11 Games In: Chiefs Who Are Moving the Needle

Laddie Morse

“Move the needle” … words meant for those who make a difference. Surprisingly, the Chiefs do have some of those “Move the Needle” players on their roster after the first eleven (11) games of the season. The Chiefs have a lot of guys who can move the needle. The most obvious are Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. This year, there are many more than them, including players on the defensive side of the ball, and that’s where we’ll begin.

The first, “Move the Needle” player for K.C. this year is:

Chris Jones, DL

Chris Jones has had the very definition of a “reverse-roller-coaster “season by starting our with 2.0 sacks in the first game of the year against Cleveland, then only one sack between then until the Chiefs played Dallas last week in their eleventh (11th) game when he had 3.5 sacks. A great deal of that has had to do with Jones playing Defensive End at the beginning of the year. However, once DE Melvin Ingram arrived via trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 2nd, Jones has begun to play more at DT again and his performance has returned to “move the needle” status.

This play (above) includes a half sack by Jarran Reed… thus, Jones ending up with 3.5 sacks in that game. We could say the addition of DE Melvin Ingram “Moves the Needle” for the DL but, he’s not the one who has been getting all the sacks and hits. However, it is because of the attention that opposing DCs must pay to Ingram that opens things up for Chris Jones, Jarran Reed and the much improved play of Frank Clark over the past 6 weeks.

The next, “Move the Needle” player for K.C. this year will be:

Joe Thuney, LG

Left Guard Joe Thuney is a monster. No, he’s not huge in size compared to the man standing next to him at Left Tackle (Orlando Brown), but it’s the way Thuney plays the game that makes him a monster. Thuney played 100% of the snaps in his first three seasons in New England, then played in 99% of the snaps his next year and 97% of the snaps last year. Except for the three snaps at the end of he Raiders game when HC Andy Reid pulled most all of his staters for the last three plays of the game in a 41-to-14 route in Vegas, Thuney would have played 100% of the snaps this year as well. In fact, when he fractured his hand early in the game in week five, he didn’t miss a beat:

Thuney remains one of the most respected players in the league and his signing is likely the best move GM Brett Veach made this past offseason. If you’re wondering why the Chiefs offensive center (Creed Humphrey) is having such a great year, look no further than the fact that he plays next to Joe Thuney. Oh, and we’ll get to Humphrey later as he deserves to be on this list too. Athlon Sports ranked Thuney behind the Cowboys Zach Martin and three others as one of the best OGs in the game, but I doubt Martin sticks there after he played the role of an over generous concierge to Chris Jones on his way to the Dallas QB.

Flipping back from offense to defense, the next “Move the Needle” man on the roster this year so far has been:

Rashad Fenton, CB

Rashad was a 6th round pick three drafts ago (2019) and has gradually improved until he’s been rated as one of the best cornerbacks in the league this year.

Part of the reason for this piece is that the Chiefs have had some silent assassins this year and Fenton is one of them. By silent I mean when you have high profile guys like Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce on your roster, some of these other players get little attention when they are actually having excellent seasons. Once again, Fenton is one of them. Fenton has a current Pro Football Focus grade of 86.8. After Fenton hurt his knee in the last game, CBS Sports quoted Rotoworld who quoted FanSided who quoted Matt Verderame as saying:

“Fenton (knee) is expected to be fine after suffering a knee injury in Sunday’s victory over the Cowboys, Matt Verderame of FanSided.com reports. It remains to be seen what Fenton’s workload at practice will look like this week, but it sounds like he avoided anything serious. If he still ends up missing any time, Charvarius Ward and Mike Hughes would presumably be in line to see increased reps.”

However, I have never found Matt Verderame to be trustworthy so, take it for what it’s worth. The injury looked like a hyper-extension to me… but what do I know.

Back to the offensive side of the ball for another “Move the Needle” player this year:

Creed Humphrey, OC

It won’t surprise me at all if the Chiefs rookie Center is voted to the NFL Pro Bowl this year. He’s having that good of a season. Seth Keysor, the @RealMNchiefsfan says of Humphrey:

“I couldn’t love Creed Humphrey more.”

Jumping back again to the defensive side of the ball here’s one more “Move the Needle” player:

Nick Bolton, LB

Nick Bolton has played less than two-thirds (63.16%) of the Chiefs defensive snaps, yet he leads the team in tackles with 79. L’Jarius Sneed has played on 96.59 % of the Chiefs defensive snaps, but has 21 fewer tackles than Bolton. Perhaps that’s not a fair comparison because Sneed plays CB, whereas Bolton plays LB, so let’s do a comparison to ILB Anthony Hitchens.

Hitchens has been in on 49.79 % of he D snaps, 350, and has 47 total tackles, which means it takes him 7.4 snaps to make one tackle… whereas… Bolton has 444 and 79 tackles which means it takes Bolton only 5.6 snaps to make a tackles. BTW, the lower the number of snaps it takes to generate one tackle shows the better number. That’s not just a little better, but a lot better.

Also, Bolton has 11 TFLs (Tackles for a loss) while Hitchens, who essentially plays the same position, has 3. Do I think Hitchens is a better player because of Bolton, and vice versa? Yes, but is a rookie and it’s part of Hitchens job to help orient him to the NFL game. Also, Bolton is accomplishing things that Hitchens has never done. Besides Hitchens first year in K.C. under Bob Sutton, Bolton is already only 9 tackles away from climbing past Hitchens best year in the NFL in tackles.

Honorable Mention

Trey Smith

Smith should probably be on this list. He was a 6th round pick this year who probably should have gone in the first round and his pancake blocks have already become legendary.

Like Creed Humphrey, it won’t surprise me whenever Trey Smith makes the Pro Bowl. It may not be this year, but he’s destined to be that kind of Pro Bowl performer down the line.

Who do you think belongs on the “Move the Needle” list so far this year?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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