Laddie Morse
Now that we’ve reached week five, the Kansas City Chiefs Bye Week, it’s time to look in on several subjects that need addressing.
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Most sports analytic services have the Chiefs as the number one team in their Power Rankings. However, “Purple FTW Podcast has the Vikings at #1., which figures since they are primarily a Vikings Podcast. The Vikings schedule has included games against the Giants and the Jets, which is a much easier schedule than the one the Chiefs have faced. No one has expected K.C. to be 5-and-0 by the Bye week, yet here we are. Here are Rich Eisen’s Week Six Power Rankings (5:38):
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Many Kingdom fans have been wanting the Chiefs to re-sign Donovan Smith, who is still out there and available. While Donovan Smith may have better upper body strength, Wanya Morris, the current LT, has better footwork and the Chiefs must be thinking he’ll come along in that process. I’m not so sure D. Smith would have been able to make this play seen below, a play made possible by Wanya Morris (0:57):
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Morris is #64 and he and LG Joe Thuney successfully deal with the Saints criss-crossing their DL to take advantage of that, but Mahomes keeps the play alive and Morris does a good enough job, that you’ll notice him allowing Mahomes to cross right in front of him before he scurries off to the sideline and makes a first down by stretching the ball out as he dives for the first down marker.
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The Chiefs have become more noted for their Defense than their Offense. That is such a turnaround that the team is now is thought of in terms of their defensive stars more than their offensive stars. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe the bottom line reason for the Chiefs winning big games is the emergence of QB Patrick Mahomes. But with Chris Jones and Nick Bolton and Justin Reid u the middle of this defense, the Chiefs have figured out a way to keep other teams to a minimum of points. According to teamrankings.com the Chiefs are tied for 5th place with the Bears and the Jets in points allowed with 17 PPG. The following is from teamrankings.com:
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In fact, the Chiefs Defense is getting better as the year progresses. In the past three games they have only allowed 13.3 PPG and that’s tied for third place with the Chargers.
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Patrick Mahomes threw for an average of 226 Yards Per Game in the Chiefs first four games of the year. He even threw for 151 yards against the Bengals in week two. However, this past Sundat against the Saints he trew for 331 Yards. Mahomes would rank 18th among all NFL QBs this year if we go by his first four games average of 226 YPG. He’d be first overall if we go by the 331 yards he put up in the game vs the Saints. Here’s the Top Ten QBs so far this year, YPG Leaders:
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In a piece called, “2024-2025 Important NFL Dates” the Operations Department says:
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“All trading ends for 2024 at 4:00 p.m., New York time.”
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Here’s the calendar/schedule for the first part of November, 2024.
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The Chiefs next game is against the San Francisco 49ers in San Fran. That game doesn’t appear here, but we hope Andy Reid’s extra time to prepare will take precedence.
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We haven’t spoken about Tershawn Wharton and about the excellent season he having, but someone needs to. Nate Christensen at ArrowheadPride has a piece out called, “Tershawn Wharton is having a career season” in which he says:
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“Wharton has been fantastic this season. Through five
games, he has 15 pressures, two sacks and one quarterback
hit with a 9.6% pressure rate. In his three previous full seasons,
it was 6.3%, 8.6% and 6.7%. This is — by far — a career high.
Even better, Kansas City has used him as an early-down run
defender — and he’s held up capably.”
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Here’s some film that Nate Christensen provided in his piece, Wharton is #98 in the middle of most videos (0:37):
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Wharton has been especially good vs the run this year (0:52):
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What do you think?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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