Laddie Morse
You just knew it couldn’t last. What, you ask? The roster, the way it was constructed for the 2019 season. Sure, the Chiefs operated on the “Run-It-Back” theory in 2020, but look at how that turned out. Now, with an elite quarterback in house, we can expect more of the same. The same what? Well, more rookies taking over for established players –> as long as the Chiefs have an elite QB in the house.
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Let’s take a look at the Chiefs Rookies — who were either drafted or affixed to the roster as a UDFA this year — and focus on their contributions this season.
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The first thing that jumps out at me is that every rookie took Special Teams snaps. Even Darian Kinnard, and that explains a lot. Not that Kinnard took snaps, but that all our rookies were involved with the Special Teams unit… because… that unit struggled earlier this season.
Also, that’s eleven rookies who have contributed heavily to the Chiefs this season. While both Isiah Pacheco and Skyy Moore have made inroads into the offense — and I suspect we’ll see more of them in the next two seasons — the rest of the rookies (with the exception of Darian Kinnard) have been defensive players. That’s eight (8) rookies who have contributed to the team this season and six (six) of those have played considerable minutes on the defensive side of the ball: Trent McDuffie, George Karlaftis, Joshua Williams, Justin Watson, Bryan Cook and Leo Chenal.
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While third year pro LB Willie Gay has played on 608 snaps this season, I suspect he may end up being the odd man odd as Leo Chenal and Jack Cochrane may step in to fill his shoes. That is, unless Gay is willing to take less to stay with an annually competitive Super Bowl team.
Both George Karlaftis and Trent McDuffie have played well enough to win the Chiefs Rookie of the Year Award, but so far, I’m leaning towards McDuffie. I love Karlaftis and see that he has raised his performances in the last month or two of the season, but McDuffie has been a top flight performer all season long, after he came back from his hamstring injury in the first game of the year versus the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, McDuffie will be returning to the scene of the crime — so to speak — when he steps onto the turf in Arizona (which is where he was originally injured) for Super Bowl 57. McDuffie had to sit out for six (6) games this year because of his injury.
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Defensive Lineman, George Karlaftis, had 0.5 sacks in his first ten (10) games this season. Something seemed to happen to him because a light-bulb came on for him and he’s had 6.5 sacks in the past nine (9) games (including the playoffs). I was happy with him before that time and he could often be seen taking instruction after practice from either Frank Clark or Carlos Dunlap. Karlaftis has a motor like Tamba Hali had a non-stop motor, but the difference is, I believe GK will end up with many more sacks and batted down balls. Tamba had 4 batted down passes in his rookie year while George Karlaftis has had 7.
Charles Goldman wrote a piece called: “Chiefs getting more out rookie DBs than anticipated” (thanks you David for sending me this link) for the KC Sports Network in which he says this about the coaches for the defensive backfield:
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“… I think the coaches have done – [Defensive Backs Coach] Dave Merritt and [Safeties Coach] Donald [D’Alesio] have done a great job with those guys to get them ready to play and so have the players. I mean they embraced it.”
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Without Jaylen Watson and Joshua Williams picking up the slack in the AFCCG, Brett Veach would never have been able to trade away Rashad Fenton (a 6th round pick in 2019) to the Atlanta Falcons for a conditional 7th round pick by the NFL Trade Deadline of November 1. Jaylen was recently asked about the “rookies” shining in the most important situations and he said:
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“What rookies?”
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Many like to point out that the progress of CBs Watson and Williams made winning possible during that game versus the Bengals once L’Jarius Sneed went down. Others, like Pete Sweeney, have even suggested that the Chiefs rookies aren’t rookies anymore:
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Chiefs main reporter Matt McMullen had this to Tweet about the Chiefs rookies in the AFCCG:
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The contributions of the Chiefs rookies have been crucial to their most recent victory and will be again in Super Bowl LVII. I know I made what may seem to some to be a silly prediction in that Skyy Moore would be the Chiefs number one wideout by the end of this season, but Moore had a great impact on this game and had to overcome some inner demons to do it. He did it!
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Dave Skretta recently wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports called “Chiefs banked on rookie returns to reach Super Bowl again” in which he said:
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“Andy Reid remembers talking to the Kansas City Chiefs at some point last year, back when veterans were getting to know rookies and the season still seemed so far off, and he brought up the San Francisco 49ers under Bill Walsh. It was 1981 and the 49ers had drafted a quartet of defensive backs that they expected to contribute right away. They did so much more. Ronnie Lott went on to start all 16 games, beginning a Hall of Fame career and becoming one of the finest safeties to play the game. Eric Wright and Carlton Williams, who both went on to play in Pro Bowls, started alongside Lott every week, and Lynn Thomas appeared in 15 games.”
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Now, I’m sure Andy Reid is making similar connections in his Beautiful Mind as the Chiefs get ready to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57.
Brett Veach and his team of adept evaluators (which includes doing a deep dive on personality traits), Steve Spagnuolo and his talented collection of top notch coaches, Rick Burkholder and his band of skilled athletic trainers, Andy Reid and his multi-talented offensive minds, plus his veteran players willing to share their experiential knowledge… and more… all go into making this an AFC Champion to remember… no matter what happens in the Super Bowl next week, I’m proud to be a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Either way!
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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