Questions, questions, questions. Sure, I’m thrilled with the 30-to-13 win over the Chargers but even that result leaves us with more questions. In fact, that’s mostly what the Kansas City Chiefs provide us fans with these days… and furthermore, it’s been this way for years now. I’ll give you an example.
Think back to one year ago. The big question at RB was: is Jamaal Charles going to return to full speed in 2018? The Chiefs answered that by releasing him in the offseason then drafting a rookie RB who was meant to share snaps with Spencer Ware… who then went on the Injured Reserved list with an ACL and an MCL. While Kareem Hunt took over and did terrific work initially, he hit a dry patch in the middle of the season, then bounced back the last couple of weeks. Now, as the playoffs loom a few weeks away, we’re left with questions about which RB Kareem Hunt actually is: the one in the first five games… or the guy in the middle of the year… or the stellar RB of the past two weeks? Which is it? Who is he?
The questions we have about the RB position run parallel to the offensive line questions. Recently RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif said that the offensive line playbook was simplified and that made a huge difference in their ability to execute what are normally complex blocking assignments. While that has been a big success the past two weeks, the question remains whether or not that will work in the playoffs.
It should be a dramatic offseason filled with high intrigue. Will Alex Smith be traded? Will Patrick Mahomes get his chance this coming season? Will Chiefs future Ring of Honor lock ILB Derrick Johnson hang up his cleats? Are there going to be any coaching changes, or coaches leaving to become a head coach somewhere else? Will new GM Brett Veach be able to draft better than his predecessor?
Back to the realities of this season. You might think that you could say, the Chiefs always present us with questions? So, what I’m really meaning us to say is… if the Chiefs win a Super Bowl… like the Royals won a World Series recently… we knew exactly “who” and “what” those teams were all about. Yes, we can say we know the identity of the offense more than we know the defense right now — Hill, Kelce and Hunt — but beyond those three special guys, what do we really know moving forward.
One of the biggest questions I have is… can this “Show-Time Defense” — the one that we witnesses on Saturday evening — be counted on to deliver all the way to a championship? Or… will they shrink back into the malaise of ill-fated performances we’ve grown accustomed to the better part of two years?
That question is related to the position the Chiefs find themselves in with Justin Houston and Eric Berry. While I find it a futile conversation to debate whether or not the Chiefs “should” have handed out max-contracts to these two position players on defense, the question now is, how do you construct a defense that will perform at a championship level while your two best players are now available to play at full strength? Justin Houston has been good this season but far from the player he was three years ago when he basically “earned” his max deal the following offseason. Do the Chiefs re-structure Houston’s deal in the offseason? I don’t think you can do that with Eric Berry because he also “means” more to this team than his max-deal dictates.
As for questions I have about recent games:
1. Will other teams be able to attack the Chiefs defense, in coming weeks, with the kinds of crossing routes that the Chargers used that had a ton of success?
2. What will the Chiefs do to cover other team’s tight ends? I’m surprised teams haven’t gone to two and three TE sets and kept attacking the Chiefs that way.
I can give you an answer to a question that previously seemed like a “forever unknown” answer question: will WR Albert Wilson ever become consistent? This season, Wilson has not only proven his worth as a consistent contributor to the passing game but become a reliable target in crunch time and someone QB Alex Smith can depend upon. I also find it interesting that the lull the Chiefs had in he middle os this season coincides with the time Wilson was out with a hamstring injury. Another example of a question that has gone “unanswered for nearly 5 years running now is: will TE Demetrius Harris ever be able to reliably catch a ball that hits him in the hands? See, now the Chiefs still have too, too many of those kinds of questions to make me feel confident as the playoffs approach.
While the game on Saturday gave me great hope for this season, the fact is, the playoffs are not even a guarantee yet. Yes, K.C. appears to be a red-hot team peeking at the right time of year, but the eternal questions, are the greater sum of their parts.
What questions do you have for this team as the Dolphins come to town?
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