The start of the NFL's 104th season begins on Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium. For the second time in four years, the Kansas City Chiefs host the league opener because they are coming off a Super Bowl championship season. Back in 2020, Andy Reid's club opened that campaign with a 34-20 victory over the Houston Texans in a playoff rematch from 2019.
This time around, it's an interconference battle with the up-and-coming Detroit Lions. Dan Campbell's squad won eight of its final 10 games in 2022 and finished second in the NFC North. The Chiefs led the NFL in points per game this past season and Detroit was fifth. Will there be a result similar to Super Bowl LVII when Reid's team rallied to beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35?
The Chiefs remain loaded on offense with 2022 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce and plenty of playmakers elsewhere. What they don't have is All-Pro defensive lineman Chris Jones, who remains a holdout. In the Super Bowl against the Eagles, Steve Spagnuolo's defense gave up 417 total yards with the star interior defensive lineman playing in the game. If he's not around on Thursday night, what kind of damage could quarterback Jared Goff and the Lions' offense do?
Chris Jones absence underscores an upset alert for Chiefs according to one analyst
That's why ESPN's Dan Orlovsky had this to say about the primetime matchup. He summed up his analysis with this "I'm not there yet picking the Detroit Lions. But I'm not far off."
There's a little recent history working against the Lions, haven't been to the playoffs since 2016. The Chiefs have won eight straight season openers dating back to 2015. Mahomes has been the starter in the last five and in those victories has thrown a combined 18 touchdown passes without an interception. Including the Super Sunday win over the Eagles, Kansas City was 6-0 vs. NFC teams this past season.
Then again, all Campbell has to do is look back nearly one year to the day for a little inspiration. In last year's Thursday night opener, the Buffalo Bills went to SoFi Stadium and embarrassed the reigning Super Bowl champion Rams, 31-10.