Chiefs @ Giants
Final Score: Chiefs 22, Giants 6
Writer: Cody Parker @codyjparker
A week removed from a 37-point breakout for the Giants, and the ever-present optimism for the Chiefs’ offense, there was reason to hope for offensive fireworks in this Sunday night bout. Instead, we saw the two offenses that were successfully game-planned against to take away their strengths. While the Chiefs were able to do enough, the Giants struggled to generate much offense.
Three Up
- Tyquan Thornton — Andy Reid found ways to utilize Thornton’s 4.28 speed, as the wideout caught four passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.
- Cam Skattebo — Tyrone Tracy left the game with an injury and was later ruled out. The bigger takeaway is that Skattebo looked the part of a true three-down back, shrugging off contact, and making plays in the passing game.
- Jaxson Dart — The 0-3 start will make Brian Daboll‘s seat even hotter, and he can’t afford more performances like Russell Wilson showed against the Chiefs. Dart’s time may be closing in, and his brief showcase here (three snaps in a wildcat-esque package) shows that he’ll be used creatively.
Three Down
- Hollywood Brown — Brown’s 15 targets in Week 1 made him a popular waiver addition. He wasn’t a focal point of the offense in this game, however.
- Travis Kelce — Kelce was targeted heavily early, but did very little with those looks. Patrick Mahomes funneled targets to other receivers later in the game and improved offensive efficiency by doing so.
- Malik Nabers — Don’t get me wrong, Nabers is a top-10 WR easily, but the production is looking a bit more sporadic than fantasy managers had hoped.
Kansas City Chiefs
Quarterback
Patrick Mahomes: 22/37, 224 Yards, TD | 5 Carries, 2 Yards
The Giants were able to make Mahomes uncomfortable, especially in the first half. However, he was able to pull out just enough to move the ball in the second half for Kansas City. Mahomes looked to Travis Kelce a lot early, but really seemed to find something later when going after Tyquan Thornton, which really sparked Mahomes and the Kansas City offense. He narrowly missed Thornton on what seemed like it would be a catch-and-run touchdown.
Unfortunately, Mahomes wasn’t nearly as much of a rushing threat in Week 3 as he had been the prior 2 weeks. The box score shows five carries, but three of those were kneel-downs to end the game. This negatively impacted his fantasy viability. Mahomes did make a very athletic play to correct a mistake, throwing a backwards lateral, which should have been recovered by the Giants, however he was able to dive into a swarm of defenders and recover the ball.
The good news is that the Chiefs throw the ball whether they’re trailing or leading. Mahomes can make a lot happen on his own, but the lack of weapons has hampered even him to start the season. The second half very much seemed like a change from that, through creative uses of their weapons, especially Thornton. Xavier Worthy‘s timetable for return is unclear. While he practiced in a limited capacity this week, and technically wasn’t ruled out until Saturday, it never seemed like there was a true chance of him playing. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to return in the near future. Prepare for the Mahomes Renaissance when Worthy and Rashee Rice return.
Running Back
Isiah Pacheco: 10 Carries, 45 Yards | 1 Target, 1 Reception, 3 Yards
Isiah Pacheco was on the field for 40 snaps against 32 (per PFF) for Kareem Hunt and thus I’m listing him as RB1, but in reality, Pacheco and Hunt are 2 and 2A. This is the committee-est of all committees, and it’s impossible to get excited about either player. To my eyes, Pacheco has a little more juice than Hunt, but that’s to say he played marginally better. Neither of these backs looked good in a situation where they should have been able to capitalize on light boxes.
While Pacheco ran 24 routes (also per PFF), he came away with just one target. A committee can produce for fantasy when the players are catching passes (see Bucky Irving and Rachaad White), that isn’t what’s happening here.
Kareem Hunt: 10 Carries, 34 Yards, TD | 1 Target, 1 Reception, 10 Yards
Kareem Hunt got the goal-line carry after Mahomes and Thornton converted a pass to the 1-yard line. It was a nice second effort on the goal-line carry for what it’s worth, but Hunt looks like a player equipped to get you exactly ONE yard. We’ve seen Hunt be a capable pass catcher (and runner) in years past, but those days appear behind him. He’s now firmly a trusted veteran and looks the part.
Brashard Smith: 2 Carries, 13 Yards | 1 Target, 0 Receptions
Unlike Pacheco and Hunt, Brashard Smith is an exciting player. He was a favorite of mine in the 2025 NFL Draft, coming out of SMU. However, weighing in at 194 pounds, and playing all but one of his collegiate seasons as a WR, he ran the risk of being profiled as a gadget player. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what has seemed to happen here. Both of Smith’s carries came on sweep plays alongside another RB. Watching this game, two things are clear about Smith: 1) he’s a talented player, 2) this team doesn’t truly view him as an RB.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Tyquan Thornton: 9 Targets, 5 Receptions, 71 Yards, 1 TD
Tyquan Thornton was the standout player in this game for me. I don’t necessarily think he’s a different player than what he showed with the Patriots, I just think he’s better-utilized. I try not to do comparisons, but I couldn’t help but think of Jameson Williams. Deep routes are probably the first thing that comes to mind with Williams, but another of Ben Johnson‘s innovations last year was using him on crossing routes. Likewise, the Chiefs did a good job of using Thornton’s speed horizontally, where he can simply outrun any defenders. The Chiefs were a lot more efficient in the second half, and Thornton was a big part of that.
It could have been an even bigger game. As mentioned, Mahomes missed Thornton for what would have been a 40-yard-plus touchdown. In addition, Thornton briefly had a TD catch before expedited review overturned it. This loss in production was later fixed as Thornton caught a deep pass two plays later (the play that set up Hunt’s touchdown). The lost touchdown hurts, but to my eyes, he was touched down at the one regardless, and the touchdown would have been overturned even if the catch had stood.
Travis Kelce: 7 Targets, 4 Receptions, 26 Yards
Dating back to last season, Travis Kelce appears to have declined. He’s still able to find the soft spot in a zone to convert on a third down, but he’s no longer the playmaker he once was. Kelce led the team in targets through the first half, but the offense was noticeably better when Thornton became the primary target in the second half. Kelce is volume over efficiency at this point in his career.
Hollywood Brown: 6 Targets, 4 Receptions, 42 Yards
Hollywood Brown was the focal point in Week 1, but with the benefit of hindsight, that seems like an improvised game plan due to Worthy’s early injury. Given time to properly prepare, Brown is a significant part of the offense, but not the sole focus, as he appeared to be in Week 1.
Noah Gray: 6 Targets, 3 Receptions, 17 Yards
JuJu Smith-Schuster: 4 Targets, 4 Receptions, 55 Yards
New York Giants
Quarterback
Russell Wilson: 18/32, 160 Yards, 2 INTs | 5 Carries, 27 Yards
A critical part of Russell Wilson‘s decline was the increase in the use of two-high safety looks on defense leaguewide. He showed why that was the case against Kansas City. Wilson did make a couple nice throws against two-high against Dallas in Week 2, but historically, that has not been an area of strength for him. The Chiefs forced Wilson to stick to short and intermediate routes, and he was fundamentally incapable of doing so.
Late in the fourth quarter, after one of his best plays on the night, a 26-yard completion to Wan’Dale Robinson over the middle of the field, to put the Giants inside the 10, Wilson gave us his worst sequence of the night. On first down, he committed an intentional grounding penalty on an attempted throwaway. That was followed by a 4-yard QB draw, and a throwaway. Still with a chance to make it a one-score game with outside of the 2-minute warning, with two timeouts remaining, Wilson hit the crossbar on a throw that was sort of targeting Darius Slayton. The Giants still had an opportunity to win the game at this point, and Wilson looked like a player who had never stepped on an NFL field before.
Jaxson Dart: 1 Carry, 3 Yards
Dart played 3 snaps in this game, but they all came on wildcat-like packages. One was a designed pass play, but he instead scrambled, picking up 3 yards. There isn’t much to evaluate from Dart’s brief appearances, but he will take over at some point, and if Wilson puts up more games like this that will come sooner, rather than later.
Running Back
Cam Skattebo: 10 Carries, 60 Yards, TD | 8 Targets, 6 Receptions, 61 Yards
To get it out of the way, Cam Skattebo was not the lead back to start the game. That didn’t occur until Tyrone Tracy left the game with an injury late in the first quarter. Before that, Skattebo saw the field very little. He did, however, make the most of it when given the opportunity. Any offensive momentum the Giants had in this game was largely the result of Skattebo, and even had Tracy been healthy, it’s hard to imagine they would have gone away from Skattebo, given what he showed in this game.
Following Tracy’s injury, Devin Singletary saw a little bit of run, but Skattebo had the overwhelming amount of production. While some projected Skattebo might struggle to transition to the NFL, this was clearly the same player we saw at Arizona State. He was even their target leader against the Chiefs. An all-around impressive performance for Skattebo, when the Giant offense failed to impress in any other way.
Tyrone Tracy: 7 Carries, 29 Yards | 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 7 Yards
Tracy tallied seven carries and three targets in just a single quarter of action, as New York looked to attack the two-high looks from Kansas City. He wasn’t bad per se (though the light boxes inflated rushing yardage), but he was nowhere near the player Skattebo was in this game. The severity of Tracy’s shoulder injury is currently unclear, though here’s to wishing him a speedy recovery.
Devin Singletary: 4 Carries, 11 Yards
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Malik Nabers: 7 Targets, 2 Receptions, 13 Yards
Malik Nabers is still Malik Nabers, but getting just two catches from your first-round draft pick stings. Was this mostly on Wilson? Yes, but Nabers wasn’t exactly creating massive amounts of seperation either. For me, the question about Nabers this season is whether he can join the elite tier of fantasy WRs, along with fellow LSU alums Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson, as well as players like CeeDee Lamb. Performances like these aren’t helping that case (don’t look to deeply into what those 3 did this week, by the way). Wilson tried multiple deep passes to Nabers, but those more often found receivers wearing red and white than they did Nabers.
Wan’Dale Robinson: 4 Targets, 1 Reception, 26 Yards
Passes caught from Wilson in Week 3:
2: Chiefs
2: Nabers
1: Robinson
1: Goalpost crossbar
That’s probably not what people were hoping for when they added Robinson off waivers this week. Though credit where it’s due, the lone completion was a beautiful play from Robinson and Wilson.
Darius Slayton: 4 Targets, 4 Receptions, 30 Yards
Theo Johnson: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 10 Yard
Chris Manhertz: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 7 Yards
Daniel Bellinger: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 6 Yards