That challenge begins in the NFL regular-season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.
“It’s just a great opportunity for the guys, to see what it’s like to be on the biggest stage,” Patrick Mahomes told the media this week after practice. “Obviously, you want to play in the Super Bowl at the end of the year, but this is a big stage, as well. To be able to get that experience, play a great football team, I’m excited for these guys to get out there, and the guys who haven’t been here, see what it’s like to be on that type of stage.”
The Chiefs will go as far as Mahomes takes them. He is a two-time NFL most valuable player and three-time Super Bowl champion.
“You never know if you’re going to win another Super Bowl—I mean, that’s your hope, but you don’t know if you’re going to be that opening-night game,” Mahomes said.
“I remember my first year—I didn’t play, but we [went] to the Patriots and played in that game. I remember how special that moment was for me, even though I didn’t step on that football field. So I just try to appreciate these moments because you never know if this is going to be your last one, but the hope is that it isn’t.”
The Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII in 2023 with a 38–35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Ariz. The following year, Kansas City defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25–22 in Paradise, Nevada. Mahomes was instrumental in leading the Chiefs to those victories and was named Super Bowl MVP in both games. He is one of four quarterbacks in NFL history, joining Terry Bradshaw, Tom Brady, and Joe Montana, to have at least three Super Bowl victories.
Last season, the Chiefs had playoff victories over the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and top-seeded Ravens en route to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
The Ravens finished with the best record in the NFL last season and in 2019. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was named NFL MVP in each of those seasons, but he has not been able to guide the franchise to the Super Bowl.
After going 14–2 in the 2019 regular season, the Ravens were upset by the Tennessee Titans, 28–12, in the divisional round of the playoffs. The Ravens went 13–4 last year and advanced to the AFC Championship Game, but they could not keep pace with Kansas City.
Jackson fell to 2–4 as the starter in playoff games, and he is looking to change that narrative of playoff failures this season. He is using that loss to the Chiefs in last season’s AFC title game as inspiration.
“I’m approaching it like any other game, but it’s the start of the season, so we have to make a great impression for the first game of the season,” Jackson said at a press conference this week.
The Ravens have more firepower on offense with the addition of four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry, who signed as a free agent from the Tennessee Titans in March. The Ravens had the league’s No. 1 rushing attack last season, and the addition of Henry makes them even more formidable.
The Chiefs figure to see plenty of Henry on Thursday night in what is sure to be a raucous environment.
“At the end of the day, it’s just football, what I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old,” Henry told reporters after practice this week. “But, the atmosphere, and it being the first game, at night, [with] them coming off a Super Bowl [victory], it being at home at Arrowhead—which you know the environment is going to be loud, [and] it’s going to be hostile—but that’s what you want, especially on opening night with everybody watching the first game of the year to kick off the 2024 season, so I’m excited. It’s going to be fun, so I’m looking forward to it.”
