drives get pushed when his first or second reads are covered. Late in the game, we saw Mahomes roll out of the pocket, look for Kelce, and top off a first down on his rush alone.
Running Back
Isiah Pacheco: 7 carries, 36 yards | 3 targets, 3receptions,20 yards
Kareem Hunt: 7 carries, 49 yards, 2 TDs | 1 target, 1 reception, 8 yards
Breshard Smith: 1 carry, 4 yards | 3 targets, 3 receptions, 32 yards
Isiah Pacheco has to be listening to us. The Bam-Bam running back was almost out of our hearts and onto our waiver wires before or after this game, and showed up for some big power runs on this game plan. Pacheco pushed out some solid conversions and continued to get the field moving. While Kareem Hunt and Mahomes stole the rushing yards, Pacheco may have stolen a bit more of our time, as he continues to hold up the most carries, as well as the highest rate of snap count. You also need to consider that Hunt is outplaying him in terms of yards per carry, continuously, and is running behind the same offensive line while being much older and presumably less speedy.
Hunt has become the de facto big swing and goal line back, as he continues to be brought in near the goal line to help move the pile or either bounce out for touchdowns, and ended up with two of them on the ground in this game. Hunt has the long-time run of being here early in his career, and having the trust from the coaching staff that Pachecho has likely lost recently. Until Hunt declines or doesn’t punch them in, I think this will continue to be the back rotation.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Xavier Worthy: 8 targets, 6 receptions, 42 yards
Travis Kelce: 8 targets, 7 receptions, 61 yards, 1 TD
Tyquan Thornton: 5 targets, 3 receptions, 90 yards
Marquise Brown: 5 targets, 4 receptions, 48 yards
Juju Smith-Schuster: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 17 yards
What we may have lost with the signings of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy, which just isn’t talked about enough these days, is the removal of reliance on singular options, like the original Kelce days, when Tyreek Hill had found his way out to Miami. Throwing over thirty passes, Mahomes managed to find himself 8 different targets, and to all but two, they all caught more than one pass. Worthy definitely looks like the most explosive, and continues to be used in various package formations, but the fact of the matter is, we can’t trust his durability and reliability when Rice and Tyquan Thornton are both fully sorted into this offense. Thornton is becoming a bit more of a fly route guy and unlocks the top options in the secondary. Thornton looks solid on the burner routes, and was overthrown on one, but continues to find his way into the box scores, spare last week when he was only hit on a very short 11-yard route. Worthy was able to get back in after limping off for a play, but didn’t blow out the boxscore, barely able to muster over five yards per target.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Quarterback
Trevor Lawrence: 15/21, 173 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT| 9 carries, 53 yards, 2 TD
Trevor Lawrence is his own worst enemy. It continues to show up, week in and week out, as we put up and push teams to the limit due to a well-coached and consistent defensive showcase, but Lawrence is just not the one winning these guys’ games. On their first potential scoring drive of the game, Lawrence found himself taking two rushing plays to the end zone, only needing three yards for a touchdown. What happened next was a fumble right before he got to the goal line. It didn’t stop them from taking off later in the game, getting a touchdown on a rushing route. His feet saved a pedestrian affair, but his incredibly high interception rate and inability to get on the same page with Brian Thomas Jr. is going to hinder his box scores for as long as the funk continues, and it’s hard to imagine he’s anything more than a replacement quarterback in bye weeks, as you hope he can rush 4 to 8 times for you.
Lawrence saved face late in the game, uncorking and finding BTJ in double coverage, holding off two defenders. He then found Dyami Brown on the next play to get them moving further. And then, a Brian Cook interception was saved by pass interference.
Running Back
Travis Etienne: 12 carries, 49 yards | 4 targets, 3 receptions, 9 yards
Bhayshul Tuten: 4 carries, 6 yards
The running back room has a set lineup, as Travis Etienne retains his number one spot, but games like this are not going to get the job done. Etienne faced a rushing attempt theft from Lawrence, but he was unable to do much with his own rushes, dropping down under 4 yards per attempt, and remaining grounded behind a game plan where everyone was getting a bit of cake. The problem with these box scores is seeing how little Etienne is breaking out like some other games before. Two games this season, we’ve seen him go over 120 yards, but this could be the third game this season where he goes under 75. Bhayshul Tuten looks decent speed-wise when he gets opportunities, but the opportunity itself is not happening, and we likely won’t see Tuten doing much here besides waiting in the wings for an Etienne downfall of some sort.
The running backs were held back by Trevor Lawrence’s rushing yards and touchdowns. It’s a total invariable and I wouldn’t read much into it.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Brian Thomas Jr.: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 80 yards
Travis Hunter: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 64 yards
Brenton Strange: 1 target, 1 reception, 22 yards
Dyami Brown: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 14 yards
Parker Washington: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 16 yards, 1 TD
Tim Patrick: 1 target, 0 receptions
Johnny Mundt: 1 target, 1 reception, 7 yards
Hunter Long: 1 target, 1 reception, 3 yards
The Jaguars’ wide receiver room split their targets up between 8 receivers and 1 running back. Brian Thomas Jr. had an amazing late-game catch in double coverage that was laced right to him by Lawrence, but the fact of the matter is, we’re getting less of this than we need, and Lawrence seems to only find him when he really needs to. BTJ is just a single lucky broken play touchdown from alleviating our worries, but the fact of the matter for me is how early and often they’re working to try and get him involved, even if he isn’t their first read at all times. Lawrence knows that BTJ is the key to unlocking this offense; we just need a game in control and synchronicity.
Parker Washington came in early off special teams and caught a goal-line touchdown pass with only two catches. Travis Hunter was not found early, but made up for it with some great late-game catches. Hunter ended the game as the first in two decades to show up in a boxscore as an offensive and defensive player in a single game, and that’s pretty neat.
Washington and anyone else not named Hunter or BTJ are likely going to remain as waiver wire fodder unless we really see the offense change, as they’re now 4-1 and moving with what has been working for them.
Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)