Laddie Morse
Well, the feeling of an extended preseason is long past now, and the Kansas City Chiefs should be settling into a familiar routine of winning from play to play. While HC Andy Reid likes to remind us, these games are won by the slightest of margins and plays down the stretch of any game, can decide that game. In any case, it looks like GM Brett Veach is continuing to work to bring in player that make the team better, including a couple of older names: WR Mecloe Hardman and possibly DE Frank Clark.
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Maybe I’m just dragging my feet but the re-addition of WR/KR Mecole Hardman is one I don’t understand. Sure, it may be a good move financially, but does it make the team better? I recall Hardman being the one WR that QB Partick Mahomes was frequently gesturing to following a busted play as if Hardman turned the wrong way. I think one of our ArrowheadOne.com bloggers, freshmeat62 hit the nail on the head when he wrote:
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“… most of my memories of him are PM
pointing and being frustrated at him not
being where he was supposed to be.”
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Hardman was drafted in 2019 with the 56th pick, a second rounder, when the Chiefs believed they might be needing to replace Tyreek Hill’s speed because Hill was still having domestic issues. Hill’s situation, at that time, turned out for the best, but the Chiefs were stuck with Hardman and his output, which was never what many fans had hoped.
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Over the past five season, all with the Chiefs, Hardman averaged 522 yards receiving. In November of last season, Hardman went on IR and had offseason surgery on his Inguinal Groin, a Grade 3 tear. Hardman was supposed to be all better this season with the Jets (and had hoped he’d be catching passes from Aaron Rodgers) but his one catch on 3 targets for 6 yards was not what the Jets had hoped for when they singed him.
The Chiefs are trading for him and only have to pay about $1.8M for his services the rest of hte year. The Chiefs are trading a 6th round pick for the Jets 7th round pick. His career catch rate is 68% (152 catches of 223 targets). I don’t think 68% is exactly what K.C. was hoping for.
The positives are that Hardman knows the Chiefs playbook (mostly) and he should be able to contribute right away. Another positive is that he can step right into the Kick Returner role and also takes away the need for Kadarius Toney to run any Jet Sweeps which should keep Toney refesher.
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One of the issues with bringing these ex-player back is, who will be cut to make room for them? While I may think it will be good to have Frank Clark around to help train up Felix Anudike-Uzomah and continue with George Karlaftis’ lessons after practice… I just don’t see the need to bring back a player who has had on-field production that’s been fading in recent years.
The first question that comes to my mind about Frank Clark is: when will you make a break with him if not now?
I’d rather see the Chiefs b=ring back Carlos Dunlap than Frank Clark… and he’d likely be a cheaper fix.
The positives are that Clark always appears to raise the level of his play when the playoffs roll around. Clark has 13.5 sacks in the playoffs and Willie McGinest has the record with 16 sacks in the playoffs. Clark’s totals can not be replicated by any other player. Here’s Frank Clark punching Joe Burrow in the chest after he’d thrown the ball… which I think is an important part of the game, even if Burrow whines and disagrees (0:09).
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With Tyreek Hill leaving over a year ago for Miami, and JuJu Smith-Schuster leaving this past offseason for New England (where he’s had 14 catches on 25 targets for 86 yards in 2023) the Chiefs have been playing it safe, not signing a big name WR or any obvious choice who could step into the WR #1 role.
The main issue with the Chiefs receivers is getting open right away. Or so we thought. Some have done an analysis and found that they ARE getting open, but Patrick Mahomes is not getting the ball to them. Andy Reid said recently:
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“Well, I mean, it looked like [they were open]. We had a couple hundred yards in the first quarter — that wasn’t bad. Four hundred yards the week before. I mean, somebody’s getting open.”
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If that’s true, it’s problematic in that Mahomes will have to make adjustments to cure what ails this team the most. While the defense is playing some lights-out ball, the offense has been struggling and that mostly has to do with the Wide receivers.
The King of all Tight Ends Ever, is not the problem. While he is not only making a national name for himself by dating pop icon Taylor Swift and starring twice on SNL (2:24).
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This SNL sketch is Hilarious!
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Kelce is also the same TE we’ve always known and is by far the best Chiefs receiver — this year — with 36 catches for 364 yards. What Kelce has not forgotten is his ability to sit down in the open spaces of a zone or, being able to beat double coverage when the defense the Chiefs are facing plays man-coverage.
I like Justyn Ross a ton and think he could eventually be WR#1. However, I know HC Andy Reid likes to bring guys with previous medical issues along slowly… but in Ross’ case, perhaps too slowly. We’ll have to wait until the playoffs roll around to be certain with Justyn Ross.
Still, I’m projecting that the Chiefs will draft a WR early and/or sign a WR in Free Agency this coming offseason.
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The problem is Patrick Mahomes. I never thought I would write a sentence like that, but there it is.
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When you think of the “Deep Ball” the first player that probably comes to mind — especially if you live in Kansas City area — is Patrick Mahomes. While we all love to see as many deep balls as possible in a game, the deep ball was much easier to complete for PM when he had both Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman in the house. Why? Because Hill runs a 4.29 40-yard dash and Hardman runs a 4.33. I’m sure that’s one big reason the Chiefs brought Hardman back to the team two days ago. That may also be a big reason that Hardman shows up in the game this Sunday.
In an article called, ” Where Has Patrick Mahomes Deep Ball Gone?” by Doug Farrar, he quoted Mahomes as saying:
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“We haven’t hit them at a high enough pace this season so far, but we have historically so let’s just try to continue to work them and practice them. And then when we get opportunities in the game let’s try to hit them. As far as the rest if the offense, I thought we did a good job of just moving the ball around, taking what was underneath, but yeah, when we get those opportunities, you just have to hit them in this league.”
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Mahomes tries too much to go for the deep ball and often doesn’t take what’s open right in front of him. That may be why some analysts have discovered that even though his young WRs are getting open, he’s not hitting them… he wants to go deep too much.
Until Mahomes makes the adjustment — like he did last year — he won’t be able to complete all the passes he wants to complete.
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I should have named this section: “WR By Committee.” We usually talk about the “Running Backs by Committee,” but now were needing to coin the phrase: “Wide Receivers by Committee.” This season, the Chiefs have decided to go with a much younger Wide Receiving corp, then hope someone steps up to become the #1 WR.
This ties back into the decision to let Tyreek Hill walk (which gave us 5 draft picks: a 2022 first-round pick (No. 29 traded to New England for No. 21 where the Chiefs took CB Trent McDuffie), second-round pick (No. 50) and fourth-round pick (No. 54 which K.C. traded to New England for picks No. 158 then traded that to Seattle for No. 145 where they took OL Darian Kinnard), plus 4th, and 6th round picks, in the 2023 draft (both invloved in trades).
While the Tyreek Hill trade may have helped the Chiefs draft several very good players, Hill could always stretch the field, which is what Mahomes was great at doing with Hill… throwing the Deep Ball. Since Mahomes and Hill played several years together, Mahomes got used to going deep whenever he wanted to… especially since he was famous for his strong arm.
Then, last year, he made the adjustments to hit JuJu Smith-Schuster, along with Travis Kelce, over the middle of the field and the Chiefs had so much success with that, that they won their third Super Bowl title. Now, unless Patrick Mahomes makes those same kinds of adjustments — again — the Chiefs may be headed in the wrong direction, especially with the Chargers coming to town this weekend.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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