• WHERE: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium | Kansas City, Mo.
• WHEN: 8:20 PM ET | NBC, Telemundo, Universo, NFL+

Well, we’re back where we started last season: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Kansas City Chiefs begin their Super Bowl title defense — and a run for an unprecedented third straight Lombardi Trophy — by hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night in a five-game series that will serve as the 2024 NFL Kickoff Game.

Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson both took over as their respective teams’ starting quarterbacks in 2018, with Kansas City and Baltimore meeting five times since then. Mahomes and the Chiefs have won four of those meetings, including last year’s AFC Championship Game in Baltimore. It was a tough one even before kickoff, with Mahomes and Travis Kelce tossing Justin Tucker’s helmet and kicking tee aside in pregame warmups. The Chiefs sacked Jackson four times and turned him over twice, with Mahomes and the offense doing just enough to advance to the Super Bowl with a 17-10 victory.

Jackson, last season’s MVP, will be working behind a rebuilt offensive line this season, but Baltimore also has a new weapon in running back Derrick Henry. The former Titans back has had some monster games against the Chiefs in the past and will likely be a big part of the Ravens’ offense this season.

Here are four things to watch for when the Ravens visit the Chiefs on Thursday night to kick off the 2024 season:

1. Lamar vs. Chiefs defense. Jackson has had a rough go of it, all things considered, against the Chiefs in his career. The Ravens are 1-4 with Jackson as the starter against KC, including last year’s playoff loss. Jackson has actually had some success as a runner against the Chiefs, but it’s telling that he’s averaged more yards per rush (6.49) than per pass attempt (6.47) against them. The fact that Jackson wasn’t used as a designed runner more in the teams’ last meeting remains a major headache — and it wouldn’t be shocking to see much more of that on Thursday night. The Chiefs often operated from a single-high look defensively in the playoff game, but Jackson struggled to take advantage of it. According to Next Gen Stats, Jackson completed just 5 of 15 passes single-high against the Chiefs after averaging 8.8 yards per attempt last regular season, the second-highest average in the league. In all other defensive looks in that game, Jackson averaged 9.0 yards against them. This offseason, the Chiefs traded cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who had a tough coverage game against the Ravens but forced Zay Flowers into a critical fumble at the goal line. Trent McDuffie has now been thrust into the CB1 position; who starts opposite him remains a question, with Jaylen Watson and Joshua Williams the top options. It will be interesting to see if defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo changes his approach to coverage this time around. Flowers, Nelson Agholor and Rashod Bateman are Jackson’s top targets on the outside, along with the return of tight end Mark Andrews, who was limited in the AFC title game, to pair with the emerging Isaiah Probably.
2. Mahomes hopes he can continue to have success against the Ravens. Mahomes has had more success against the Ravens, completing 72.8 percent of his passes and averaging 344 passing yards in those five outings with a 13-2 TD-INT ratio. The Ravens forced Mahomes into a series of short passes in January, but he made them pay, completing 30 of his 39 attempts, never turning the ball over and giving up just two sacks, both of which came in the fourth quarter when the Chiefs were up by two scores. That defensive game plan was orchestrated by Mike Macdonald, who left to take the Seahawks’ head coaching job. How Macdonald’s replacement, 32-year-old Zach Orr, attempts to slow Mahomes down is anyone’s guess, but Orr has appeared to earn the trust of defenders. The Ravens led the NFL with 60 sacks last season, and while they’ve lost some of that production, this is a fairly deep pass-rushing group. The hope is that younger edge players like Odafe Oweh (five sacks last season) can take their game to the next level. Baltimore also has a deep, talented secondary led by the brilliant Kyle Hamilton, who can line up almost anywhere and handle almost any coverage assignment. The Chiefs offense wasn’t its typically explosive self last season, with too many turnovers, stalled drives and dropped passes — especially downfield. This is a tough early test and benchmark for this unit, but you can bet it will look to generate more big passing plays from this game on.
3. King Henry’s debut for the Ravens. The NFL’s most active runner, Henry is starting over in Baltimore, where he signed this offseason after eight brilliant seasons at Tennessee. His 68.6 yards rushing per game last season was Henry’s lowest mark since 2018, when he shared rushing duties for the Titans. At 30 years old and with more than 2,000 career carries, could Henry be slowing down? After all, he had seven games in 2023 with 43 or fewer rushing yards. But he also averaged 5.7 yards per carry in the final three games of last season and closed the season in style with a 153-yard outing against the Jaguars in Week 18. Henry has also had good success against the Chiefs, rushing for 672 yards and eight TDs in six career meetings, including the postseason. He’s even thrown three of his five career TD passes against the Chiefs and hasn’t lost a fumble against them on 128 career touches. The Ravens have some concerns up front about an offensive line that raises questions with two starters in their first year, but the hope is that Henry and Jackson can be a dangerous pair on the ground who can make up for any lack of blocking cohesion. It could also help open up the play-action game for the Ravens, where Jackson typically thrives — and an element the Chiefs struggled to stop a year ago. According to NGS, Jackson led all qualifying QBs in total EPA (+67.4) and passing percentage (63.3%) on play-action dropbacks in 2023, averaging 10.6 yards per attempt on play action compared to 7.1 on non-play action dropbacks. In the AFC Championship Game, Jackson averaged 11.2 yards per attempt on play action versus 5.7 YPA without it. One of the Chiefs’ few defensive weaknesses a year ago was against play action, ranking 31st in defensive passing percentage against it.
4. A tough test for two Chiefs rookies. It’s funny to think that the Chiefs needed to upgrade their offense this offseason, but their first two draft picks seemed designed to do just that. They won the Super Bowl while lacking the downfield prowess of previous Mahomes-led passing games. The biggest culprits were a group of receivers who failed to consistently separate and/or catch the deep passes thrown their way. According to NGS, Mahomes threw 44 deep touchdown passes (40-plus yards) between 2018 and 2021, second-most in the league during that span, but has thrown just two deep touchdowns since 2022. Enter first-round WR Xavier Worthy, who ran a 4.21-second 40-yard dash at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine. The Chiefs are clearly expecting a lot from Worthy this season, and perhaps especially in this game with Marquise Brown (shoulder) ruled out. It took just one 37-yard connection to Worthy by Mahomes this preseason, even though he fell after the catch, to get Chiefs fans excited about their speedy rookie. Travis Kelce remains Mahomes’ go-to guy, and Kelce paced Baltimore with 11 catches (on 11 targets) for 116 yards and a TD in January. Rashee Rice will also likely reprise a key role in the offense after a strong finish to his rookie season. But Worthy, who can also catch short passes, should get his feet wet in the opener. But for the deep passing game to flourish, the protection has to be there. Protecting Mahomes’ blind side will be second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia, who won the left tackle job in camp and is considered a crafty, light-footed pass blocker. You can count on the Ravens doing everything they can to overwhelm Suamataia in his first start, especially with overload blitzes, stunts and other DL plays to keep the rookie guessing where the rushers will come from. The Ravens have the horses up front to keep Suamataia busy all night.