Patrick Mahomes has challenged the Kansas City Chiefs to "get better" as they aim to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl.
In February, the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 to lift the Vince Lombardi trophy for a second consecutive year.
However, it did not look like they would even reach the showpiece match at times due to their inconsistent offense.
Mahomes threw 14 interceptions, the most in a single season in his career, while his receivers dropped 25 catchable passes, the most by any such group since the 2012 Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Chiefs entered the postseason as the number three seed in the AFC, their lowest since Mahomes became the starter in 2018.
Though they still got the glory in the end, the quarterback, who is entering his eighth year, is eyeing some big improvements to ensure they are in a better position to lift the trophy again this season.
"It's time to get better," Mahomes said at the start of the Chiefs training camp. "Every season starts differently.
"You've got to come in with that same mentality you had the year before, even with a higher intensity, and even though we won the Super Bowl last year, we felt like we didn't play our best football, especially offensively.
"So, it's our goal to be better that way and coming in with that mentality every single day.
"The end result [last season] was awesome, but I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth.
"It wasn't fun every single week having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you wanted to.
"It wasn't a lot of fun. We have a lot of those same guys back, and they know how that felt, and so we're going to try to prepare ourselves better this year so that we can play better throughout the season and obviously try to end with the same result."
While the offense were not at their best last season, the defense defined their run to the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs had the second-best defense in the league, allowing an average of just 17.3 points per game in the regular season, and Mahomes is confident they will play a part in improving the level of the squad.
"We added a lot of speed," Mahomes added. "What's better than going against our defense?
"It's the best defense in the NFL, and we get to go against them every single day and really show where we're at and how we can get better."
The Chiefs will kick off the new season against the Baltimore Ravens on September 5.