Kansas City Chiefs: Young Talent, but Future UnclearKansas City Chiefs: Young Talent, but Future Unclear ESPN’s Aaron Schatz has ranked the under-25 players of every NFL team, and the Kansas City Chiefs landed at number 14. This ranking considers factors such as starts, snaps played, age-adjusted quality of play, contract value, and projections for future lineups. The Chiefs have a solid group of young talent, including All-Pro nickelback Trent McDuffie and edge rusher George Karlaftis. They’ve also invested heavily in their secondary and wide receiver corps through the draft, with players like Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, andJoshua Williams showing promise. Despite their young talent, the Chiefs are still built around veteran players like Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones. While Mahomes could potentially play for many more years, the team’s reliance on aging stars is a concern. Overall, the Chiefs are in a good position for the future, but their ranking accurately reflects the balance between their young talent and the uncertainty surrounding their veteran core. They have the potential to be a contender in the coming years, but it remains to be seen how they will transition from the Mahomes era to the next generation of players.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz took it upon himself to rank the under-25s of every NFL team, calling it a key component in “determining which NFL teams are poised for future success.”
Schatz came up with these rankings by factoring in the number of starts and snaps played by each team’s young players (while taking into account the relative importance of their positions) and the age-adjusted quality of their play. Also considered: the value and length of each team’s player contracts, added value of recent draft picks, and projections for starting lineups (and time missed due to injuries) in 2024.
In a list that featured the Houston Texans, Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens at the top, the Kansas City Chiefs finished somewhere in the middle.
14. Kansas City Chiefs
Ranking 2023: 9th
Blue-chip players: CB Trent McDuffie, EDGE George Karlaftis
Notable Graduated Players: RB Isiah Pacheco, C Creed Humphrey, G Trey SmithYou might expect a two-time Super Bowl champion to be lower, but the Chiefs have done a good job of building a young talent base with later draft picks — along with Miami’s picks acquired in the Tyreek Hill trade. They’ve invested a lot of draft capital, particularly in their secondary and wide receiver corps.
The star of the secondary is All-Pro nickelback McDuffie, who will turn 24 soon after the start of this season. McDuffie had five forced fumbles and three sacks in his second NFL season. Starting safety Bryan Cook is 24. So are Chamarri Conner, who could be a third safety or a nickelback, and Joshua Williams, who could be a starting outside cornerback. Linebacker Nick Bolton, the anchor of the defense, is 24, and top edge rusher Karlaftis is 23.
On offense, 24-year-old Rashee Rice has established himself as the No. 1 receiver, catching 79 passes for 938 yards in 2023. First-round wideout Xavier Worthy is 21. And while the Chiefs’ stellar interior linemen have aged beyond this list, this year’s starting left tackle will be younger than 24: either Wanya Morris (23) or Kingsley Suamataia (21).
Pick up
Reading this description of the Chiefs’ situation, it’s easy to think the team is more highly regarded than it is. Overall, I’ve been impressed with how GM Brett Veach has found talented players in the draft — an absolute requirement for any team with a superstar quarterback whose contract accounts for about one in six salary cap dollars — and that’s reflected in the significant number of young Kansas City players who have big responsibilities.
But it’s also important to remember that the team is built around quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones. While he could easily play another dozen years or more, Mahomes is no youngster — and both Kelce and Jones were in their 30s on Wednesday.
Still, the Chiefs entered the 2023 season tied for fifth on the league’s 53-man roster, so it’s not as if the team isn’t eyeing the future. It’s just that Schatz has (rightly) developed a methodology that takes into account how the league’s teams have been (and will be) utilized.
Given the above, I’d say the Chiefs are in about the right place.
