by - Kansas City Chiefs
Predicted record: 10-6
THE MADDEN CURSE IS REAL. Patrick Mahomes was named to the cover of this addition of the Madden videogame. Sure he will be fun to use as your quarterback on Madden 20 but that doesn’t mean he is going to put up the same numbers he did in real life last season.
Mahomes and the Chiefs offense looked unstoppable last year and the franchise QB put up an absurd 50 touchdowns and 5,097 yards.
An important factor in all of that was Kareem Hunt though because the opposing defenses had to respect the run game as well. Hunt is now with the Browns and that changes the game plan.
Sure Damien Williams and Carlos Hyde can split carries and pick up yards, but opposing defenses should be able to focus much more on the Chiefs passing attack.
At least Mahomes still has Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce… Hill is a question mark though due to his problems off the field. Everyone is keeping a close eye on him and if he slips up just once more there will be a price to pay.
Hill also suffered an injury in training camp so injury problems could be another factor against him. Expect rookie Mecole Hardman to be looked at as the next Tyreek Hill.
That’s some pressure on the young man’s shoulders though. Perhaps Kelce grabbing many catches per game can ease Hardman into a substantial role.
The Chiefs defense added Tyrann Mathieu and fans are excited to have the honey badger leading the secondary. The huge issue is that overall the defense has probably downgraded.
Dee Ford is now in San Francisco and Justin Houston is now in Indianapolis. Sure they acquired Frank Clark (got fleeced by the Seahawks in that deal), signed Alex Okafor and received Emmanuel Ogbah from Cleveland in exchange for Eric Murray – still not good enough to fill what was lost.
So an already shaky defense just got shakier. That offense better be rolling every week.
Kansas City will absolutely make the playoffs this season but winning the division is a question because the Chargers will have something to say about that.
I think Kansas City will win a Wild Card spot and all opponents will have to heavily prepare for a shootout.
