ORCHARD PARK – For those who were silly enough to believe that Patrick Mahomes was starting to go into slight decline last season, shame on you.
Similar to what Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is dealing with this year, the Kansas City Chiefs’ three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback was challenged in 2024 – yet still led his team to an AFC championship – because he did not have enough help at the skill positions. That’s certainly not the case in 2025.
Now that Rashee Rice is back from his six-game suspension, speedy Xavier Worthy has a season under his belt, veterans Hollywood Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster have established their roles and earned Mahomes’ trust, and tight end Travis Kelce continues to play like a future Hall of Famer, the Chiefs’ passing game has been electric and it figures to keep Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich awake for long hours this week.
“They’re tough to go against, playing the way they are,” Babich said. “Certainly we’ve got a big one on our hands coming up here this week. A team we’re familiar with, an opponent we’re familiar with. We look forward to the challenge.”
Stats show why Chiefs passing game is dominating NFL
After stumbling to an 0-2 start, the Chiefs are back to being the Chiefs as they have won five of their last six games during which they have averaged 29.3 points and Mahomes has averaged 275.7 passing yards while completing 69.6% of his attempts.
Overall, they rank fifth at 251.8 passing yards per game, they lead the NFL with 1,111 yards gained after the catch, Mahomes is completing 67% of his passes with 17 TDs and just four picks, and he’s been pressured a league-low 22.6% of his dropbacks. Oh, when things break down, he has scrambled for 280 yards and four TDs.
In their Monday night win over the Commanders, the Chiefs sputtered to a 7-7 draw in the first half with Mahomes throwing two picks, equaling his interception total from the first seven games. And then after the intermission they scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half on drives of 80, 75 and 94 yards, averaging 8.9 yards per play, and Mahomes finished with 299 yards passing and three TDs.
“I think it shows the growth that we’ve had as a team,” Mahomes said after the 28-7 romp over the Commanders when he was asked about how impressively they have battled back from their 0-2 start. “Even though we didn’t start the way we wanted to offensively, it showed that we can battle through adversity and still continue to play the brand of football that we want to play, and we’ll have to continue to get better and better. It’s going to be a great challenge this next week (against Buffalo) and we’ll have to start faster, but I was proud of how the guys responded in that second half.”
The Baltimore Ravens are always a unique challenge for the Bills, and what can’t get get lost in the incredible comeback victory back in Week 1 is that Buffalo’s defense still gave up 40 points to Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and Zay Flowers. But make no mistake, this Kansas City offense is the best one the Bills have seen to date, and might be the best one they’ll see all year.
“We go about it our same way,” Babich said when asked about dealing with the Chiefs. “What’s the strength and weaknesses of the offense? What’s the strength and weaknesses of each individual player? And try to put our guys in the best position possible to have success.”
Rookies Maxwell Hairston, Jordan Hancock may play key roles
And that might mean doing in the secondary what the Bills did last week when they were able to get rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston on the field for his NFL debut, and fellow rookie safety Jordan Hancock in for his most extensive time on defense. It felt like that was intentional in order to get their feet wet against a Panthers team with a mostly non-existent passing game before the huge test against Kansas City.
Hairston rotated series with Tre’Davious White and played 27 snaps while Hancock replaced Jordan Poyer in some obvious passing situations and played 16 snaps. The two youngsters brought speed and athleticism in place of those two aging players and they did so while not making any glaring mistakes.
Per Pro Football Focus, neither Hairston (15 pass coverage snaps) or Hancock (9) were targeted in the pass game, an indication that they were able to handle their responsibilities, though in Hairston’s case, the Bills kept him away from Carolina’s top receiver, Tet McMillan. Again, that was the Panthers, this is the Chiefs, but at least they now have some experience to bank when Mahomes starts attacking on Sunday.
Hancock’s best play was his touchdown-saving tackle on Rico Dowdle in the first quarter which proved huge a few plays later when Greg Rousseau forced an Andy Dalton red zone fumble which Christian Benford recovered.
“Thought he did some good things,” Babich said of Hancock. “There wasn’t a lot of action for him. They poked a run in there at third-and-5, he got him down, and we were talking about it (Monday) in the defensive meeting like, ‘Hey, what was the result after this? Takeaway, boom.’ He did some good things in there as far as what we were asking him to do.”
Hairston’s best play was also on a run when he came up and drilled receiver Jimmy Horn on a reverse after a two-yard gain.
“It was good to get him back out there; the biggest one you guys all saw was the tackle,” Babich said of that play. “He doesn’t have training camp, he doesn’t have any preseason games, he has no regular season games. So, that physical aspect of the game is where you’re curious. He was pretty good in coverage, and there’s always things we got to improve, but it was nice to see those guys out there and do some good things.”
Obviously, the ante will be raised for both players Sunday.
“We really have to be where we’re supposed to be,” Hancock said. “They pride themselves on explosives, but also with the short game and run after the catch so when they catch the ball we still have to get bodies on them and make the tackle.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills defense braces for biggest challenge yet against red-hot Chiefs
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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