{"id":92774,"date":"2025-08-24T07:48:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774"},"modified":"2025-08-24T07:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:48:51","slug":"5-things-we-learned-from-the-chiefs-final-preseason-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774","title":{"rendered":"5 things we learned from the Chiefs\u2019 final preseason game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NEWThat\u2019s a wrap on the preseason.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Kansas City Chiefs started fast against the Chicago Bears on Friday night. When quarterback Patrick Mahomes and company were on the field<\/em><\/em>, the offense was firing on all cylinders.<\/em> Once the starters were on the sidelines<\/em> in the second half, things shifted a bit. In the end, the Bears found a way to chip their way back and score the game-winning touchdown with seconds remaining, defeating the Chiefs 29-27.<\/em><\/p>\n

The most important thing is that the team escaped healthy \u2014 and will be ready to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are five other things we learned.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1. The Chiefs have depth at wide receiver<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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In my opinion, the Chiefs have seven wide receivers who are locks to make this roster: Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice, Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Jalen Royals, Tyquan Thornton and Nikko Remigio. That doesn\u2019t include Jason Brownlee, who did everything he could to make this team. In any other season, he\u2019d be on the 53. In 2025, Kansas City will have to hope it can sneak him onto the practice squad.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even more impressive about this receiving group is that you could easily see every one of them playing an important role on offense or special teams this year.<\/p>\n

There are no depth chart fillers to be found here.<\/p>\n

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2. The offensive line might be okay<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Friday night was the best performance of left guard Kingsley Suamataia\u2019s young career. He wasn\u2019t a liability on passing downs and was legitimately good at clearing the way on running plays. He looked athletic. He also seemed to understand the concepts of leverage, hand placement and maintaining blocks.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, right tackle Jawaan Taylor held his own. The other three linemen (Trey Smith, Creed Humphrey, and Josh Simmons) played lights out. This version of the offensive line gave Mahomes all the time he needed to survey the field and make plays.<\/p>\n

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3. Kristian Fulton was a nice addition to this team<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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This was our first real look at the veteran who joined the team in March. He\u2019s been working his way back from offseason knee surgery.<\/p>\n

Fulton came in part of the way through the first half. Despite having one pass interference call \u2014 which I\u2019m sure he wishes he could have back \u2014 he looked aggressive and healthy. He was flying all over the field \u2014 and for a stretch, seemed to make every play on defense. He showcased good athleticism and a willingness to tackle.<\/p>\n

In short, he was just the sort of cornerback that Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo covets. With Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson and Kristian Fulton as the team\u2019s top three corners, you have to feel pretty good about where the secondary stands.<\/p>\n

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4. Jaden Hicks can fill the shoes left by Justin Reid<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The Chiefs are going to move this young safety all over the place this season. Hicks is going to play deep, in the box, in the slot and everywhere in between. Against the Bears, he looked comfortable playing at all three levels of the field. If Hicks can continue to play like he did on Friday night, then this defense will not miss a beat in the absence of Reid, who went to the New Orleans Saints in free agency.<\/p>\n

The best part is that Hicks is entering only his second NFL season. The Chiefs have him under their control for the next three years \u2014 and he\u2019s still developing. At the rate, there is no telling what his ceiling could be. In three years, we could easily be talking about him as one of the league\u2019s premier safeties.<\/p>\n

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5. The bubbles have popped for Joshua Williams and Carson Steele<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Photo by Matt Kelley\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

You don\u2019t often see a guy who has helped a team win two Super Bowls playing in garbage time in the fourth quarter of the final preseason game. But that\u2019s exactly where Williams found himself on Friday. Now that Chris Roland-Wallace and Nohl Williams have passed him on the depth chart, he\u2019s become a defensive afterthought. Despite his great length, his change-of-direction skills and physicality have never developed into what they should be. There are times when his greatest strength has become his enemy: he seems to be too long to change directions with shiftier players.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for Steele \u2014 whose hard-nosed running style gained him some fans a year ago \u2014 the magic just hasn\u2019t been there. He looks slow and lacks power. The Chiefs fed him the ball while they were resting their starters last week against Seattle \u2014 but on Friday, he was carrying the ball at the end of the game. He was a fun story in 2024 \u2014 and Andy Reid definitely likes having a fullback on the team \u2014 but you just can\u2019t justify a roster spot for the limited ability Steele brings to the table.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What lessons did we learn from Kansas City\u2019s preseason finale?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":92775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n5 things we learned from the Chiefs\u2019 final preseason game - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 things we learned from the Chiefs\u2019 final preseason game - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What lessons did we learn from Kansas City\u2019s preseason finale?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T07:48:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/White-and-Red-Modern-Breaking-News-Instagram-Post-1-39.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrLuu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrLuu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=92774\",\"name\":\"5 things we learned from the Chiefs\u2019 final preseason game - 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