Chiefs: Positional Rankings

Laddie Morse

Although Training Camp hasn’t happened yet, we can still tell a lot about each position. A few offseasons ago, GM Brett Veach set out to fix the OL and did just that. Then a couple of years ago, he set out to fix the CB position and succeeded. Last year… the jury is still out on that one, but he did sign LB Drue Tranquill and we won our second Lombardi in a row… so that’s saying something. This year, Veach let MVS go and signed Hollywood Brown, so the WR room is fixed. Right? Well… we’ll see about that. Let’s take a look at each positional group and how they rank.

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Quarterback

I’m not even going to go to the ranking services here. Patrick Mahomes deserves better than that. We waited so long as Chiefs fans for a quality QB, when we got one in Alex Smith we didn’t know how to react. Now that we got the GOAT, it’s time to bow our heads in reverence.

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Tight End

Travis Kelce deserves our great thanks as well. He had 7 straight 1,000+ yard seasons when no other TE in the history of the NFL had more than 4 1,000+ yard receiving season spread out over their careers. Our own Tony Gonzalez had 4 such seasons, but only had back-to-back 1,000+ seasons once ever. Kelce is a rare bred.

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Running Back

Isiah Pacheco is famous for saying, “I’m willing to take another grown man’s job” and that’s exactly what he did. Kingdom fans had been upset with the first round drafting of RB Clyde Ewards-Helaire in 2020, but the last round pick of Isiah Pacheco — Pop — in 2022 (pick #251) has made up for that blunder, in a big way.

PFF ranks all RBs and has Pop at #15. Here’s what they say about him:

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“Pacheco runs like he’s mad at the ground for its existence. The Chiefs seventh-round pick from 2023 [it was actually 2022] rushed for 935 yards and seven touchdowns en route to helping the team to back-to-back Super Bowl wins. Averaging 4.6 yards per carry, Pacheco earned an 82.3 grade in 2023 and tallied 11 runs of 15-plus yards. He’ll continue to be a real weapon for the Chiefs in their pursuit of immortality.”

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Pacheco should hit the 1,000+ yard mark this year and although he had 244 receiving yards in 2023, he should have closer to 400 receiving yards this season.

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Wide Receivers

The release of Marquez Valdes-Scantling should have as much to do with the improvement of the WR corp as the signing of Marquise Hollywood Brown. The Chiefs have no WRs ranked in the top 20 by CBS Sports nor the top 32 by PFF. While this is disheartening, if we look at it by the end of the year, that will certainly change. I’d expect Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice to both show up on those lists and Hollywood should make the top 20 by CBS Sports by then too. This is not to mention that the Chiefs just drafted the fastest player in NFL history… ever.

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Tackles

While PFF has Jawaan Taylor ranked as the 57th best Tackle, a ranking by Mile High has him at 28. Either way, it’s not good. I expect, that’s mostly because he led the league in penalties by a large margin. BTW, Donovan Smith shows up as the 10th best ranked OT from last year… by PFF.

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Guards

Trey Smith shows up as the 32nd best Guard by PFF, but we all know that’s not nearly right. CBS Sports ranks Joe Thuney as the 6th best Guard in the NFL. At least someone knows what they’re talking about.

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Center

Creed Humphrey is one of the best, if not the best, Offensive Center in all of football. The Chiefs may be getting ready to replace him with Hunter Nourzad or at the very least, leverage his deal with the presence of Nourzad. CBS Sports Ranks Humphrey as the 5th best interor offensive lineman in the NFL. He’s also the first Center to show up on that list.

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Defensive End

Charles Omenihu ranks 53rd in PFF DE rankings. We know that’s not nearly high enough. George Karlaftis ranked #7 in QB Pressures as determined by ChiefsWire. That’s not bad considering he only played on 75% of the Defensive snaps in 2023. While it’s tough to find other Rankins for our DEs, I have to say, I’m happy with the group. How can I not be? We just won back-to-back Super Bowl Trophies.

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Defensive Line Rankings Overall

FTN.com has the Chiefs DL ranked as the 14th best overall including: DE: George Karlaftis, 3T: Chris Jones, 1T: Derrick Nnadi, DE: Mike Danna

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Linebackers

Sports Illustrated has an article called: “Chiefs’ LB Unit Ranked Just Outside of Top 10 in NFL Entering 2024.” Also, Nick Bolton ranks 7th by CBS Sports, by Jordan Dajani. He says this about Bolton:

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“Bolton missed nine games last season, and I still think he’s underrated. In 2022, Bolton recorded 180 combined tackles (second among all players), two sacks and three passes defensed to go along with two interceptions. He could have won Super Bowl MVP in the win over the Philadelphia Eagles, as he recorded nine combined tackles and a fumble recovery he took back for a touchdown. Now, he’s in a contract year, so expect big things in 2024.”

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I agree that Bolton could have won the MVP in that Super Bowl. Drue Tranquill ranked 15th right behind Nick Bolton who was #14, by PFF. The Chiefs are set at LB this year especially since Leo Chenal is their third man up. We’ll see how things work out next offseason.

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Cornerback

Trent McDuffie made the Pro Bowl so our first man up is a good one. One of the best in fact. PFF has an article called: “PFF Cornerback Rankings: Top 32 ahead of the 2024 NFL season” in which Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie is ranked as the second best CB in the NFL. Second only to Sauce Gardner of the N.Y. Jets.

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Note: Oddly, ex-Chiefs Charvarius Ward is ranked 3rd right behind Trent McDuffie.

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True to form, no other Chiefs CBs are ranked in PFF’s top 32 in that same piece. While I would agree that the rest of the Chiefs CBs fall outside of the top 32 ranking, they are taught by CB coach Dave Merritt. Also, Steve Spagnuolo calls a great game.

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Safeties

Neither CBS Sports and their top 20 or PFF and their top 32 have any Chiefs Safeties ranked. I believe the Chiefs group will be fine with Justin Reid and Bryan Cook as starters and Chamarri Connor coming off the bench. Also, I think that the Safeties not being ranked will change by years end.

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2nd Note: Once again, of course, an ex-Chiefs player, in this case Tyrann Mathieu, is ranked as the 10th best Safety by both CBS Sports.com and PFF.com.

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Special Teams

In every Special Teams ranking I observed, the Chiefs were always in the top 8. Sometimes as high as #2 and sometimes as low as 8th.

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What do you think?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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