Chiefs: Ramblings About the Offense

Chiefs: Ramblings About the Offense – Now that Tyreek Hill has been cleared to play football for the entirety of the 2019 season, what does this mean for the Chiefs as a whole. I think that the offense will pick up right where they left off, averaging about 35 points per game. It’s very possible that they do even more, as I see Sammy Watkins getting a lot better in his second season of Andy Reid’s offense. I think Travis Kelce will be as good and maybe even better after getting his ankle repaired during the off-season. Unlike many, I don’t see Demarcus Robinson as a downgrade from Chris Conley. We know what Damien Williams can do as the starting running back, albeit a small sample size, but he does have excellent hands out of the backfield and very good speed.

Mecole Hardman

Now that Hill won’t miss any practices or games, and yes, I am still a little surprised at this, the Chiefs can have the luxury of bringing Hardman along slowly, as long as Hill and Watkins stay healthy. I think Hardman will be the primary kick and punt returner, but will be used sparingly in the offense, and this could benefit him greatly. Just think how much good it did to have Mahomes sit a year to learn the offense. I’m not saying Hardman won’t be used at all, but he won’t have to be forced into duty right away.

The Offensive Line

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will be back to man the right guard position and iron man Mitchell Schwartz will be very solid at right tackle. It appears Austin Reiter will be manning the starting center position full time to start the season. I don’t believe Reiter is an up-grade over Mitch Morse, but he shouldn’t be much of a drop-off either. Starting Andrew Wylie at left guard could very well be a little bit of an up-grade over Cam Erving, both in pass protection and not getting penalized. Eric Fisher will once again man the left tackle position. Fisher ended the season last year fairly strong and hopefully that continues. I recently re-watched the Cardinals game from last year and Fisher was totally schooled by Chandler Jones in that game. 

Erving, who is capable of playing any of the five position on the line, should be the sixth O-lineman, with Kahlil McKenzie and Nick Allegretti in the wings. I could see the Chiefs keeping a 9th offensive lineman on the 53 this year if there is a young up and comer they don’t want to subject to getting poached off the practice squad.

The Running Backs

Damien Williams is the named starter before camp begins, and will likely be the starter at the beginning of the season. Including the fullback Anthony Sherman, I fully expect the Chiefs to keep five RBs on the 53 man roster. Along with Sherman and Damien, will be Carlos Hyde, Darrel Williams and rookie Darwin Thompson.

The Quarterbacks

I’m going to step way out on a limb here and say that Patrick Mahomes will be the starting QB. I’m expecting the Chiefs to keep the veteran Chad Henne around one more season as the backup and I believe that once again, there will only be the two QBs on the roster. There should be a great dual during training camp between Kyle Shurmur and Chase Litton for the third QB, who will spend the season on the practice squad. Who knows, if both look good, one might unfortunately get injured and placed on IR for the season.

The Receiving Corp

I’m going to combine the tight ends and wide receivers for now. I believe the Chiefs will go into the season with a total of nine receivers. At this time I believe there are five locks for the roster, Travis Kelce at TE, and WR’s Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Robinson and Mecole Hardman. With the Chiefs going into training camp with what seems to be a gluttony of talent at wide receiver and a lack of talent at tight end, they may choose to start the season with seven WR’s and only two TE’s. The leading candidates for reserves would be TE Deon Yelder and receivers Byron Pringle, Marcus Kemp and Gehrig Dieter.

An Unprecedented Aerial Attack

With the Chiefs now possessing  the best QB in the NFL and with a receiving corp starting to be termed the “Legion of Zoom”, an offensive line built primarily for pass protection and running backs who’s best attributes are as receivers, we should be prepared to witness a passing attack that has never before been seen in the NFL. In an excellent article posted the other day by Michael Travis Rose, Travis listed a number of records that had recently been broken and several more that he thought could be broken this year, and I would like to add a couple more (I hope you don’t mind Travis).

Last year Mahomes attempted 580 passes, which places him 2nd in Chiefs history. In 1983, Bill Kenney set the Chiefs record at 603 pass attempts.

The NFL record for pass attempts in a season is 727, set by Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions in 2012. The New Orleans Saints Drew Brees holds the record of completions in a season, 471, set in 2016.

Some Odds and Ends Stats

The Chiefs scored 66 offensive touchdowns during the regular season last year. Of those 66 touchdown drives, 30 of them went for less than 75 yards and of those 30, only 10 of them were less than 50 yard drives.

Of the remaining 36 TD drives, almost half, 17 of them were longer than 75 yards.

In an area to improve, the offense had 28 “3 and outs” last season, in addition, they had 5 more “4 and outs”. What I’m calling a 4 and out is an initial 1st down on a single play, followed by a 3 and out, gaining less than 20 yards. Combined, that is just over 2 per game on the average.

By the time you read this, training camp will have started and things are about to get exciting.

Paul Pulley — ArrowheadOne

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