KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At some point last summer, as Patrick Mahomes spent most of his time in a training room, his head coach informed him of a planned change for the offense.

They wanted to move his position.

Well, let me clarify: They wanted to move his positioning.

An offseason analysis of a fractured offense had led the Chiefs in several directions, most notably and most immediately to spend money on a running back. But on the other side of free agency, Andy Reid still planned to make one more tweak. He planned to put Mahomes under center again.

The selling point?

“It was easy once I saw Kenneth (Walker) running the football,” Mahomes told me Wednesday.

A month into this season, the Chiefs’ offense looks like it used to look.

In results.

Not in process.

Here’s the oddity of the biggest change they made: They were basically the worst under-center team in the NFL a year ago. They totaled just 45.1 yards per game in the formation, second-to-last in the league. They averaged 3.0 yards per pass attempt while lining up under center, last in the league.

Then they decided to do more of that.

And what do you know, a year later, they lead the NFL in rush yards per play (6.3) in under-center formations, a half-yard better than second place, and rank second in pass yards per play (9.5), more than triple the efficiency of last season.

How? Well, that’s the lead-in to the bigger picture. It would be easy to point to just the one reason the Chiefs’ offense is humming this year.

You can’t. And that’s the real takeaway. It’s everything. It’s the way it all works together.

The Chiefs averaged at least 5.85 yards per play in each of their initial four games this season, which means, of course, they have accomplished that feat in four consecutive games.

They’ve compiled such a streak — four straight contests averaging at least 5.85 yards per play — in seven seasons since 2000. In six of those seven seasons, they either finished the year as the No. 1-ranked scoring offense or the No. 1-ranked offense in yards.

The best indicator for sustained success in the NFL, in other words, is not the high ceiling. It’s the high floor, because that breeds consistency.

Think of it this way, the way that Mahomes thought of it when Reid first informed him of the plans to take fewer of his snaps in the shotgun:

“I knew if we were able to do that (well), the play-action game would open up even more,” Mahomes said. “Then it’s about me being the best quarterback for this team.

“It’s always going to be different, and this team was about being under center, getting (Walker) going, and then play-actioning off it.”

It is different, and in some ways quite a bit different.

— Heading into Week 6 games, the Chiefs ranked fourth in yards per game generated from under-center snaps a year after finishing 31st in the same category.

— They ranked third in play-action yards per game a year after finishing 19th.

— They ranked fourth in yards generated from downfield throws per game a year after ranking 11th.

— They ranked seventh in EPA/pass on quick throws a year after finishing 13th.

It’s not just about being more productive under center. It’s about everything that production sets up. And it’s a lot. It’s more than a free-agent running back acquisition, even if that acquisition has been significant.

It’s secondary paths to success.

In the season opener, a visibly rusty Mahomes gave way to spotlight Walker, who set a career-high with 173 rushing yards, including a 60-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play.

A week later, the Colts loaded the box to stop Walker, and Mahomes replied with the most passing yards he’s had in a game in three years.

Another week later, the Dolphins tried to play it straight, and Mahomes had the second-best completion percentage of his career. He was literally perfect on play-action attempts, 14 for 14 for 201 yards, the best play-action performance from an NFL quarterback in 20 years.

Yet another week later, the Chiefs returned to Walker late during a tight game in Las Vegas, and he set another career high in rushing.

This is what the best offenses in the league entail — alternating storylines that produce identical results. It’s maddening for a defense to identify an opponent’s strength and effectively take that away — only to still not get stops because the offense simply moves toward a secondary path.

The four-game streak of 5.85 yards per play isn’t about potential. It’s about options. The Chiefs have had answers when defenses try to key on something.

To date.

That’s always the qualifier this early in a season. The Chiefs have faced the 10th-, 24th-, 26th- and 29th-ranked defenses, as measured by the all-encompassing DVOA metric. They will play harder opponents, and they will face them without wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, who is more responsible than any player for the improved downfield passing game — though we’re soon about to discover whether it’s more about the player or the fact there is suddenly space in the secondary.

Anyway, the quality of opponents and the length of the injury report didn’t matter a year ago. Or in 2024 or 2023, either. The Chiefs went three seasons without compiling the streak of consistency they’re enjoying now.

The consistency is back.

But for an entirely different reason.

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