These 2 Eagles can stop Chiefs’ Mahomes, Kelce
PHILADELPHIA − No doubt, when the Eagles rewatched the video from the Super Bowl, the trauma from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes throwing early and often to tight end Travis Kelce kept recurring.
On the Chiefs’ first drive alone, Mahomes hit Kelce for 20 yards and capped the drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. Mahomes only threw for 182 yards in the Chiefs’ 38-35 win over the Eagles, but 81 of those passing yards went to Kelce.
And it has been that way this season, too.
Kelce has 597 yards receiving through nine games, by far the most among Chiefs receivers. His 57 receptions are nearly double the amount of the next closest Chiefs receiver. Last season, Kelce had 110 catches for 1,338 yards, his third season with at least 100 catches and 1,300 yards.
He is on pace to come close to both figures again this season.
But in the past month, the Eagles added two defensive backs with a combined 16 games of experience against Mahomes and Kelce in safety Kevin Byard (four) and nickel Bradley Roby (12).
And while they might not have always had success against the Chiefs’ duo, they do know a thing or two about what it takes to stop them. Or at least slow them down.
Roby, signed by the Eagles on Oct. 5, is expected to play at least some of the game at nickel after missing the previous three games with a shoulder injury. Byard, whom the Eagles traded for on Oct. 23, has played every defensive snap in his two games.
“I won’t say I know how he runs his routes because he doesn’t really run routes based on the Xs and Os, or the lines on a piece of paper,” Byard said. “He and Patrick Mahomes have a great rapport. He’s going to be a safety valve.
“He’s going to look for him in zone, and you don’t want to leave a lot of space. So I just try to be more aggressive with him because I know he’s going to run double routes.”
And it’s the double routes where Mahomes and Kelce are most effective.
“The first route isn’t going to be the one that beats you,” Byard said. “It’s when Mahomes starts scrambling. He does the scramble drill, and (Kelce) gets open, and he’s really good with the ball in his hands.”
It’s one thing to know that. It’s another to stop it. But Byard fits the mold, if there is one, in at least having a chance.
“Just the fact that (Byard) can go down and play in the box,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said. “He can cover. He can tackle. Very disciplined. I watched a couple of their battles a couple times, just because they played each other a good bit in the playoffs. Great matchup. Two smart players going head to head. That’s a great matchup.”
That was something Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai said went into the Eagles thinking when the Eagles traded for Byard, the Tennessee Titans’ first-round pick in 2016.
Byard was part of a unit that held Mahomes and the Chiefs to only 3 points in a 27-3 Titans win in 2021.
“I would say when we were talking about bringing Kevin on, we looked at all those matchups,” Desai said. “He has done a good job in that matchup.”
That game against the Titans came three weeks after Mahomes and company torched the Eagles in a 42-30 Kansas City win. In that game, Mahomes threw for 278 yards and 5 touchdowns. The Eagles never had a chance.
Kelce only had 4 catches for 23 yards that day. But wide receiver Tyreek Hill had 11 catches for 186 yards and 3 TDs.
The Chiefs don’t have a wide receiver like Hill anymore, who leads the NFL with 1,076 yards receiving this season with the Miami Dolphins, so they have had to rely on Kelce more.
“He’s one of the best tight ends I know at reading coverages,” Slay said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of tight ends in the league, and I’ve played against a lot of them.
“(Kelce) reads defenses better than I think a lot of tight ends could ... And with a great quarterback in Mahomes, he sees the same thing. They’re both in the same concept, and they just make a play every time.”
Mahomes, of course, adds the dynamic that affords Kelce the time to work his double routes and get open. That’s because Mahomes is able to extend the play by scrambling away from pressure and throwing from practically every imaginable arm angle.
“He’s relentless as far as the play is never over with this guy,” Byard said about Mahomes. “I was telling the guys earlier, at the end of this game we’re going to have to be mentally and physically exhausted because of the level of strain you have to do.
“There’s so much pre-snap movement and communication. And then once he actually snaps the ball, it’s almost like backyard football. He’s going to back-pedal to 5 yards, he’s going to be 10 yards deep, and he’s going to let the defensive line run up, and he’s going to find a way to maneuver and get out of there.”
The Eagles experienced this for themselves in the Super Bowl. Last season, the Eagles had 70 sacks during the regular season, the third most in NFL history since 1982 when the sack became an official stat.
Yet the Eagles didn’t sack Mahomes at all last February. And Mahomes has been sacked a league-low 12 times so far this season.
And if the Eagles don’t do a better job getting to Mahomes this time, it could be another long night for the Eagles’ secondary, no matter how much experience and success Byard and Roby have had against Kelce.