The Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach, Andy Reid, has never been Mike Tyson. No, Reid’s approach to each game, as well as a season, is more about winning the marathon and outwitting his opponents, than serving up an early knockout blow. He often waits until the game has an established pattern to make his adjustments, then… BAM!… the offense is off and running. You could say he’s a great counter puncher. However, the Chiefs have done the same thing during this offseason and now the draft, so Andy Reid, Brett Veach, and the Chiefs take counter punching to new heights.
Some of the best counter punchers in the history of boxing include: Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather and perhaps Larry Holmes. Reid is more like these boxers, he reads an opponent, then he hits back with measured intent.
The Chiefs were the best 2nd quarter team in the NFL in scoring in 2019. They scored 11.7 points per second quarter last season and while that may not seem like much to the casual observer, if you extend that out to four quarters it becomes 46.8 points per game and that would break the NFL record for most points per game by 8 points. The Chiefs were also the team that scored the most 4th quarter points per game last season.
So, why look at the 2nd and 4th quarters? It shows the ability of a team to size up their opponent, then respond. It’s part of their in-game-adjustments and half-time adjustments as well. While Reid is known for pre-determining his first 15 plays of the game, that turns out to be nearly one-quarter in many cases and it gives him time to see what’s working, what’s not, and what opposing defenses are doing during that time. What happens next? He adjusts his play calling, or you could say, counter punches.
An aspect of this counter punching is that Andy Reid has a quarterback who he listens to… one who is highly intelligent… who has also learned his read-em-n-streak technique (think: “do we have time to run WASP?). I used to run distance in track, and some of the best athletes I’d run against knew how to run with the pacesetter, but then, make their move once the race was on the line. That’s not all too different than what Andy Reid has been doing. There’s no better example of that than the Chiefs offense in the 2019 playoffs.
It wasn’t just in the playoffs either:
The Chiefs are now not only a great counter punching team during games… but, a great counter punching organization during the offseason.
Draft Counter Punching the AFC
During the draft, it looked like many NFL teams were attempting to emulate the Super Bowl champs, by stocking up on speedy wide receivers or drafting quarterbacks with upside. First, take a look at the way teams in the AFC West have drafted.
The Denver Broncos first two picks were WR Jerry Jeudy and their second pick was another WR, KJ Hamler. Two talented wideouts: one a great route runner and the second a speedy WR. The Chiefs counter punched by drafting two fast corners and then signing two more speedy corners as UDFAs.
The Los Angeles Chargers first two picks were QB Justin Herbert and then LB Kenneth Murray. While Herbert will likely take years to reach his ceiling, the Chiefs made their offense better by drafting RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, which is the counter move to their Murray addition.
Sidenote: In a recent interview, Tim Tebow was asked about the move that the Philadelphia Eagles made in drafting QB Jalen Hurts. Tebow said his addition not only pushes their starting QB, Carson Wentz, but puts gadget plays on the table and Wildcat plays on the table and other plays on the table as well… but most importantly, it forces other team’s defenses to prepare — for hours — in the event Hurts takes the field because of his skillset. That’s also what the addition of Clyde Edwards-Helaire does for the Chiefs offense and more. I not only think Edwards-Helaire makes all the other offensive positions better, but now he’ll give opposing defenses another playmaker to worry about and plan for.
The Las Vegas Raiders selected WR Henry Ruggs and then CB Damon Arnette with their first two picks. Again, the Chiefs counter punched by drafting two fast corners and then signing two more speedy corners as UDFAs. Although the addition of CB Damon Arnette sounds like a solid one, he runs a 4.56 and will be challenged to stay with the Chiefs top four wideouts. The Raiders GM Mike Mayock said,
“Let’s be honest, the entire league is chasing the Kansas City Chiefs, but we’re in the same division. They keep getting faster and more athletic, more dynamic every time you turn around. Other teams have to do the same.”
It’s not just Mike Mayock and the Raiders saying things like that either. The Chargers HC Anthony Lynn said, “Every move and signing we make we have to have them in mind,” referring to the Chiefs. They may be “aware” but, every move each AFC West contender has taken… the Chiefs have made a better move in this draft.
Counter Punching the League
Following the draft, TV sports entertainment personality, Colin Cowherd, ranked the Chiefs #2 to win the Super Bowl in 2020 and he ranked the Ravens #1, saying that Baltimore had the better draft. So, who did the Ravens draft? A LB as their first pick (Patrick Queen) and then a RB (J.K Dobbins) in the second round. Hmmm… a LB and a RB with their first two picks… sounds so familiar.
Zach Junda, a writer who covers the LSU Tigers for Louisiana SB Nation said, that LB Patrick Queen won’t be able to handle covering the Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. I don’t know of a LB in the league who can cover Kelce… and that should include Kenneth Murray. I’m sure Queen also is aware of Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s moves out of the backfield as well having practiced across from him for the past few seasons at LSU. I’ll also take CEH in that RB-LB matchup every time… and I will say the same for a Murray-CEH matchup as well. Now, can Willie Gay Jr. handle the coverage duties on RB J.K. Dobbins? As it turns out Gay won’t have to do that as often, as Dobbins only caught 21 passes in 2019, whereas Edwards-Helaire caught 55. That pass catching production was one of the reasons Reid wanted to draft CEH instead of Dobbins or D’Andre Swift and take Edwards-Helaire as early as he did. Verdict: I’ll take CEH + Willie Gay over Queen + Dobbins, especially in Reid’s offense and Spags defense.
Also, Baltimore QB, Lamar Jackson, doesn’t throw the ball much to his running backs as RB Mark Ingram only had 26 receptions in 2019 to show for it.
Some will say the Super Bowl runner up San Francisco 49ers made themselves better than the Chiefs in this draft. However, if you take a look at their first couple of moves, that comes into doubt.
They traded away DT DeForest Buckner to the Colts… then drafted DT Javon Kinlaw. Many will say they came away a better team for that exchange but Kinlaw hasn’t played a down of NFL football and Buckner was a 26 year old in his prime who made his first Pro Bowl in 2018. So, Kinlaw is more of a replacement piece who’s going to need time to develop and adjust to the pro game, his scheme and teammates. Also, the 49ers traded away their 1st, 4th and 5th round picks to jump up 6 spots and take WR Brandon Aiyuk from Arizona State. The tricky part is… the 49ers allowed Emmanuel Sanders, who has 4.41 speed and who they gave away 3rd and 4th round picks for in October, to walk away in Free Agency while Brandon Aiyuk has 4.50 speed and isn’t running away from any of the Chiefs corners… if… S.F. happen to make it back to the Super Bowl this year… assuming the Chiefs do. A much easier assumption. Some have praised 49ers GM John Lynch for his recent moves but just look at what he gave up to get a “decent” WR (Brandon Aiyuk)… a 1st, a 4th, a 5th, a 3rd and a 4th. That doesn’t sound cap friendly me. It sounds more like your moving 5 steps backwards to move one step forward… and that one step, isn’t going to be the difference maker you think he is. Well, not against the Chiefs anyway.
It certainly looks intentional, K.C. has essentially knocked out their stiffest competition by counter punching away, move after move, during this offseason, much as Reid does during a game. Trey Wingo of ESPN asked Andy Reid, “Do you keep an eye on the division opponents at all?” To which Reid responded,
“Yeah. Absolutely. I thought they did a great job. I thought all three of them racked up, heck of players and uh, will make it better. We’re all in this for the competition, and so, the better each team is, and the greater the excitement is each week.”
Then Wingo said, “As I was watching the Denver Broncos go through this draft, [I was] like: there’s a weapon and… there’s a weapon and… there’s another weapon… I feel like they’re going to feel like they’re going to need to score a lot of points when they play the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the recurring theme that kept coming back to me.” To which Reid replied,
“Well, I understand that. That’s kind of the name of the game: whoever scores the most points wins, so I get it. We’ve been blessed to have some good players and I know these other teams are doing the same thing. I get that too. Spags, you know we had to have a few defensive guys on top of the offensive guys, so that we could handle all these players that all these other guys [teams] have gotten.”
This draft-day-counter-punching takes something like precog engineering. The Chiefs brass didn’t just wake up to the fact on draft day that the Broncos, Raiders and Chargers were all taking players they needed to compensate for immediately. It takes months of forethought, anticipation, a priori knowledge of other team’s needs and then, fine-tuned planning ahead. Clearly though, while other NFL teams are playing Whack-a-Mole, the Chiefs are playing Super Mario Galaxy (FYI, Super Mario is quite a speedy little game character). I used to wonder — yearly — how the Chiefs could make enough offseason changes to catch up to the current Super Bowl champions in any given year, actually for the past 49. Now other teams are chasing their tails, as much as they think they’re chasing the Champs. I wish them luck with that…. uhhhh… on second thought. No. I don’t. That’s okay, these Chiefs seem to have it covered anyway.
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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