Chiefs on ArrowheadOne: Progress and Progress

Chiefs on ArrowheadOne: Progress and Progress – it was three years ago last week that ArrowheadOne published its first article. Since that time we’ve had over 2.5 million visitors while providing at least one article every day and offering a troll-free, profanity-free, environment for Kansas City Chiefs related conversation. In the meantime, the Chiefs have made a ton of progress and what follows is a review of some of the pieces published here in July of 2016 so you can get an idea of just how far the Chiefs have come.

In a piece called, “Success Will Be Dependent Upon THIS ONE THING: 7 Over 3” the point was made that the Chiefs need to score more “sevens” (TDs) than “threes” (field goals) because the team had gotten in the rut of not being able to convert red zone chances. Of course, by then, in 2015, the QB was Alex Smith and the field goal kicker was Cairo Santos. With Patrick Mahomes holding down that key spot now, the Chiefs should be able to continue their red zone success.

In 2018 Patrick Mahomes led the NFL in red zone TD passes inside the 20-yard line with 35 TDs. He also led the NFL in TD passes inside the 10-yard line with 20. These stats may be his most impressive stats from his MVP season in 2018. It’s exciting to think about what comes next.

Also in July of 2016, came a piece we ran called: “Chiefs Rookies & Newbies Camp: Day 2 Thread” in which Herbie Teope commented on Tyreek Hill. Of course this was before we knew who Hill would become as a player, one of the best WRs in the league:

Teope is now in New Orleans and Hill has just finished a season in which he set a record for the most yards for a WR in a season for the Chiefs organization. 

[Personal Note: I was totally spoiled and didn’t know it when Herbie Teope and Terez Paylor were covering all things Chiefs.]

Another piece we ran that July was called, “Dee Ford Will Be The Key to the Chiefs Defense” in which Jason Seibel touted that:

“If you turn your sights to Ford, you see that he took much better advantage of his starts when they finally came due to injury to Houston. Ford started the final five games of the 2015 season because of the aforementioned injury to Houston. Though he had some insignificant playing time previously, during those five starts, he racked up 14 solo tackles and four sacks, including a masterful three-sack performance against the San Diego Chargers in the second start of his career. For comparison sake, it took Houston until his sixth start to pull a “hat trick” on defense.”

Ford went on to register 10 sacks in 2016 along with 38 tackles leading the Chiefs defense to a 12-4 record and a loss in the playoffs to the Pittsburgh Steelers. What can’t be forgotten about the 5 year career of Ford in K.C. is his 6.1 sacks average per year and an average of 27.2 tackles per season. By comparison, Tamba Hali had 587 tackles in his 11 active seasons playing essentially the same position averaging 53.3 tackles per year. Hali also had 8.1 sacks per year over that same span of time.

While Ford had his best year last season, he was not a huge success in Kansas City especially when you consider he was the Chiefs 1st pick in the first round of the 2014 draft, and 23rd overall. Most fans will remember him for his offsides penalty in the playoffs vs the Patriots but, the much larger reality is, he was an inconsistent player for the Chiefs who also could not defend the run very well.

Also from July that year we ran a piece called: “Eric Fisher Signs Extension, Eric Berry a No Show at Camp,” which reported on LT Eric Fisher’s contract update:

While Fisher hasn’t acquitted himself well until the 2018 season, it is revealing to see how the Chiefs brass (and John Dorsey) viewed him three years ago. I guess once you head down the rabbit hole with a player, you have the tendency to go all the way. Hopefully, sticking with Fisher continues to pay off like it finally did in the last half of 2018.

As far as Eric Berry is concerned, that was the year the Chiefs ended up franchise tagging him then later giving him a huge contract. However, at that time, a blogger named “SullyFootball” on Twitter, who no longer exists there, tweeted this out:

“Eric Berry and Poe aren’t paid but we gave 63 million to Eric Fisher….lmao — Sully (@SullyFootball) July 30, 2016″

What’s most revealing about that post, is that DT Dontari Poe was still with the team and entering his last year. Poe was among the three Chiefs DL who were called, “The Three Musketeers” which included Poe, Allen Bailey, and Jaye Howard. However, 2015 was the last year they played together and Poe was on the downward spiral of his time as an effective defensive lineman because of a bad back and one year later ended up playing for the Atlanta Falcons.

Eric Berry? We all know how that ended up.

My, oh my, how the Chiefs have changed over the past three years. ArrowheadOne has changed plenty as well. Our writers now include: Ransom Hawthorne, Paul Pulley, David Bell, Michael Travis Rose, and moi, Laddie Morse (plus, an occasional piece by John Cooney). Thank you, not only to our incredible cadre of writers, but to you… for reading and commenting with such acute aplomb. We look forward to a stellar year of covering the best team in the universe: the Kansas City Chiefs.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

PS: The Elephant in the room –> Here’s the full 11:27 audio between Crystal Espinal and Tyreek Hill in the Dubai International Airport early in 2019. Note: only a part of this was released in April. The important takeaways from this full recording are two-fold for me: 1) Tyreek Hill didn’t know he was being recorded but Crystal Espinal obviously did. Espinal’s motive to secretly record him appears to be calculated and with a purpose in mind. 2) Hill attests that Espinal was lying about the 2014 incident for which he later pled guilty to in 2015, and Espinal mounts little push back for Hill’s assertion. Judge for yourself:

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