Laddie Morse

Chiefs UDFA’s Who Can Have an Impact: Blake Mack

LadnerMorse May 15, 2018 No Comments

 

 

 

 

It’s been a “different” kind of offseason for the Kansas City Chiefs: an aggressive general manager calling the shots because of a change there last summer, a new and young high profile gunslinger is no longer our QB of the future but… the present, ten starting line-up changes since September of 2017, and with no first round pick in the draft, it’s nearly been The Twilight Zone all over again. Some are saying it’s a re-building year but the Chiefs are not. Emphatically so.

 

What I would call this offseason is simply, different. Very different, then again, when does an offseason not have a different feel to it? Now that the draft is over and done with, fans are scrambling to find out what the identity of this team is and for many, that’s all about the offense. I’m not going to argue with that take but, I think there may be an undrafted free agent that the Chiefs signed who could actually end up having an impact on the outcome of some of the Chiefs games this year. A decidedly positive one at that.

 

Enter UDFA, tight end, slash H-back, Blake Mack from Arkansas State. NFL.com lists Mack at 6-foot-3 and 229 lbs. but I’m not so sure he is that size because some outlets like draftscout.com have him at 6-foot-2 and 235 lbs. as do the Chiefs. In any event, he’s a large bodied wide receiver who can line up off the line of scrimmage, in the slot, or out wide, and do damage catching the ball into the heart of the defense. Mack has run a 4.72 (official) 40-yard dash and a 4.65 (unofficial). By comparison, Travis Kelce ran a 4.61 (official) and a 4.51 (unofficial). Then again, there aren’t many TE’s like Travis Kelce.

 

 

 

 

I could see HC Andy Reid lining Blake Mack up on one side of the formation and Travis Kelce on the other, which would place the linebackers in the pickle of all pickles: who do they key on, the TEs or the league’s leading rusher at running back? With Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins lined up wide as threats to go long, the Safeties must give coverage over the top forcing every player in the defensive backfield to win their one-on-one match-up. Which… is not likely. The presence of another TE who can catch the ball over the middle makes the Chiefs offense unguardable for nearly ever defense in the NFL. The LBs can’t cover the TEs and the Safeties would need help if they somehow brought them up… but then the deep ball becomes the liability. For the Chiefs, it’s a deliciously unpredictable predicament to leverage against defenses.

 

 

Blake Mack can be used in other ways to throw the defense off their game. After lining up as mentioned above, envision Patrick Mahomes faking a sweep to Kareem Hunt, then throwing he ball in the flat to the opposite side of the field on a screen pass to his TE. The Chiefs also use this formation to run an inside pitch to Kelce so lining up this way and going to the opposite side of the field would give defenses another look, another thing to worry about. Blake Mack was in on this play at Arkansas State numerous times. Here, take a look at a couple, one to each side of the field:

 

 

 

 

While Blake Mack has his upside, his downside is what the Chiefs coaches must determine whether or not they can deal with. NFL.com says Mack has become a “reliable playmaker” while at Arkansas State. However, he needs to work on his route running and what may be most disconcerting is that he’ll stop short on his routes when he anticipates getting hit. Getting hit is, “Life in the Fast Lane” and that’s just the way it is, especially for any receiver going over the middle of the field in the NFL. While I have not seen Mack wimp-out when he thought he was about to get hit, those are the concerns of some analysts. If there was one reason he wasn’t drafted though… I’d say it’s because of his size. He’s a typical tweener: not big enough to leave on the field for blocking purposes, but good enough to line him up and send him into dangerous territory.

 

Bert, our resident blogger extraordinaire, and myself have carried on conversations before about how Cowboys ex-GM Gil Brandt used to say he could spot a talented player in only one play at times. Following is the play that I thought made sense out of the Blake Mack signing. I especially like how he’s able to outrun the linebacker and it takes a DB to track him down and run him out of bounds… after 70 yards:

 

 

 

 

Of course, the truth of the matter is, every player has weaknesses and Blake Mack has his, otherwise he would have been taken in the first round of the draft, but he wasn’t selected at all. The flip side of that coin is that many teams pass a player by and they end up being an UDFA when in reality, they are very talented. That’s what I’m hoping the Chiefs have here with Mack. In fact, the more tape I watch on Blake Mack, the more impressed I am. After the draft, Lance Zierlein designated Blake Mack as a “Priority” Free Agent and had this to say about him:

 

 

“Mack’s career turned the corner in 2016, as he garnered second-team All-Sun Belt Conference accolades with 34 receptions for a team-leading 652 yards and three touchdowns while starting 12 of 13 games played. Sun Belt coaches named him first-team all-conference in 2017 because he caught 48 passes for 618 yards and seven scores.

Mack has exciting athletic ability and can be extremely dangerous with the ball in his hands, but tape suggests he is too willing to check out mentally and physically if he’s not in the middle of the action.”

 

It’ll be up to the coaches to get the most out of him and make sure that he doesn’t, as Zierlein says, “Check out mentally and physically.” Zierlein also listed his strengths and weaknesses as:

 

 

 

 

Blake Mack’s Strengths:

  • Plus athlete
  • Has foot quickness and acceleration to pull away from coverage out of his breaks and turns
  • Can be too much for linebackers to handle
  • Has third level speed to hit big plays against mismatched defenders
  • Really impressive with the ball in his hands
  • Has wiggle to elude tacklers and speed to run away from linebackers in the open field
  • Has body control for sudden ball adjustments

 

Blake Mack’s Weaknesses:

  • Falls well short of NFL size parameters for the position
  • Doesn’t have the grit or toughness as a blocker to handle tight end duties
  • Route running is low on his list of priorities
  • Routes are rounded and lazy
  • Gets clogged up by route redirection
  • Needs to play faster and work on setting up breaks
  • Willing to stop short when throw leads him to contact at the catch
  • Doesn’t have late separation skills to haul in focus-based catches

 

 

 

There are two parts of Blake Mack’s game that he’ll have to show progress on for him to make it out of training camp and onto the 53 man roster:

 

1) He’ll have to show he’s willing to hit and be hit. That can only happen once the pads come on so that’s what I’ll be looking forward to once camp begins and I can get my own eyes on him.

2) He’ll have to learn to fight through DBs and LB’s to run the prescribed patterns. The NFL is full of DB’s, and DB coaches, who are bent on the idea that if they can disrupt the route and the timing of the route, then they’ve won 75% of the battle. With many lesser receivers that may be the case, so Blake Mack will have to learn to do battle at the line of scrimmage so he can get off his man and execute the progression of the play. Otherwise, his QB won’t know if he can be counted on to be at the specific “rendezvous”… where the ball will be. QB’s don’t like throwing INTs and they especially don’t like throwing INT’s that are repeatedly caused by a particular WR. Come to think of it, head coaches and fans don’t like it either.

 

From what I’ve seen, he has the ability to do a lot more than what he was asked to do at Arkansas State. Here’s a goal line play with Blake Mack lined up behind the left tackle, he then crosses the formation in the backfield, twisting backwards he catches the ball, turns and dives into the end zone. Another play featuring his athleticism.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another catch over the middle for Blake Mack. He was called upon frequently to go over the middle of the field. Here, he shows no signs of being shy about making contact.

 

 

 

 

B.J. Kissel reported over the rookie mini-camp weekend that “Blake Mack had raised some eyebrows.” From studying his tape, I can see why. Although Arkansas State didn’t use him — or maybe even keep him as involved as he should have been — he has talents yet to unfold and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that he not only makes the Chiefs 53 man roster, not just the practice squad, but finds his way onto the field in his rookie year with some regularity.

 

 

 

Whether you see Blake Mack as a “too-small” TE or just a large WR, he can be effective from the slot. The comparable here could be Kelvin Benjamin because people also had questions about him as a “too-tall” WR when he came out. He was considered a tweener of sorts (not enough bulk to play TE) and although he was a couple of inches taller than Mack, teams also didn’t know where to put him until the Panthers came along and made him their first round pick, even though he was known to have had trouble running precise routes as well. So, he was drafted on his potential. At Carolina he spent time injured and the Panthers went 19-22-1 with him in the line up while they were 23-3 without him. That’s why he’s in Buffalo now, I presume. Although Benjamin had a 1,000-yard season in his sophomore year (which was the year he came out), Mack had almost exactly the same total college numbers. No matter what Lance Zierlein says I just don’t see him shying away from contact. Here’s how ProFootball Focus graded him out in 2017:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Blake Mack is making a name for himself in Kansas City?” Hmm… I hope so. That could make a potentially great offense, even greaterest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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