Kansas City’s quarterback says that it takes a group effort to have offensive success in the NFL.

As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for the 2025 season, they face significant questions about the team’s identity. While the team has recorded many wins over the past two years, the high-flying offenses once led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes now feel like a distant memory.

But speaking after the second day of Kansas City’s mandatory minicamp on Wednesday, Mahomes left little doubt he expects his unit to work together to once again become an offensive juggernaut.

“I think all you can do is just be better than you were the day before,” he told reporters. “Obviously, we have an expectation that we’re going to go out there and score every single drive. But that comes with a lot of single reps, a lot of practice reps [and] a lot of time spent with the guys.

“So it takes every single person in the building to go out there and have the top offense in the league. We have to just go into every practice, every film study — whatever it is — with that mindset that we’re going to get the best out of it.”

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Mahomes should also benefit from increased familiarity with his wide receivers. Third-year pro Rashee Rice appears to have recovered from a devastating 2024 knee injury. Speedsters Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown are now preparing for a second season with the team’s offense, while veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster has also returned for another season.

The league’s best quarterback is happy to be building on his previous experience with this group.

“Whenever you have a guy that you spent that time with and had that connection with,” observed the quarterback, “you can hit the ground running because you know those different things. So seeing that with Xavier this year — and Hollywood and Rashee and Juju, all these guys — man, they’ve done a great job of working and continue to work to get even better.”

But Mahomes has no better connection than the one he’s built with tight end Travis Kelce, who could be returning for his final season.

“You can talk about stuff that’s happened in prior years,” noted Mahomes, “and that’s where me and Travis have had so much success. When you get multiple years of reps with guys, you continue to get even better and better on the football field.”

But as always, there are new players in the offense. These include rookie wide receiver Jalen Royals, who is among the young players who have impressed Mahomes with their preparedness for the pro game. He suspects it is due to college players earning money from name, image and likeness (NIL) agreements, which delay their entry into the NFL Draft.

“It’s kind of cool to see,” Mahomes said of these new players. “I don’t know if it’s an NIL thing or guys staying in college longer, but they’re a very mature group. It’s guys that come in, and they know how to work. They know how to get after it. They’re learning quickly.”

Mahomes believes these young players are coming to the NFL with a good understanding of the game, which will be a great help to them as they rise to the standard set by Kansas City head coach Andy Reid.

“For any rookie, that’s going to be a challenge,” said Mahomes, “but I thought the guys did a great job of picking up on it.”

The most important offensive rookie, however, won’t be catching passes. Mahomes echoed the optimistic tones that rookie tackle Josh Simmons has been using as he describes his recovery from a major knee injury sustained at Ohio State last season.

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“Josh is doing a great job,” declared the quarterback, “and he’s getting healthier and healthier every single day. He’s doing a great job of learning.”

Even better, Simmons is learning the NFL ropes against defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

“He’s getting the ultimate test going against Spags,” said Mahomes, “and seeing the blitzes that he’s going to see. So he’ll continue to get more and more reps. But he’s doing a great job with the whole process — and I’m excited for him to get even healthier going into training camp.”

For Mahomes, it’s all about once again becoming the NFL’s most feared offense — although that is still just a means to an end.

“That’s the goal,” he confirmed. “You want to be the top offense in the league when you step in the building every single day. But at the end of the day, you want to win the Super Bowl.

“For me, I wasn’t as disappointed in not being the top offense as I was [by] losing the Super Bowl last year the way we lost it. So our goal is to do whatever we can to win the football game — and hopefully, for us, that’s being the top offense to go on with the great defense that we have.”