The Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins
appear headed in opposite directions through two weeks of the 2026 NFL season.However, don’t expect the 2-0 Chiefs to take the winless Dolphins lightly, even though Sunday’s road opponent is widely considered the NFL’s worst team. After previously taking over two losing programs in his career, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has respect for the job first-year Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley is doing.
“You can see he’s doing it the right way,” observed Reid before
Wednesday’s practice. “He’s got a really good staff all the way through. They’re very sound in what they do. I know that’s what he’s drilling home right now. He’s doing a nice job with that.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has started the season facing a pair of coaching staffs he knows well. He recognizes the challenge of facing the unknown in the first-year Dolphins staff and a roster stocked with young players.
“We’ve played two great defensive coordinators these first two weeks,” the face of the league added on Wednesday. “They’re veteran coaches that have seen it all. There were definitely some changes that they’ve made from Week 1 to Week 2. We’ll continue to do that. I’m excited to see what we get this week against a young team — a hungry team — that wants to go out there and prove themselves. They’ll be flying around trying to make plays — and it’s our job to go out there and have continued success and get better and better.”
For Reid’s part, he sees too many areas for improvement in what the Chiefs have done through two games to worry about the Dolphins being a trap game for his Chiefs.
“I think you’ve got to focus on getting better,” the coach explained. “We have too much to worry about just getting better. There’s plenty of room for that. That’s what I focus on. I don’t worry about all the outside noise. I’ve got to get better, and the rest of the guys need to get better. That’s where we’re at.”
Mahomes challenges his teammates not to forget the skepticism Kansas City faced entering the season and to keep being fueled by proving the doubters wrong.
“I think more than who we’re playing,” said the star, “it’s just staying hungry. In this league, it’s week to week. One week, they’re patting you on the back. One week, they’re telling you [that] you’re terrible. I think all offseason we heard about how bad we were, and guys were super hungry and came in with that mentality. I think that’s why we’ve had the success we have these first two weeks.
“How can you keep that hunger? Now that everybody is saying that we’re amazing and that we’re great — we’ve got to keep the hunger that we’ve had this entire offseason. That’s what we’re preaching. We’re nowhere near where we want to be at. We’re still so early in the season, and there’s still so much for us to learn from and so much for us to get better at. We’ve got to have that mentality week in and week out if we want to go out there and have success.”
One of Reid’s areas for improvement hits home for Mahomes — scoring touchdowns instead of attempting field goals to cap off long drives.
“I think as an offense,” he recalled, “we had more opportunities to score touchdowns. We kicked some field goals in the red zone, and it came down to little things like miscommunications or route depth or me not making the right read and getting to the right guy at the right time. Those are the little things you’ve got to continue to get better and better at.”
“You don’t know how many of those opportunities you’re going to get when you’re in the red zone. I love kicking field goals — they’re three points — but touchdowns are so big in this league, and you want to make sure you can actually get those. So, we have to get better at that. Executing in the red zone and getting those touchdowns — that’s what wins you football games.”
Mahomes is also unconcerned about falling into a trap game. The quarterback knows that some of Miami’s fellow Texas Tech alumni — including rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez — will be ready to prove themselves against the college’s most famous product.
“I haven’t talked to [my teammates] about it,” Mahomes declared. “I think we’ve been so focused on just getting better and going to this next opponent and playing against a team that’s hungry and ready to play. There’re a lot of Texas Tech guys too. It gives me some more motivation to go out there and compete because I was going to watch these guys play and talking to them in the locker room. Now, they’ll be playing against me, so I know they’ll be hungry to go up against me as well.”
