KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s understandable if Chiefs Kingdom felt unsettled after Andy Reid sat most of his key players in a lackluster shellacking at Seattle last week, but the three-time reigning AFC champions looked more like themselves with the first team on the field Friday in the preseason finale against the Chicago Bears at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Ultimately, first-year head coach Ben Johnson's Bears rallied for a 29-27 win, which extended the Chiefs' preseason losing streak to six games — not that anyone should be concerned.
Kansas City, and the rest of the NFL, now has until 3 p.m. on Tuesday to trim its roster to 53 players ahead of the 2025 season, which begins for the Chiefs on Sept. 5 against the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
After racing to a 17-3 lead with the starters in the game, Kansas City lost in a game filled with some noteworthy performances:
Kingsley Suamataia
The Chiefs stuck with Kingsley Suamataia as the starting left guard despite immense struggles in pass protection during last week’s preseason debacle at Seattle.
He held up better against the Bears, which comes with plenty of caveats given Chicago’s recent track record, but that’s still an encouraging sign.
“It's a new position for him, so there's times where every kind of new change is going to have something,” rookie left tackle Josh Simmons said. "But the way he responds to everything, he's such a leader. He's always encouraging and he's always working his tail off in practice."
Kansas City’s first-team offense had three drives and scored on all of them — two touchdowns and a field goal — in a strong overall performance.
Patrick Mahomes faced pressure on several snaps and was forced to make some scrambling plays, but Suamataia didn’t get bowled over as obviously or frequently as he did against the Seahawks.
Some of the adjustments required by offensive line protecting Mahomes necessitate occasional growing pains.
“He moves around a little bit in the pocket," Simmons said, drawing laughter, "so you’ve just got to get used to that and try to feel the D lineman — where he's looking and stuff like that, kind of go on an angle about that,” Simmons said. “But other than that, I mean, he’s 15 — so hell yeah."
Suamataia's backup, Mike Caliendom was flagged for holding after the second team stepped in.
Nikko Remigio
When the second team came in, Remigio made an impact on offense.
He found himself wide open on an intermediate crossing route for a 30-yard gain, though offsetting penalties wiped away the play.
Two plays later, Remigio snagged a 9-yard pass in traffic on third-and-8 to extend a field-goal drive.
Remigio had Kansas City’s only two punt returns, averaging 6.5 yards, while adding a 29-yard kickoff return.
Long a favorite of Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Dave Toub, Remigio’s charge in training camp was to demonstrate his value to the offense beyond his return-game prowess.
He put some compelling evidence on tape.
The deep ball
Mahomes connected with Tyquan Thornton on a 58-yard bomb on the second drive, which ended with a field goal for a 10-0 lead.
The Chiefs’ offense has struggled to generate big plays in the passing game in recent years with the average air yards and target depth plummeting from the Mahomes MVP season heyday.
“If defenses are going to play us the way that they’ve played us at the end of these last few years and how they played us today, we’ve got to be able to win on the outside,” Mahomes said.
Reestablishing the deep-ball threat has been a point of emphasis — and was last season as well, though injuries derailed those plans — but there’s renewed hope that Kansas City can carve up defenses deep once again.
“In order to be the best version of ourselves, we have to be able to prove, game by game, that we can hit these deep passes,” Mahomes said. “If we do that, it opens up the rest of the offense and everybody can get going.”
The dime Mahomes dropped to Thornton was the latest sign that hope will be rewarded.
Mahomes finished 8 of 13 for 143 yards with a touchdown and added an 18-yard scramble.
Third-string QB Chris Oladokun added a 50-yard bomb to Jimmy Holiday in the third quarter.
Defense rebounds
One week after getting trampled in Seattle, the Bears managed only 83 yards on 21 plays on their first three drives, which ended with the Chiefs in front 17-3.
“Defensively, the three-and-out to open was big for us,” Reid said.
Safety Chamarri Conner led a defense that looked considerably more stout with six tackles.
Cornerback Kristian Fulton, who played predominantly with the third-string unit, made his preseason debut with five tackles. He was the Chiefs’ most-significant signing in the secondary, but he missed most of training camp after knee surgery.
Jaylen Watson, who returned from a concussion he suffered in the preseason opener at Arizona, broke up a deep ball in limited action.
Nohl Williams also returned after exiting last week’s game and finished with three tackles. He also blocked an extra point.
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