In a league full of stars, the Kansas City Chiefs may shine the brightest. Their victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night featured a few of those stars burning up the night sky with brilliant performances.
Pro Football Focus highlighted the top-five graded players from Thursday night’s game on social media Friday.
The list features some of the usual suspects.
Highest-graded Chiefs in Week 1 vs the Ravens:
🥇 Patrick Mahomes – 87.9
🥈 Chris Jones – 83.0
🥉 Rashee Rice – 80.0
🏅 Leo Chenal – 79.7
🏅 Creed Humphrey – 79.4 pic.twitter.com/cPlOuq7eN5— PFF KC Chiefs (@PFF_Chiefs) September 6, 2024
The one player casual fans may not recognize is Leo Chenal. The linebacker spent much of the game spying Ravens superstar quarterback, Lamar Jackson, to devastating effect.
Lets get a super cut of Leo Chenal being the most underrated player for the Chiefs win in the Opener…
First Down run stuffs; lot of 3-3-5 looks which you can do with a true SAM like Leo that is essentially a 4th DL at times.
Second Downs spying Lamar Jackson limiting his… pic.twitter.com/8kpVcK93z3
— DMac Wake (@DMacWake316) September 6, 2024
Chenal finished the game with seven tackles, five stops, and three quarterback pressures. He was a vital cog in Steve Spagnuolo’s machine.
Mahomes was dyanmic and sharp for most of the game. His one major hiccup, the interception thrown to Roquan Smith, was a poor decision born out of intense pressure in his face.
Finishing with 291 yards on 20-of-28 passing, Mahomes led an efficient offense that wasn’t getting much help on the ground.
Chris Jones was a monster. The best interior defensive lineman in the game today, he made a home for himself in the Ravens backfield with four quarterback pressures, two stops, one sack, and one forced fumble.
The other guy who had six pressures in the game was Chris Jones himself. Here, Jones demolishes the entire right side of Baltimore’s offense. https://t.co/wEAc49uMYz pic.twitter.com/cyOrftSFrv
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 6, 2024
Rashee Rice was the primary passing weapon for Mahomes on Thursday night. He caught seven passes for 103 yards and drew a team-high nine targets. Rice did serious work in the middle of the field, catching four passes for 75 yards on in-breaking routes.
Rashee Rice totaled 7 receptions for 103 yards on 9 targets with 78 yards coming after the catch.
🔹 In-Breaking Routes: 4 receptions, 75 yards
🔹 Short of Sticks: 6 receptions, 70 yards
🔹 vs. Off-Coverage: 4 receptions, 60 yards#KCvsBAL | @Chiefs pic.twitter.com/Ki0RgbGEas— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 6, 2024
And of course we cannot forget about the man who keeps it all together for the Chiefs up front, center Creed Humphrey. It wasn’t a perfect game for the Pro Bowler, but his highlights more than made up for any lapses.
Center Creed Humphrey’s max speed on Xavier Worthy’s end around TD was 14.69 MPH, according to @NextGenStats.
Only Worthy, Noah Gray, Malik Harrison and Marcus Williams had a faster top speed on this play. pic.twitter.com/tpASfMg5wX
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) September 6, 2024
Up next for the Chiefs is a date with the Cincinnati Bengals, at home on September 15.
