There was a lot of optimism this offseason about what the Chiefs' revamped wide receiver room might end up looking like. Despite sending Tyreek Hill to Miami, a handful of new and intriguing additions had many people excited to see how Andy Reid's passing offense may look with a more balance down the depth chart. One of those additions, JuJu Smith-Schuster, took a while to get going, but over the last month has looked every bit the part as he's firmly established himself as the team's second option. While speaking to Fescoe In The Morning on Tuesday, Chiefs Insider Pete Sweeney explained what's changed, and why it's happening now.
"If you've noticed in these past three games, he's really broken out when it comes from a target, reception, and production standpoint," he said. "And it is a theme that we always bring up ... the Andy Reid playbook takes some time, for players that are especially new, to get going a little bit. And Andy Reid said that. That role opposite Travis Kelce is very important. If you really go back through JuJu's history, his greatest year was '18. And who was he second-fiddle to? Well, Antonio Brown before he kind of went off the deep end. Remember, Antonio Brown was the best receiver in the NFL and it wasn't even close. Travis Kelce is to that elite level. So what you're seeing now is JuJu really take advantage of being in a similar position again. Of course it's different in Kansas City with Andy Reid and what he does. But I just think that being that second option, and usually only getting the attention of one player, as Travis Kelce gets a lot of that attention, I think is helping them. I think the mind-meld has now extended from Kelce-Mahomes to Mahomes and JuJu a little bit."
You can listen to Sweeney's entire interview in the embedded player below:
