Did anyone see a 1-2 start coming for either of these squads? The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens are both bona fide playoff contenders as they’ve been for the last several seasons with star quarterbacks on each side, but neither team started their 2025 campaigns on the right foot. On Sunday, a meeting between Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes against John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson has the potential to turn into a real gem of an afternoon outing — and potentially create long-reaching impacts once the postseason race begins to heat up in another month or so.
Prepare for this Week 4 matchup with a Chiefs vs. Ravens prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Chiefs vs. Ravens prediction, preview
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs began their campaign 0-2 for the first time since 2014, so it’s safe to say Mahomes and Reid are less than enthused about waiting until Week 3 to capture their first win of the campaign. Still, an injury to Xavier Worthy and suspension for Rashee Rice decimated the wide receiver room through the first three contests, so it’s important to keep that context in mind when evaluating the results thus far.
With 20 points and 315.7 yards per game, the offense ranks in the NFL’s bottom half overall. The return of Worthy from his shoulder injury does boost the outlook some on Sunday, but Travis Kelce clearly has lost a step and Rice still remains out for multiple weeks. Right now, Mahomes is essentially the team’s entire offense as the leading rusher with 125 yards and two scores on the ground aside from his duties as quarterback. Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt average 3.7 and 3.5 YPC so far, which means this team may want to enter the running back market if it can to try and add some juice to the offense.
On defense, the Chiefs still rank top-12 in points and yards per game allowed at 18.7 and 297. With that said, the rush defense ranks 18th with an average of 114 yards conceded, so the status of this unit is one to watch in coming weeks. Sunday’s matchup presents a true test against Derrick Henry, who to be fair, almost no team can stop.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens also enter with a 1-2 record, but they held a lead in both of those losses before collapsing to the Bills and Lions. To be fair, both of those squads are true Super Bowl threats so Baltimore shouldn’t feel too bad about the losses. However, good teams hold on to win and there are some red flags mixed in among the purple and black of the jerseys.
The offense appears nearly unstoppable with an NFL-best 37 points per game, but 330.7 yards per contest actually rank the Ravens 15th. However, they’re efficient when converting third downs at 44.12% and the play of Lamar Jackson remains largely impeccable as always with a 72% completion rate, 722 yards and nine touchdowns without a single interception. He’s tacked on 118 yards and a score with his legs as well, and while Derrick Henry’s last two weeks weren’t spectacular after a massive Week 1, the duo still form one of the most ferocious ground attacks in football. Zay Flowers is also in the midst of a breakout third season with a 16-231-1 receiving line while Mark Andrews showed signs of life last week. Fellow tight end Isaiah Likely (foot) also could make his season debut and comes in with a questionable tag.
Here’s the deal though. The Baltimore defense hasn’t performed well at all this season, especially against top teams. The Ravens gave up 38 points to the Lions last week and 41 to the Bills in Week 1, and even the Browns scored 17 on them as well. With an average of 32 points and 415 yards allowed, Baltimore falls 31st and 32nd in those categories. It’s tough to contend with a porous defense, so we’ll see if they can tighten things up.
Chiefs vs. Ravens pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Ravens enter as -2.5 road favorites with -148 odds on the Moneyline. The Chiefs are listed at +124 odds to win on the Moneyline with the game total set at 48.5 combined points.
To be totally clear, Baltimore has far more weapons available at Jackson’s disposal than Mahomes has to work with in his own offense. That’s been pretty clear to see through the first few weeks of the campaign as evidenced by the scoring outputs from each side, and I don’t expect that to change significantly in this game. The Ravens’ rushing attack sees a matchup it may be able to exploit on Sunday, and Henry himself averages 98.6 rushing yards in five career games against Kansas City. After a couple of down performances, he’s positioned to bounce back in a massive way.
The question isn’t whether the Ravens can score on their opponent. This unit looks elite enough to do that on just about anyone. The real question is whether the Baltimore defense will get exposed by a still-depleted Kansas City core. Mahomes is known for making magic happen, Worthy coming back brings a much-needed weapon, and even Tyquan Thornton has quietly emerged as a nice target in this attack. There’s no question that the Ravens are porous on D, but the lack of a real threat outside of Mahomes does hurt the Chiefs’ outlook for playing the grinding style of football the team shifted to over the least couple of years to control the pace.
If I had to choose, I feel confident in predicting Henry and Jackson to have a field day and drop 30+ points on the road. While Kansas City may hang in there for a while, the home team simply doesn’t have the weapons it’ll take to truly compete in this spot. Maybe that’ll change down the line when Rice returns, but for now, I’m on Baltimore to cover.
