Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes remain confident despite 0-1 start

When the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the season opener against the Detroit Lions last Thursday, two of the teams’ most notable players were missing from the lineup. The absences of tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones left a glaring void — one that head coach Andy Reid was unwilling to address when he met with the press on Wednesday.

“You answer that [question] — and then you’re slighting the other guys,” said Reid of Kelce missing the game. “It’s like Chris: they’re good football players, right? So we welcome them back in and we go. But on the other hand, I expect the other guys to step up, do the job and finish a game when you have an opportunity — and that’s coaches and players.”

It’s safe to assume that no one felt the absence of Kelce more than quarterback Patrick Mahomes. But despite the Chiefs’ miscues on offense against Detroit, Mahomes remains confident in his offensive weapons.

“I still think we have a great connection going,” he said of his receiving corps. “Obviously, it doesn’t always work out in games. We didn’t execute at a high enough level — [myself] included in that first game — but you have to keep building. You have to try to make yourself better. I’ll try to do what I can to make it easier on them — and they’ll go out there and make the plays happen.”

As Kansas City prepares to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s Week 2 game, Mahomes wants to put the team’s 0-1 start behind him.

“Obviously, you wanted to win that first game — but you didn’t,” he noted. “You kind of have to just wash that from your mind, get on to the next game and try to make yourself better — so you can go out there and get a win.”

Last year’s other top AFC teams — the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals — also lost their first regular-season games. But Mahomes remains focused on his own road.

“I don’t worry about (those) other teams that are around the league,” he explained, “because you never know who’s gonna be the top at the end of the year. You just try to go out there be the best team that you can be — and stack as many wins as possible.”