Chiefs dropped passes 2023: How Kansas City’s league-worst drop issues are holding back Patrick Mahomes, offense. HO

The dust has settled on the 2023 NFL season, and unsurprisingly, the Chiefs were able to win the AFC West for an eighth consecutive year.

However, Kansas City’s path to another division title wasn’t as easy as it has been in recent seasons. The team posted a rock-solid 11-6 record, but their offense endured an up-and-down season that saw the unit simply be off more often than fans are used to seeing under Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.

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That has led some to ask what exactly is wrong with the Chiefs after watching them lose some tight games.

It appears that the main issue is with the Chiefs’ receiving corps. The unit is a young one, and while there is plenty of talent and upside within it, Kansas City’s receivers have been prone to mistakes — chiefly drops.

The Chiefs finished the 2023 NFL season averaging 2.6 drops per game, good for the most in the NFL. Kansas City’s inability to hold onto the ball likely cost them a season-opening win against the Lions, who won by one point amid a myriad of miscues by Kadarius Toney.

And in Week 11, Kansas City suffered one of its biggest drops of the year. Marquez Valdes-Scantling was unable to bring in a deep-shot pass from Mahomes that would have been a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

As a result, the Chiefs were unable to score and lost to the Eagles in their Super Bowl 57 rematch.

To their credit, neither Reid nor Mahomes has sounded the alarm about the drops. They have remained steadfast that the team’s receivers will eventually figure things out.

“They know I’m gonna keep firing it,” Mahomes told reporters in his postgame news conference after Valdes-Scantling’s drop. “Usually they’re going to make the plays. It happens.”

Even so, it’s clear that Kansas City’s drops are holding it back. And among teams across the NFL, no squad is having more trouble catching catchable passes than the Chiefs.

Which NFL team has the most drops in 2023?

It should surprise nobody that the Chiefs finished the 2023 season as the league leaders in drops. Kansas City’s pass-catchers have dropped 44 of the 597 passes that Patrick Mahomes has thrown this season.

Their drop rate of 6.9 percent is the highest in the league, too, so the Chiefs’ issues catching the ball don’t stem solely from their high-volume passing offense.

The Chiefs finished the season two drops clear of the second-most drop-prone team. That would be the Browns, who had 42 drops while starting a whopping five different quarterbacks in 2023.

Beyond those two teams, eight other NFL teams have recorded at least 30 drops, but the team with the third-most drops, the Cowboys, only totaled 37 on the season.

Conversely, the 49ers have seen their receivers drop an astoundingly low nine passes throughout the season. The Steelers (16 drops) were the only other team in the league to finish with fewer than 19.

Below is a look at each NFL team’s drop totals — and drop percentages — for the 2023 NFL season.

Chiefs drops by player 2023

Interestingly, the Chiefs’ issues with drops are a teamwide problem. They have a whopping seven players with at least three drops this season, and that includes most of the top receivers on their roster.

Notably, rookie Rashee Rice leads the team with eight drops. He has improved his drop percentage from a league-worst 12.5 percent after 13 weeks to just 7.8 percent, which ranks 15th-worst among qualified receivers.

Beyond Rice, superstar tight end Travis Kelce has dropped seven passes after leading the team with eight last season. Meanwhile, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who dropped a potential winning touchdown in Week 11 against the Eagles, has just three this season while Kadarius Toney has dropped five, representing 13.2 percent of his targets.

Toney doesn’t qualify for the league leaderboard in drop percentage. If he did, however, his mark of 13.2 percent would be good for the worst in the NFL.

Below is a breakdown of Kansas City’s drops by player this season, as well as their drop percentage.

NFL drops leaders 2023

Unsurprisingly, Rice is among the league leaders in drops with his mark of eight overall. However, star rookie Puka Nacua leads the league in drops, having recorded 13 with the Rams.

And for those wondering whether Tyreek Hill would help to patch up this issue, the answer is probably not. The former Chiefs star has let 11 passes glance off his hands this season, tied for the second-most in the NFL.

Below is a look at the 10 NFL players who have at least eight drops entering Week 13.

Still, while Rice may not be the NFL leader in drops, it’s clear that the Chiefs receivers have some of the most problematic hands in the NFL. And that has had an impact on their overall offensive efficiency.

Chiefs offense 2023 vs. Chiefs offense 2022

The Chiefs were the NFL’s No. 1 overall offense during the 2022 NFL season but have fallen off a bit during 2023. They are still a top-15 unit in both yards per game and scoring, but they aren’t the same explosive offense they were last year.

Below is a look at how the two units compare:

So what is the reason that the Chiefs are scoring nearly six fewer points per game? Well, one factor is that the team’s longtime offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, left to take an assistant head coaching job with the Commanders. The Chiefs haven’t been as sharp in his absence, so that’s part of the reason that Mahomes’ stats have declined.

Even so, it’s also clear that Mahomes isn’t getting the same amount of help from his receivers in 2023 that he did last season. The Chiefs had only 34 total drops in 2022. That tied for ninth-most in the NFL, but their drop percentage of 5.2 percent ranked as the 13th-lowest among the NFL’s 32 teams.

That is part of the reason that Mahomes’ passer rating has declined. He has still been able to find open receivers often enough; he just hasn’t been able to connect with them because his top pass-catchers don’t have the best hands.

Perhaps the Chiefs will work to eliminate these issues as they prepare to mount another Super Bowl run. But as it stands, Kansas City’s receivers could prove to be the team’s Achilles’ heel. That could ultimately leave them on the wrong end of some tightly contested games as we saw in both Week 1 against the Lions and Week 11 against the Eagles.