Renck: Bo Nix’s improvement should mandate passing like Patrick Mahomes, not flopping like him

A peek at the Bo Nix offseason checklist: Talk with Drew Brees, chat with Peyton Manning and study acting.

The road to the AFC West title goes through Arrowhead and The Academy.

This point was driven home during the divisional round as Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes manipulated the rules to his advantage, enabled by years of suspect enforcement.

It was so egregious that ESPN analyst Troy Aikman blurted, “Aww, come on!” after Mahomes lured defenders into a roughing call after he danced around for several seconds and slid late. Not satisfied, Mahomes followed up moments later by throwing his arms in the air as he was pushed before going out of bounds. “Mahomes Flopping” was soon trending on social media.

Flopping? Acting? Tomato, tomato. It’s all the same. If Nix wants to improve in his sophomore season, he has to learn how to pretzel the rules in his favor. That is the message the NFL continues to send with the way it officiates Chiefs playoff games.

Chiefs fans insist that they get calls — and no calls — because they are well-coached, disciplined and experienced. There is truth to this, but the numbers remain jarring, testing the common sense of sports fans and the patience of opponents.

“I have no reason of saying this other than being a hater. The Bills or whatever NFC team gotta beat the Chiefs. We can’t let them keep getting away with this,” tweeted Ravens defensive back Marlon Humphrey.

Over their past 11 postseason games since 2021, the Chiefs have never been penalized more than their opponents, per Sharp Football. Ten times opponents have had more penalties than the Chiefs. Kansas City owns a 10-1 record in those games, flagged for 36 penalties for 319 yards, compared to 66 for 541 yards for their opponents, according to ESPN.

It gets worse. There have been seven roughing-the-passer penalties called on opponents. One on the Chiefs.

These numbers mirror what our eyes tell us. It was reinforced during three controversial moments against the Texans, leading Aikman to become all of us and demand: “They’ve got to address that in the offseason. You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with defenders, then be able to draw a penalty.”

Tom Brady went a step further when appearing on The Herd this week, saying it is not up to the defenders to protect the quarterbacks, that once they become runners they must protect themselves.

The reaction to the Chiefs last weekend came as no surprise to anyone in Broncos Country. Over the last few years, Denver fans have watched play-clock violations go unchecked, timeouts called by assistant coaches, Courtland Sutton penalized for offensive pass interference in the game’s biggest moment and a phantom contact flag tossed at safety Brandon Jones in November that nullified a sack and kept a touchdown drive alive.

Sound familiar?

Listen, the Chiefs are attempting to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls for a reason. They are dominant, efficient and smart. But they don’t need help.

The officials remain in a tough spot with roughing-the-passer calls, instructed to lean on the side of a penalty. That has empowered the Chiefs, allowing them to jump through loopholes like Evel Knievel through rings of fire.

It has turned America against them. And before you ask, this has nothing to do with Taylor Swift. More like Jawaan Taylor. The league made illegal formations and false starts a point of emphasis this season and the Chiefs right tackle continues to use, um, unique alignments, while endlessly rocking in his stance without appropriate consequences (one penalty a game is hardly fair).

The last thing any of us want in the AFC is a WWE vibe. The Texans certainly played into that by saying postgame that they had to beat “Everybody” to upset the Chiefs, a wink-wink at the anticipated penalty discrepancy. It is not why the Texans lost — that traces back to their special teams tire fire — but for the NFL it remains a horrible look.

For those of us who have played high school sports, it conjures memories of playing against a small-town school where the referee is the opposing coach’s brother-in-law. At the prep level, nothing surprises me. But the pros should be held to a higher standard.

And that is where Mahomes re-enters the discussion. The bending of rules should be beneath him. He is on track to become the greatest quarterback of all time. He does not need to embellish. The Chiefs are going to get their share of calls, if not more. There is no reason to goose the process with crazy gyrations and pleading conversations with officials.