Patrick Mahomes threw 41 touchdowns in the regular season, and he did it without any of the wide receivers on his team catching more than 4 touchdowns. Kansas City doesn’t use that position much inside the red zone. More commonly, Kansas City has featured Travis Kelce and Jerick McKinnon around the goal line. Kelce has caught 12 touchdowns (plus 2 more in the playoffs), while McKinnon has caught 9.
Kansas City doesn’t have a wide receiver who’s been a big scorer. Mecole Hardman has caught 4 touchdowns, JuJu Smith-Schuster has caught 3, and Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson have each caught 2.
As a group, Kansas City’s wide receivers have caught only 13 of the team’s 41 touchdowns – less than a third. In the last 10 years, only two offenses have had a lower ratio of touchdowns go to wide receivers (Andy Reid’s second Kansas City team, back in 2014, and the 2017 Bears).
| LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF TOUCHDOWNS TO WIDE RECEIVERS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | RB | TE | WR | Total | Pct |
| 2014 | Kansas City | 9 | 9 | 0 | 18 | 0.0% |
| 2004 | NY Giants | 2 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 16.7% |
| 2012 | Miami | 5 | 5 | 3 | 13 | 23.1% |
| 2008 | Miami | 4 | 11 | 5 | 20 | 25.0% |
| 2003 | Denver | 4 | 10 | 5 | 19 | 26.3% |
| 2009 | Washington | 4 | 11 | 6 | 21 | 28.6% |
| 2003 | Philadelphia | 10 | 2 | 5 | 17 | 29.4% |
| 2009 | San Francisco | 3 | 13 | 7 | 23 | 30.4% |
| 2017 | Chicago | 3 | 6 | 4 | 13 | 30.8% |
| 2022 | Kansas City | 12 | 16 | 13 | 41 | 31.7% |
| 2002 | Miami | 5 | 7 | 6 | 18 | 33.3% |
| 2004 | Chicago | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 33.3% |
| 2004 | Washington | 2 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 33.3% |
| 2010 | Las Vegas | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 33.3% |
| 2015 | New England | 9 | 15 | 12 | 36 | 33.3% |
| 2019 | LA Chargers | 10 | 6 | 8 | 24 | 33.3% |
| 2020 | New England | 6 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 33.3% |
| 2021 | NY Giants | 4 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 33.3% |
| 2021 | Cleveland | 4 | 10 | 7 | 21 | 33.3% |
—Ian Allan