Las Vegas Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs
Final Score: Chiefs 31, Raiders 0
Writer: Matthew Bevins (MattBQBList on Reddit)
The Chiefs came out in Week 7 and welcomed back Rashee Rice from a suspension with an absolute outpacing of the Raiders and their constantly disgruntled offense. While the Chiefs welcomed back their best offensive weapon, someone who’s able to change the shape of the game, the Raiders were unable to change the game in any way, but worse, leaving the stadium on the road with no points. The Raiders only had 31 snaps on offense, and were absolutely feckless on the offensive end. The Raiders are starting to look like one of the worst teams in the league and are on a long-term rebuild.
Three Up
- Patrick Mahomes — Mahomes had a down year last year, and many wondered if maybe the vision and game style the Chiefs have employed was a vision of the past, as they relied less on Mahomes as the center of the offense, and instead on the overall offense as a whole, buoyed by numerous offensive options. Mahomes is having a way better season on both fantasy and on-field results, as the team is becoming one of the top teams to watch again.
- Brashard Smith — Smith has been one of the names to know and stash off of waiver wires, and it seems that we may be seeing what everyone had hoped for. Smith had 28 snaps to Isaiah Pacheco‘s 45, but was able to get one less carry, and looked just as good, if not better. Smith will likely continue to eat into the front of this backfield, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s not the No. 1 carrier next week.
- Rashee Rice — The Chiefs have been waiting for Rice for a long time, and they immediately welcomed him back with the most targets on their offense. Rice can really take the top off the defense with some amazing route runs, and he was able to come right back into the fold and help pay dividends. What we will see is that the options are going to start splitting up. We’re going to see a tier 1 option package of Rice, Travis Kelce, and Xavier Worthy, and the rest will see scraps.
Three Down
- Geno Smith — There’s no other way to spin it. Smith played an uninspiring quarterback and playcaller, and this kind of game and season start for the Raiders is likely something that will cause the coaching staff to think about what other options they have to jumpstart this offense. Will Geno end up starting next week? Are the voices getting louder? Tough to say what happens, but Geno is falling out of any fantasy relevance by the week. What could’ve been their best drive was within 5 minutes of the game starting, where they picked up a first down to D’Onte Thornton, only to have it pulled back for holding, and it was all downhill from that moment on.
- Ashton Jeanty — Jeanty is suffering, and it’s mostly due to the team as a whole, but it’s going to get worse, as the team has no vision of an end in sight. Jeanty is their future, and doesn’t have anything in his career to worry about yet, but the problem is this team needs to be rebuilt around him for him to be a top-30 pick for the remainder of his career, never mind this year. He was only able to rush the ball on six attempts, and while he only ended up with short of 4 yards per carry, it was clear the Chiefs could key in on Jeanty, as Geno was not able to make anything happen through the air.
- Michael Mayer — The loss of Brock Bowers is absolutely huge, and could be one of the main reasons that the Raiders, as an offense, have ground to a halt. A lot of the offense from the Raiders has been able to be run through Bowers, so when he went down, there has been a need to lean on the tight end position, and Mayer has benefited. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do much in this game, and his name was only called on twice. Mayer is likely going to be untrustworthy going forward, and we should just wait on Bowers and seek options elsewhere until then.
Las Vegas Raiders
Quarterback
Geno Smith: 10/16, 67 Yards | 2 carries, 1 yard
Kenny Pickett: 2/2, 8 cards | 1 carry, 1 yard
Geno Smith and the Raiders have not shown much over the course of the season, and the play of Geno may put this team at the bottom of the AFC West. Geno made some reasonable passes, but we watched multiple first-down conversions called back due to flags. Maxx Crosby was ruled out for the whole second half of the game, so the defense took a huge hit across from Geno, and yet nothing was gained from it. Geno made a solid connection with D’Onte Thornton early and was able to reach Tre Tucker for target-high five receptions, but everything otherwise was a miss. There was absolutely zero consistency to the offense, the drives were ultimately knocked out early, and they couldn’t gain and sustain anything of note. What ends up coming from a performance like this is a situation where you wonder if anyone is of value in this offense going forward, given all their other weapons. Time to second-guess your starting of players like Jakobi Meyers on a week-to-week basis.
Running Back
Ashton Jeanty: 6 carries, 21 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 13 yards
Dylaun Laube: 2 carries, 3 yards
Ashton Jeanty is absolutely a top-10 value running back in all of the league, but this team’s worrisome coaching and quarterback performance is going to be something that greatly zaps his value in fantasy for some time to come. The fact of the matter was the Chiefs’ offense took more than double the offensive snaps and produced all their points in three dominant quarters. Alternatively, Jeanty saw just 22 snaps and only rushed on six of them. There is no way to bench someone of this talent caliber, but the fact of the matter is that you can’t fuel your house on 21-yard rushing output games. Jeanty puts fantasy players in a bind going forward, as those are lines that even your flex-worthy guys are giving you more than. Jeanty showed some solid cutback potential and made some solid vision plays to gain a few additional yards today, but not much else can be taken from this performance, and you will have to really look at this team week to week for confidence in offensive play.
Dylan Laube made a couple carries, and he looks like your current backup in Atlanta, if you have an 18-team league or more to keep eyes on active rushers.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Tre Tucker: 6 targets, 5 receptions, 33 yards
Jack Bech: 2 targets,2 receptions, 13 yards
Michael Mayer: 2 targets, 1 reception, 10 yards
Carter Runyon: 1 target, 1 reception, 3 yards
D’Onte Thornton: 3 targets, 0 receptions
The receiver room in Las Vegas is not ideal and full without Brock Bowers, and it seems that we may not see a solid and fully functional offense coming out of the Raiders until he does. They had very little opportunity to do much, but without Jakobi Meyers due to injury, and also because the offense as a whole is not producing, they aren’t even getting out on the field for half of the game’s offensive snaps. Tre Tucker remains the sneaky option to watch, he was able to convert with Geno the most, and has become his target hawk. Jack Bech came out of the draft being seen as a potential possession wide receiver who would load up on targets and get the job done, but he’s disappeared for the majority of the season. Bech is finally getting some run in a season that has already turned sideways, and Bech may start to benefit from this. While Meyers was out, he also may not see another game in Las Vegas, as he wants out for a new contract, but also won’t be one to rush back to a team that can’t compete.
Kansas City Chiefs
Quarterback
Patrick Mahomes- 26/35, 286 Yards, 3 TD’s, 0 INT’s | 4 carries, 28 yards
Me and my Mahomies were waiting for a season like this from Patrick Mahomes, after the two seasons past where his offensive production had started to wane. While it was clear that the team had found a way to win, production numbers for Mahomes were down. While this offense has never seen all its weapons on the field at the same time, we got to see Mahomes with Marquise Brown, Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy, and Rashee Rice, and he took pure advantage of it. He hit Rice with a great corner of the end zone for a touchdown later in the game, but just seeing the original sweep route receiver pitch touchdowns back are something you have to enjoy even if you dislike this team for any reason. The offense will continue to grow as Rice settles back in, and watching Mahomes play with so much confidence is something that should help you start Mahomes as a top-five QB going forward, with the upside of being the best one rest of the season.
Running Back
Isaiah Pacheco: 15 carries, 57 Yards
Brashard Smith: 14 carries, 39 yards | 5 targets, 5 receptions, 42 yards
Kareem Hunt: 4 carries, 18 yards
The receivers benefited most in this game, and it seems entirely possible for the rest of the season, running backs in Kansas City will be flex-worthy at best. Isaiah Pacheco has had his issues over the course of this season and last, and is one of the bubble-level running backs, someone who could lose out on potential value at any given moment due to performance. Brashard Smith was able to cut into the RB room this week, and looks to maybe be the one who will take over as RB1 in this offense. On one of Smith’s receptions in the second half, he was 3 or so yards short of the first-down line when he got tackled, and with a crew of Raiders trying to tackle him, he was able to push himself forward into first-down territory. From that point forward, it seems like the running game work may have changed, and Smith is doing more in the passing game. While Pacheco may have led the carries this week, he still has his eyes on Kareem Hunt, who is going to be the goal-line back of note, and now he has to worry about Smith taking up a large portion of carries. This team is going to eat itself alive on rushes, so I’d avoid this running back room if you can.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Rashee Rice: 10 targets, 7 receptions, 42 yards, 2 TDs
Marquise Brown: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 14 yards, 1 TD
Travis Kelce: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 54 receptions
Xavier Worthy: 4 targets, 3 receptions, 35 receptions
Juju Smith-Schuster: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 35 yards
Noah Gray: 1 target, 1 reception, 28 yards
Tyquan Thornton: 2 targets, 1 reception, 39 yards
The Chiefs’ offense is going to now be predicated on this stacked receiver room, and the only tough part is going to be figuring out which of the players is going to be the one who ends up with two or three touchdowns for the week. Rashee Rice was clearly missed and was connected with often, and for two touchdowns, one of which had a pretty little pitch play. Travis Kelce found his way down the field for a bigger catch and was able to sneak away from coverage on another catch across the 15-yard receiving-area threshold. Marquise Brown got a great pass middle of the field due to Mahomes starting to fake a rush into the middle of the zone, and hitting Brown in stride across the middle of the end zone. This team is so stacked, and we’re only going to continue to see more reason to move these weapons up the fantasy boards for the remainder of the season. Best of luck to anyone facing off the Rice-Mahomes stack for the remainder of the season.