Emotions are tricky, and controlling them is even trickier at times. Some days you may wake up and find that nothing in the world could bother you. Other days, minor annoyances creep into your head, and negativity, doubt, or anger can hold you captive for an entire day. Some days you may lose a football game and just shake your opponent’s hand and move on, and other days you may start a brawl at midfield because your feelings are hurt after getting blasted for four quarters in front of the entire country. Some games so far in the 2025 season have left us wondering if the Kansas City Chiefs are even a playoff team, and others—like Sunday’s 30–17 win over the Detroit Lions—leave us wondering if this may be the best version of the team we’ve seen in years.
Picking yourself up by your bootstraps is an admirable trait, and it’s one these Chiefs seem to know something about already. The ups and downs of this team have been, well, something. An 0–2 start followed by back-to-back wins to get back to a break-even point on the year was followed by one of the more disappointing last-minute defeats of the Mahomes era, then a dominant performance against a Lions team that most probably thought could mop the floor with this version of the Chiefs. While it’s rarely safe to assume anything about where an NFL team will end up when it’s all said and done, it’s certainly safe to assume that the Chiefs are going to keep us guessing, even after the return of Rashee Rice.
At this point in the season, we should all be hopeful that the yo-yo effect this team has had on us so far is a waning concept. The offense appears to be clicking, and getting Rice back will only help that cause. And while the defense has looked questionable at times and the special teams have been downright puzzling, there’s enough of a history there—and faith in the Almighty Spags—that we have to live under the assumption that it’s all going to be alright in the long run, right?
The important theme here is that the Chiefs are back in the win column, back to .500, the offense looks as good as it has in a long time, and they’re about to get their top wide receiver back. What’s not to love? For now, not much. But as we know, that could all change next week. Here are my big-swinging takeaways from Week 6.
Takeaway 1: Patrick Mahomes is playing at an MVP level
Patrick Mahomes may not throw for 5,000 yards this season. He may not surpass the 50 passing touchdown plateau, and he may not even be the most productive quarterback in the AFC or NFL by the time the season concludes. But make no mistake about this: Patrick Mahomes is the most valuable player for any franchise in the NFL. He’s playing like it to start the 2025 season, and because of that, the Chiefs will be right back in the thick of things when January rolls around.
This isn’t a statement that can really be quantified as much as it has to be qualified. While Mahomes is near the top of the league in some major statistical categories (6th in passing yards at 1,514 and 5th in passing touchdowns at 11), he’s at the top of the league in total touchdowns by a quarterback at 15, as a guy who isn’t really known as a rushing threat. Mahomes can certainly hurt defenses with his legs, but no one would consider him in the same category as guys like Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, or Lamar Jackson.
But here he is, at the top of the league in total touchdowns while also only throwing 2 interceptions in a season where he’s opened up the floodgates and taken more deep shots than we’ve seen in years. Mahomes simply knows how to execute and take what defenses give him, whether that’s inducing death by a thousand paper cuts or taking massive chunks of the field from opposing defenses all at once.
Most importantly, Mahomes seems to be operating the Chiefs’ offense with the calm and confidence of the world’s most calculated psychopath. His presence this season has been enough to carry a team that has been so in flux throughout the first six games of the year to an even 3–3 mark, and it’s more than enough to provide optimism that most of the season’s losses are in the rearview mirror.
Mahomes is, of course, gunning for some familiar hardware in another Lombardi Trophy, but I’m predicting that in the process of that pursuit, he’ll end up with another NFL MVP for the trophy case as well.
Takeaway 2: Jawaan Taylor’s leash is gone
This is a rough couple of paragraphs to write following a penalty-free night from the Chiefs, but you always have to keep the law of averages in mind after a performance like that. Will the Chiefs have penalty-laden games again this year? Of course. Who will likely be a prime culprit and a yellow-handkerchief catalyst in the near future? That’s correct—it’s Jawaan Taylor.
Listen, if he doesn’t revert to bad habits and plays as solidly for the rest of the season as he did last night, that’s fantastic news for the Chiefs and us fans. But let’s be real—do we expect that to happen? If the law of averages prevails, we should all now expect that the leash for Taylor will be all but gone after an incredibly impressive performance from Jaylon Moore against the Lions’ front seven.
Moore started unexpectedly on Sunday when it was announced that rookie LT Josh Simmons would miss the game due to personal reasons, and he shined. Outside of a late sack of Mahomes, Moore let nothing get by him in the process of being one of the primary blockers on Detroit’s all-world defensive end, Aidan Hutchinson. He shone in both the passing game and the run game and might be the best non-starting tackle in the NFL right now. We can rest easy knowing that even if he’s cast into a situation where the “non” is removed from that moniker, the Chiefs will be just fine.
Takeaway 3: Hollywood Brown has finally arrived
Since the beginning of the 2024 season, Chiefs fans have longed for what they’ve seen the last two weeks from wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. Now that he’s arrived—showcasing the brilliant speed and reliable hands we expected from the start—the sky’s the limit for a Chiefs offense that will somehow feature him as a third option at wide receiver once Rashee Rice returns.
The concept of a guy with Brown’s talent being a third receiving option (fourth, really, depending on how you classify vintage Travis Kelce) is baffling to Chiefs fans after the police lineup of guys we’ve had in the rotation since the Tyreek Hill trade. But here we are, with a loaded receiving corps that could ultimately bring the Chiefs’ offense back to pre-2022 levels.
Brown has made tremendous sideline catches in back-to-back weeks that helped the Chiefs’ offense march down the field and score twice on Sunday in an outstanding effort against the Lions. If this is any indication of his performance moving forward, he’ll become a favorite target for Mahomes as defenses key in on options one (Rashee Rice) and two (Xavier Worthy).
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