Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs lit up the league last season. Who will be the biggest stars of this high-powered offense in 2019?
Our analysts rank all their key players by scoring format, project their season-long stat lines and analyze their overall outlooks heading into the season.
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Chiefs Fantasy Rankings, Projections
Patrick Mahomes, QB
- Pass: 369 comp | 561 att | 65.7 comp% | 4,578 yds | 36.7 TDs | 12.3 INTs
- Rush: 59 car | 262 yds | 2.2 TDs
Damien Williams, RB
- Rush: 177 car | 754 yds | 7.3 TDs
- Rec: 46 catches | 367 yds | 3.1 TDs
Carlos Hyde, RB
- Rush: 73 car | 292 yds | 2.8 TDs
- Rec: 11 catches | 70 yds | 0.5 TDs
Darwin Thompson, RB
- Rush: 70 car | 310 yds | 3.1 TDs
- Rec: 20 catches | 179 yds | 1.2 TDs
Tyreek Hill, WR
- Rec: 79.1 catches | 1218 yds | 9.5 TDs
Sammy Watkins, WR
- Rec: 52.8 catches | 736 yds | 6.1 TDs
Mecole Hardman, WR
- Rec: 31.8 catches | 455 yds | 3.8 TDs
Travis Kelce, TE
- Rec: 90 catches | 1141 yds | 8.4 TDs
Note: Projections as of August 22.
>> Get our experts' latest fantasy rankings and projections in our Draft Kit.
Chiefs Fantasy Outlooks
Chris Raybon breaks down Andy Reid's playcalling tendencies to forecast who will benefit most.
- Damien Williams was initially anointed as the team's feature back, but Reid has changed his tune as of late, stating that the team would use a committee approach. It’s clear the team values Williams most in the passing game. Whereas former starting running back Kareem Hunt averaged 16.8 carries and 3.6 targets in 2017-18, Williams averaged 13.8 carries and 5.6 in five regular and postseason starts last season. As Kansas City's lead back, Williams only topped 13 carries once; Hunt did so in 20-of-27 games (74%). To that end, you can see why the team signed Carlos Hyde despite his career 3.97 yards per target, which ranks 114th of 115 backs since 2014 (min. 50 targets). A shakeup on the interior line — Austin Reiter will replace Mitch Morse at center, and Laurent Duvarnay-Tardif returns at right guard — gives Reid a stronger but less athletic unit that could be well suited to run more power concepts than Reid has in the past. You can also see why the franchise attempted to trade up for Darwin Thompson, who they eventually got anyway in the sixth round. Thompson averaged 15.3 yards per reception at Utah State and wasted no time catching his first ever NFL touchdown. Ultimately, the Chiefs operated from shotgun on 82% of plays last season, so I wouldn't expect much to change from last season other than Hyde mixing in for some goal-line and clock-killing work. Williams scored five rushing TDs in his five starts last season; take all five away, and he's still posting RB1 numbers (19.8 PPR, 15.0 standard points per game).
- With an average depth of target of 9.6 yards, Sammy Watkins mostly served in a possession role in his first year under Reid, freeing up Tyreek Hill and travis Kelce to run deeper routes. Watkins played eight full games, and in those games Tyreek Hill’s average depth of target goes from 13.1 to 16.1, and Travis Kelce's goes from 8.8 to 10.3.
- Watkins himself was involved more than you would think by looking at his numbers. He had a 12-snap game in Week 4 and then a five-snap outing in Week 11, which drag down his regular-season stat line to 4.0 catches, 51.9 yards, and 0.3 touchdowns on 5.5 targets. Remove those games, and he jumps to 4.9-64.3-0.37 on 6.6 targets. Include his two postseason games, and now he’s up at 4.9-69.1-0.3 on 6.9 targets. Reid has shown he’ll involve Watkins when healthy, and Mahomes is so godly that it doesn’t have to come at anyone else’s expense.
