KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By now, Chiefs Kingdom is aware that Patrick Mahomes gathered his new core of skill-position players in Texas for a couple months during the offseason in hopes of building chemistry for the 2022 season after Tyreek Hill was traded away.
The official company line is that such efforts helped jump start the rebuilt offense, but wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster offered an alternate explanation for the Chiefs’ utter decimation of arguably the NFL’s best defense Sunday during a 44-23 victory at the San Francisco 49ers.
“I’m going to tell you what got us the chemistry we needed (for) this game,” said Smith-Schuster, who had seven catches for a season-high 124 yards. “I think it was Friday night — me, Pat, Travis and MVS were playing Call of Duty together. We were playing Warzone.”
Call of Duty: Warzone is a free online battle royale game that pits 16 four-play teams against one another.
“I don’t play all the time, but some of those guys play,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “I had a free night on Friday, so I told them I would get one for a little while.”
Mahomes joined Smith-Schuster along with tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
“Marquez and JuJu are really good,” Mahomes said. “Me and Travis are just all right, but we did our part and we went 3 for 3 in Warzone, which I don’t do often.”
The Chiefs’ quartet was playing the Rebirth Island map and won three straight games.
“We got off and were like, ‘Damn,’” Smith-Schuster said. “It’s really hard to win a game in (Call of Duty: Warzone). You could just tell, the communication between all of us and the chemistry, it was like we were in a (football) game.”
According to Mahomes and Smith-Schuster, that bond also carried over to Sunday against a 49ers team that led the NFL in total defense and ranked second in scoring defense.
Before playing Kansas City, San Francisco allowed fewer than 15 points and 256 yards per game, only 4.2 yards per play and only 1.22 points per drive — that latter marks which ranked first in the NFL.
The Chiefs’ first-string offense battered up the Niners for 44 points, 529 yards, 9.1 yards per play and 4.9 points per drive.
“I felt pretty good about it going into the game,” Mahomes said. “... When you get away from the facility and you’re doing kid-like things, you’re on the headset and kind of talking and joking around and talking about the week, you get your mind off of just football. It’s about building those relationships, so it’s definitely cool to see these guys — even if it’s on a game — outside the facility.”
It helped that the offensive line protected Mahomes well and the former league MVP scorched San Francisco, going 25 of 34 for 423 yards with three touchdowns.
“Do you ever play Madden and you’ve got like the X-factor on a quarterback? Bro, they had that on Pat today, and it was like fire,” Smith-Schuster said. “I was just like, ‘Dang, he’s on his X-factor. Let me try to get on mine.’ I ain’t got one, but I tried to get one.”
Valdes-Scantling finished with three catches for 111 yards and Kelce added six receptions for 98 yards.
Mahomes was 16 of 19 for 333 yards when targeting his trio of Call of Duty teammates.
“It kind of just led into this game and it showed on the field,” Smith-Schuster said.
