Laddie Morse
The Kansas City Chiefs have completed Day 10 — or Phase Three — of their Organized Team Activities. All of these non-padded practices, so far, have been by volunteer. The OTAs coming up this week are mandatory, so we’ll find out much more about how the 2023 squad is shaping up when these activities — practices — commence. So far, eleven members of the 90 man squad have been absent. They include:
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CB, Trent McDuffie could also be seen without a helmet on, but they were keeping him out just as a precautionary measure. Both Isiah Pacheco and Tershawn Wharton are still recovering from surgeries, but should be ready to go by the time Training Camp starts up next month, and if not then, by the time the regular season begins. A positive for RB Deneric Prince is that neither Jerick McKinnon nor Isiah Pacheco has been at OTAs, so he’s getting loads of extra snaps… and he will continue to get those, until they return.
With two new offensive tackles, the Chiefs will be taking their time getting used to the two newbies they signed to take the places of LT Orlando Brown Jr., who went to the Cincinnati Bengals, and RT Andrew Wylie, who went to the Washington Commanders. When the Chiefs first signed Tackle Jawaan Taylor they said he might be lining up at Left Tackle, but then the Draft passed without them taking a top shelf Tackle so they signed Donovan Smith, who will likely be lining up at LT. However… the OTAs have seen different players taking practice snaps on the Left side, including Jawaan Taylor and draft pick Wanya Morris.
Any way you look at it, the Chiefs should have a much improved OL this season. Andy Reid said this about Donovan Smith:
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“Yeah so he’s [Donovan Smith] been a left tackle at a high level. If you look at – last year, he was hurt and then the year before that he was one of the top-rated left tackles in the League. And we’ve had a chance to play against him a couple times, so you know I know seeing him firsthand there (that) he’s a good football player.”
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The core of the Chiefs OL — LG Joe Thuney, OC Creed Humphrey, and RG Trey Smith — are the best interior offensive linemen in the NFL bar none, so the questions on offense come down to the Tackles on both sides. The Chiefs played is safe and drafted another Tackle in the 3rd round this year in Wanya Morris out of Oklahoma. They also have Darian Kinnard who was drafted in the 5th round last year out of Kentucky, so they appear to have the Tackle position covered. Now, it’s just a matter of watching them put it all together, which of course, begins with OTAs. The Chiefs have one of the best OL Coaches in Andy Heck, so I think it’s safe to say the Chiefs will have a better OL than they did in their Super Bowl winning season last year.
There’s still much that is hidden from us at OTAs. The Chiefs — under Andy Reid — closes practices for much of the time, as it should be. What’s to be hidden? The newest of plays that Reid has spent his offseason hours re-fashioning to make his offense even more potent than it has been. Much of his new offense will have already been installed by the time Training Camp arrives and fans are permitted to witness their every move each day that the practice is outside. Which, is most days.
Some may be wondering why it’s important to hide your plays — or new plays — from other team’s because they never know what you’re really going to call in a certain situation. If you use the most recent Super Bowl as an example, the Chiefs called a play — Corndog — to each side of the field knowing that it would work against the Eagles defense. In fact, they called it twice (even if it was by mistake) once to the right, and once to the left, and it scored a TD both times. That call, won the game for these Chiefs.
In December of 2022, Yardbarker’s Seth Trachtman, wrote a piece called: “Ranking the offensive play-caller for each NFL team” in which he ranked Andy Reid as the league’s best play-caller (no wonder Eric Bieniemy left for the Commanders… so he could get out from underneath Reid’s wing). In it, Trachtman said this about Reid:
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“Reid is synonymous with offense in his 24 seasons as a head coach in Philadelphia and Kansas City. He’s been helped by very good starting quarterbacks like Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith, and now Patrick Mahomes, but his impact is clear with a top-10 offense in 13 seasons. He was also ahead of his time with a pass-heavy scheme early in his time with Philly, and his ability to design eye candy while running the same plays from different formations can make his peers salivate.”
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Chiefs Kingdom is fortunate to have Andy Reid as their HC, but the question remains: when will Reid install his newest offensive plays each year? The answer to that appears to be: during OTAs that aren’t open to the public and during Training Camp when they go indoors.
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Reid’s Media Event
Here’s Andy Reid from Friday, June 9 (10:14):
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The Buy-In
With seven (7) drafted rookies and even more UDFAs, plus a number of players who have been in the league awhile, the question each season is… who will “buy-in” to Reid and his coaches approach to the game? When you win a Super Bowl, it’s much easier to get players to buy-in to what you’re proposing. Consequently, I don’t think the Chiefs should have any problems getting all their newest players on board.
The Chiefs use a speedy tempo to practice and then every player is ready for that pace once Training Camp arrives. In OTAs so far, Safety Bryan Cook and DB Nazeeh Johnson have stood out. Even though the Chiefs signed Safety Mike Edwards, to essentially replace Juan Thornhill (who is now with the Browns), Bryan Cook may end up with the lion’s share of Safety Snaps:
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We’ll be watching closely as the Chiefs hold their mandatory OTAs this week.
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In what ways do you think the Chiefs will change this coming season?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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