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The Chiefs aim to get their third straight win as they face the 3-1 Jacksonville Jaguars on “Monday Night Football” to conclude Week 5 of the 2025 NFL season.
Kansas City trounced the Baltimore Ravens last week while Jacksonville held on to beat the San Francisco 49ers.
Follow along with our NFL experts from The Athletic.
The big news for the Chiefs with inactives is that defensive end Omarr Norman-Lott is out with a shoulder injury. Norman-Lott practiced most of the week before hurting his shoulder during Friday’s practice.
The 2025 second-round pick, who also battled an ankle injury in the preseason and missed the team’s season opener because of that, had provided some nice pass-rush juice on the inside next to All-Pro Chris Jones when he’s been able to play. That’s also another blow for a Chiefs defensive line that already was going to be facing a big challenge tonight against a Jacksonville Jaguars team that has run the ball effectively most of the season.
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Wide receiver Xavier Worthy will play tonight despite popping up on the Chiefs' injury report with swelling in his ankle.
Walker was able to practice on a limited basis on Saturday after undergoing wrist surgery last Monday, but tonight's game has come too soon for him to play.
Although the Chiefs have played much better overall defense the last three weeks, they still have not been great in defending the run. According to TruMedia, K.C. is last in the NFL in expected points allowed to opponents per carry and 29th in defensive success rate against rushes. That could be an issue tonight if Jacksonville commits to the ground game, as the Jaguars enter as the NFL’s third-best rush offense based on expected points per carry. This should be a significant test to see if the Chiefs’ defensive front can stand its ground.
The Chiefs had one of their best offensive performances in years last week in a blowout victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Will that momentum carry over to this week? K.C. got a big boost from the return of speedy receiver Xavier Worthy, though he was a late addition to the injury report this weekend with an ankle injury. Worthy is expected to still play, and if he does, the Chiefs are hoping his presence continues to give the offense extra juice after a slow start to the season.
Terrible news for folks who don’t like how “Travis” hits the ears. The Chiefs have Travis Kelce, who is of course one of the sport’s biggest stars and now one of commercial music’s main muses. Kelce drew 22 targets in the first four games, and he still gets early looks in the red zone.
The Jaguars have two unavoidable Travises (Travisii?) of their own. Travis Hunter is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a headliner of the 2025 rookie draft class. You’re liable to hear his name called at any moment, because he plays all over the field (58 percent of the offense’s snaps, 39 of the defense’s).
And Travis Etienne Jr. is enjoying a bounce-back start to 2025. He averaged 3.8 yards per carry two years ago, and 3.7 last season in a reduced role. Through the first four weeks, Etienne is putting up a league-best 6.1 yards per carry, on more than 16 rushes per game. He might be the lead candidate for Monday’s “Travis of the Game.”
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The three-time Super Bowl MVP put up four touchdown passes last week. That locked him in as the fastest player in league history to reach 250 regular-season TD tosses (116 games, breaking Aaron Rodgers’ mark of 121).
Mahomes also has 298 touchdown passes in 137 total games (including the playoffs, which he’s had a timeshare in). He’s now two scores away from breaking another Rodgers record as the fastest quarterback to 300 career TD passes.
After the shaky start, Patrick Mahomes is finding his form. The Kansas City Chiefs’ superstar quarterback has 939 passing yards (ranked ninth in the league), along with seven touchdowns (T-8).
Last week was Mahomes’ best game of the season. Against the Ravens, he threw 270 yards and four touchdowns.
Don’t worry about the three-time Super Bowl champion.
We’re a quarter of the way through the season. And according to our Mike Jones, Chiefs rookie LT Josh Simmons is the early candidate for “Best Run Down.”
Here is Jones explaining the play:
💬“Eagles defensive back Andrew Mukuba was off to the races after picking off a deflected pass from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce at the goal line. But left tackle Simmons — the 6-foot-5, 310-pound rookie — rumbled upfield, outrunning smaller skill position players and knocking Mukuba out of bounds at the 41-yard line to prevent a breakaway touchdown.”
You can put to bed any reunion between the Kansas City Chiefs and wide receiver Tyreek Hill following his gruesome leg injury. Here is our NFL senior insider, Dianna Russini, on the latest regarding Hill.
💬“While fantasy managers and fans dreamed up reunion scenarios, I’m told Hill was never considered a real option in Kansas City, even as the Chiefs stumbled out of the gate.
“Inside Arrowhead, there’s been no panic. The front office and coaching staff have stayed patient, waiting to see how quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ offense would look once his top receivers found their rhythm. On Sunday, Xavier Worthy led the team in rushing and receiving yards, showing exactly why Kansas City has been so high on him.”
Despite the 0-2 start, Kansas City remains one of the Super Bowl favorites.
Per our Austin Mock, the Chiefs are ranked third in Super Bowl odds (5 percent). A win would certainly affirm the Chiefs as a Super Bowl contender.
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Travis Etienne Jr. has been the engine of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ offense. The running back is third in the NFL in rushing yards with 394.
Etienne has 65 carries and two touchdowns and is averaging 6.1 yards per carry.
If the Jaguars are going to beat the Chiefs, they will need a big game from Etienne.
The pick: Chiefs
The Chiefs looked a lot better with Xavier Worthy, a legitimate receiving threat, back. Go figure. They are the correct side here, as the Jaguars have been a little fraudulent. They are 3-1 despite Trevor Lawrence still looking very mediocre, because their defense has had three or more takeaways in each of their first four games. That’s not sustainable, and the Jaguars barely beat an injured, overconfident 49ers team that played poorly.
Through the first quarter of the season, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is playing a riskier brand of football. Here is Chiefs writer Jesse Newell with more on Mahomes’ style of play to start the 2025 season:
💬“He’s playing noticeably riskier football than in the past — while also avoiding the negative effects that usually come with those actions.
“Mahomes is doing more than chucking the deep ball more often this season, which has increased his average depth of target by nearly 2 yards per attempt. He’s also followed through on a vow to give his guys more chances on tight-window throws.”
Read more here.
The Jacksonville Jaguars made a massive move in The Athletic’s latest NFL power rankings from Josh Kendall and Chad Graff. They went from 16th all the way to seventh.
Here is what they wrote about rookie Travis Hunter:
💬“As promised, the Jaguars have tried a little bit of everything with the second pick. He has played 250 snaps so far, according to TruMedia, 152 on offense, 95 on defense and three on special teams. On Sunday, he concentrated on offense, playing 38 snaps there against only nine on defense, and had three catches for 42 yards, including a career-long 28-yarder. He is the team’s second-leading receiver with 13 catches for 118 yards and has 11 tackles on defense. Fourth-round running back Bhayshul Tuten has 21 carries for 88 yards.”
The Kansas City Chiefs jumped two spots from 12th to 10th in The Athletic’s latest NFL power rankings from our Josh Kendall and Chad Graff. Here is what they wrote about rookie Josh Simmons:
💬“The first-round tackle has started every game and played almost every snap in Kansas City, and he may finally stabilize the left tackle spot for the Chiefs. However, he hasn’t been perfect. Simmons has allowed nine pressures this year, which is the seventh most among rookies with at least 100 pass-blocking snaps. Still, the Chiefs put up a season-high 382 yards on Sunday.”
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Not many people would’ve predicted the Jacksonville Jaguars to be 3-1 and second in the AFC South at this point in the season. But here we are as the Jags look to keep pace with the Indianapolis Colts in their division.
Below are the Jaguars’ results:
