Chiefs Offseasons: 2022 vs 2023

Laddie Morse

Although we won’t know until this 2023 season begins, for the Kansas City Chiefs, just how well their offseason moves have come out, we should know how the moves they’ve made this year, compare to last year’s offseason. A year when they won it all. First, let’s take a look at their drafting, and then we’ll look at how well they did during the months of March, April and May… when the NFL’s Free Agency and Draft took place.

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A Rising Defense

Be sure and check out David Bell’s article on the Chiefs Defense called: “The Arising of the Chiefs Defense.” The Chiefs have been focusing heavily on the defensive side of the ball in the past two offseasons/drafts. Twelve (12) out of seventeen (17) picks in the past two drafts (2022 and 2023) have been on the defensive side of the ledger. Those Defensive players include:

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12 out of 17. Wow, that works out to over 70%. I don’t know if that’s a record, but it might be. With all of the draft picks from the 2022 draft should be returning for the 2023 season, that’s good news. Especially for the CB crew. Not only will Trent McDuffie have an outstanding year (assuming he plays a full season this time around), but the second year growth of Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson should be excellent as well. Not to be forgotten is that Williams is 6-foot-3 and Watson is 6-foot-2 which means they can both step in to cover opponents tight ends easily.

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Super Bowl Season

Also not to be forgotten, is that all the Chiefs returning players have championship winning experience and that means they have know-how, what it will take to succeed and exactly how to win it all. Even when games are close. Last year — in their Super Bowl winning season — the Chiefs averaged a 7.47 margin of victory throughout all their games in the regular season. That may sound like a lot, but let’s not lose focus that K.C. won SB LVII by a mere three (3) points.

7.47 per game during the regular season… that works out to around one touchdown per game (plus a little extra… very little). Three teams finished the year with better margins of victory including: the Eagles (+7.82), 49ers, (+10.18), and Bills (+10.56). What’s a bit surprising about these stats is that 20 out of 32 teams ended the year with a negative margin of victory. What that appears to reveal is an increased level of parity.

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Side Note: the Indianapolis Colt bring up the rear in this category by having a margin of victory/defeat at -8.12 per game. That’s part of what makes the Chiefs 17-to-20 loss to them in 2022 so exasperating.

The SB winning experience is important for these Chiefs too because the oldest of the players mentioned above is 7th round pick Nazeeh Johnson who will be 25 next month on the 17th. In a league filled with parity, it’s great to see the Chiefs taking advantage of anything they can take advantage of.

Major Gains and Losses

A year ago, the big news around Arrowhead was the loss of WR Tyreek Hill. However, he wasn’t the only loss last offseason. You may recall losing Safety Tyrann Mathieu. He was a huge loss but bringing in Justin Reid to replace him, helped considerably. By going away from Mathieu and moving onto Reid, the Chiefs saved fives year as Tyrann played last year at he age of 30 and Justin played at age 25. They were also drafted 5 years and one pick apart: Mathieu was drafted in 2013 with the 69th pick (third round) and Reid was drafted in 2018 with the 68th pick (third round).

Justin Reid is said to be coming back even stronger this season. It’s been said that, “Justin Reid looks absolutely jacked.” BTW, both Charles Omenihu and Justin Reid, who played with DeAndre Hopkins in Houston, are said to be recruiting him to the Chiefs.

Last offseason, Brett Veach re-signed OT Andrew Wylie who ended up starting at Right Tackle for K.C.. He started every game for the Chiefs and played on 95% of the offensive snaps. This offseason, Wylie was allowed to walk away. Wylie signed a 3-year $24M deal with the Commanders and he’ll rejoin Eric Bieniemy, his offensive coordinator in K.C.. To replace Wylie, Veach signed Jawaan Taylor who could also end up at Left Tackle, we’ll have to wait and see.

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In the meantime, Veach signed LT Donovan Smith who played previously for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was part of the team that beat the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. While Veach was signing Donovan Smith to a one-year deal, the team decided not to re-sign Orlando Brown Jr. to a long term deal. That hasn’t gone over well with much of the Kingdom, but OBJr. was an average LT at best, even though he had been voted to the Pro Bowl by his peers. In sacks allowed OBJr. was tied for 38th best in the NFL and in penalties he was ranked 36th best in the NFL. While I say “best”… that term is not appropriate here, is it?

I believe the Chiefs will have a much improved OL with both Jawaan Taylor and Donovan Smith taking over these positions. The interior of the Chiefs OL with Joe Thuney (LG), Creed Humphrey (OC), and Trey Smith, (RG) is one of the very best — if not the best — in the entire NFL. Maybe only behind the Eagles IOL of: Landon Dickerson (LG), Jason Kelce (OC) and Cam Jurgens (RG).

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Adding JuJu Smith-Schuster last offseason was a boon to the wide receiving corps. Losing him this offseason has been another media monsoon. While fans don’t like losing JuJu, they’ve also clung to the idea that Justyn Ross will eb balling out this year, and I’m afraid we’ll just have to … wait-n-see about that one.

While the loss of JuJu will be noticeable in September, what will also be revealed is the Chiefs solution to the WR question. Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Richie James, Rashee Rice, Justyn Ross, John Ross, Justin Watson, Cornell Powell, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Nikko Remigio, Ty Fryfogle, and Jerrion Ealy (RB-WR)… should allow the Chiefs to make a clear cut decision about who will remain on the 53 man roster and who will become starters. I see loads of talent and let’s never forget who is pitching them the ball.

While we don’t know the results of the Frank Clark situation yet– whether or not he’ll be re-signed — we do know that the players the Chiefs have to play along the DL is a fine group of players and may end up being better than the 2022 crew.

This is not a be-all, end-all of moves the Chiefs have made over the last two offseason but it does cover most of the important moves made:

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What do you think? I’m leaning towards this year’s team being a better group at every position. Whether or not they’ll win it all remains to be seen… but I’m liking the moves they’ve made this offseason. So far.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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