The Obvious Solution To Fix Chiefs’ Offense; Packers Can’t Stop Beating Themselves

Kenneth Walker III had the chance to prove that he was the league’s most impactful offseason signing. But he didn’t. And as his former team, the Seattle Seahawks, took down his current team, the Kansas City Chiefs, Walker must have felt like he needed help — like the Chiefs’ additions should not stop with him. At least, that’s what I came away thinking. Patrick Mahomes needs help — still. It was also clear on Sunday that the Packers need help. But they need to help themselves before anyone else can fix them. Back on Thursday Night Football, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took down Drake Maye and the New England Patriots. And now I think Williams has a strong case that he belongs among the league’s elite quarterbacks. With the way he’s refined his talent, Williams has staying power. Let’s dig into that — and a whole lot more. Welcome to Sound Smart, where I take you beyond what’s obvious. Let’s go below the surface. Let’s spin it forward, dive deeper, think outside the box and read between the lines. If I do my job, you’ll be fluent in the NFL’s Week 7 action. Andy Reid is a great coach — we’re talking about a Hall of Fame shoo-in. So if I can see it, he can see it. The Kansas City Chiefs need a receiver. The Seahawks beat the Chiefs on Sunday night in large part because Seattle has the league’s best receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba. And the Chiefs do not even have a proper WR1. Their top receiver, Xavier Worthy, had a big moment on Sunday when … he dropped the ball. It was such an egregious drop that it drew a rare show of frustration from star QB Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs don’t have to keep suffering like this. With the NFL trade deadline approaching on Nov. 10, there’s a really good receiver who’s available on the market. It’s Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. I’m sure the asking price is a little too high. And the hype exceeds reality. He’s been underwhelming since 2024, when he had 1,282 receiving yards and 10 TDs as a rookie. But he’s a genuine downfield threat who seems like just the kind of guy who could excel in Kansas City. The Chiefs should keep throwing darts. They’re 5-1. This team is worth investing in. Mahomes has made do — for years — without sufficient receiver talent. It doesn’t mean he has to keep doing it. I’ve been clamoring for years for more help. Reid and GM Brett Veach keep expecting their young guys, Worthy and Rashee Rice, to develop and emerge. But it’s not happening. To Kansas City’s credit, Walker — signed to a three-year, $43 million free-agent deal — has shifted the dynamics of the league, with the Seahawks struggling (until Sunday) and the Chiefs dominating (until Sunday). But the Seahawks bottled up Walker; they were the first team to do it. And the Chiefs didn’t have an answer. No counter-punch. Eventually, Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce started to play out-of-structure backyard ball. But now that Kelce is 37 years old, that’s no longer a sustainable answer to their offensive woes. It’s more like a last resort. And it only worked for a few plays. Otherwise, the passing offense was putrid. And Mahomes wore a stank face for the entirety of the fourth quarter. Let’s get this guy some help. Let’s get this guy linked up with Brian Thomas Jr. It would be overly generous to say the Lions won this game. Really, the Packers lost it. The Packers might have been the better team, but they suffered from a handful of bad breaks (including with the officiating), which compounded their own mistakes. And that’s how talented teams lose. The Lions won 20-17 on a field goal as time expired. So let’s look at two bad breaks. The most notable one came on a roughing the passer penalty that the officials tacked onto an 18-yard completion from quarterback Jared Goff to tight end Sam LaPorta with 2:45 left in the game on the Lions’ go-ahead drive. “That’s definitely not roughing the passer,” FOX Sports analyst Tom Brady said. This play — aided in part by the incorrect call — added 12.8% to the Lions’ win probability, per Next Gen Stats. It was one of four second-half (and three fourth-quarter) calls that were generous for the Lions. There was another roughing the passer penalty where Packers defensive lineman Brenton Cox (barely) bumped Goff, who sold the bump theatrically, which turned a third-down incompletion into a first down. There was the intentional grounding on Jordan Love in the fourth quarter that was … rough. And there was another penalty where Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown seemed to continue to try to play after the whistle, which prompted a tackle from a Packers defender, which drew a roughness penalty. “I’m not a big fan of the refs right now,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney told reporters after the game, via FOX6’s Lily Zhao. “I think it’s bulls— a lot of the times.” But then there was the real backbreaker: Josh Jacobs’ drop. You can’t blame that one on the officials. If the Packers running back hadn’t dropped a touchdown pass with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, this game might have been different. Of course, the Packers are infamous for their drops — both this season and in recent seasons. Dropping passes might be “Packer-ing.” Going into this week, Love was second in the NFL in drop yards lost (158), per Next Gen Stats. And Love led the NFL in pass-catcher drops (20) — far ahead of second-place Cam Ward (12). But they rarely cost Love quite like this one cost Green Bay. And it’s easy to imagine an outcome where the Packers win this game if Jacobs had caught the ball. Because on the next play, the Lions blocked the Packers’ field-goal attempt, which also would’ve given them the lead. And Detroit really shouldn’t have been able to block what should’ve been a chip-shot field goal. To the Lions’ credit, they baited the Packers a few times — dangling a hook for Green Bay to make more mistakes. And the Packers took it willingly. It was third-and-5 at the 2-minute warning and the Packers fell for a hard count, which gave the Lions a new set of downs. Detroit’s offense responded by dancing on the field. There were just too many mistakes by the Packers (and the officials) to count. The Packers could be the best team in the NFC North — which sounds crazy, because they’re at the bottom of the division. But the Packers have this unshakable habit of hurting themselves. They did it again on Sunday. Caleb Williams’ progression has been nothing short of astonishing. And against the Patriots on Thursday night, the third-year Bears QB displayed just how dynamic he can be. He is as dangerous as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. There will be plenty of folks who say that this was what Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft, was always meant to be. But how many times have we seen first-round quarterbacks fail to achieve that level: what he was always meant to be. Think about Anthony Richardson, Trey Lance and Zach Wilson. Think about the early years for Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. Think about Trevor Lawrence’s halted progress before Liam Coen’s arrival. Williams could have been a cautionary tale. At the end of his rookie season, he was trending that way. Under the 2024 Bears coaching staff, he had regressed. Taking way too many sacks. Not completing nearly enough passes. The NFL game looked beyond his grasp. But since the arrival of coach Ben Johnson, Williams has trended upward with almost zero signs of regression — even this year, when everyone anticipated the QB and the Bears to struggle with the increased difficulty of their schedule. The nasty sack issue? Williams took care of that last year. The completion percentage? Well, Williams currently ranks second in the NFL at 71.0%. Williams has preserved that efficiency while pushing the ball into tight windows and down the field. He is no less a playmaker, displaying unique arm talent. This is all to say that, in short time, Williams has turned into one of the league’s premier signal-callers. He doesn’t have any clear weakness right now. His progress isn’t the type that is ripe for regression. He attacks the middle of the field. He’s not over reliant on deep passes. He’s not over reliant on his tight ends — or his WR1. He can beat defenses that blitz and defenses that drop into coverage. And in the rare instances where he makes mistakes, he generally uses his talent to overcome those errors. And we did see on Thursday that he made a mistake, taking a sack late in the game that looked like it knocked the Bears out of field-goal range. But Cairo Santos hit a 58-yarder. Given the way Williams keeps getting better, I bet we won’t see another sack like that from him in a long time. Given the way Williams keeps getting better, I bet we’ll see Williams playing at an elite level for a long, long time. Find a rough part of his game. Find some indicator that he can’t keep this up. I dare you. Because I can’t. You can tell me all you want that you thought J.J. McCarthy would be better with the Giants. You can’t tell me you thought he’d be this good. No one could’ve seen this coming — not Jim or John Harbaugh. Otherwise, the Vikings would have gotten more than a fifth-rounder in trading McCarthy to New York. I’ll admit that I have questions about the long-term viability of McCarthy’s style of play, which isn’t as sudden of a transformation as the numbers would lead you to believe. But he’s also zipping the ball into tight windows with a willingness and, most importantly, an efficiency that we really haven’t seen before in his career. In the Giants’ 27-21 overtime win over the Texans on Sunday, McCarthy finished the game 20-of-28 for 252 yards. Despite seeing blitzes on 38.7% of his dropbacks, he completed 9% of his passes over expected, per Next Gen Stats. Against the Texans’ (supposedly vaunted) blitzes, McCarthy was 7-of-9 for 71 yards with three sacks and a +6% completion percentage over expected. This dude must barely know the offense after less than a month in the system. And he’s processing fast enough to beat the blitz? Wild. It’s a credit to Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy that they have McCarthy looking so poised. His style of play is working in all the ways that the Vikings had hoped it might for their offense — but couldn’t figure out how to make it work. And it’s still possible things might turn for McCarthy. His aggressiveness is paying off — for now. But it’s exactly the style of play that might prove unsustainable. It booms then busts. But even in Minnesota, he only had one game remotely comparable to this game. And it was against a lowly Washington Commanders team last year. In eight of his 10 appearances with the Vikings, McCarthy had at least one turnover. McCarthy is already better than he was in Minnesota. Which makes you wonder: Why couldn’t Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, a QB whisperer, make it work? The Minnesota Vikings are undefeated and one of the best teams in the league. In theory. But it’s pretty easy to imagine a one-and-done playoff run on the horizon. For a few reasons, they seem like a dominant regular-season team — without genuinely having Super Bowl chances. If you had to name the NFC teams you project in the Super Bowl, you might name three in the Vikings’ division (Bears, Lions, Packers) before you named the Vikings. I certainly like the Bears and Lions more than I like the Vikings. Minnesota has — easily — the best defense in the NFL right now. It’s not particularly close, even if only some of the numbers bear that out. The Vikings entered this week as the No. 1 scoring defense, allowing just 12.8 points per game. They rendered QB Caleb Williams practically useless in their matchup earlier this year — before he left the game with an injury. And in beating the Colts 16-10 on Sunday, the Vikings showed that they can win almost on defense alone. But it has often felt like they must win on defense alone, because they’re having so much difficulty getting their offense going. Previously, I thought Kyler Murray would ramp up his balance of game management and playmaking. And that he’d start participating in the outcome of the game — helping turn the games in Minnesota’s favor. But right now, he’s about as passive as it gets, which (to be fair to him) seems to be exactly what the Vikings are asking of him. There isn’t a single offensive player who can consistently take over the game. Not Murray. Not Jordan Mason. Not Aaron Jones. Not even star receiver Justin Jefferson, who has popped off since Week 1 (and has yet to exceed 100 yards). This near-loss to the Colts was a sobering reminder of the questions around the Minnesota offense. When the Vikings face off against a cast of playoff teams, they’ll need Murray (or someone) to take over and avoid mistakes. Given that the Vikings aren’t exactly letting Murray loose, I’m dubious he’ll pull it off once — let alone multiple times. And that makes it hard to believe in the Vikings.