Chiefs: The Fallacy of the Worry-Bug Belief System – You go 3-0 and there has got to be something to worry about, after all, you didn’t win 40-3.
“Oh, Momma! Lookee here at this play, they let the other team score. My heat can’t take it. That call by the HC, Reid? Miserable choice. At the end of the game? Woe is me, we only won by 5. We only scored 33. We let them score 28? How can we survive a season doing that stuff.”
That’s a Worry-Bug!
OL as Constituted on Opening Day
ROT – 8 year pro, 6-5, 320, a true Blue rated player, Cal, 2nd round draft pick, #37 – Mitch Schwartz: I am sitting here wondering how it is we are so awful and how such an offense can boast the 2nd best (2nd highest ranked) Offensive lineman in the NFL and be so awful. Mitch Schwartz is the 2nd highest rated offensive lineman in the NFL. Schwartz joined the Chiefs in 2016 and has been a totally solid player ever since. He is an 8 year pro for KC, shows no sign of wearing out and slowing down. Schwartz owns the longest consecutive snap count streak in the NFL (7,397) and has started all 112 games since his rookie season out of Cal, missing none nor any snap since.
ROG – LD-T: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (LD-T), 6-5, 321, has been a Chief’s starting Offensive Guard since 2016. For five seasons he has been a stable contributor to the front five, though he missed a considerable part of 2018 due to a knee injury. He is back for his 6th season and helps anchor the right side of the Chiefs offensive line. I think his level of play is Red tinged blue.
Austin Reiter OC, 6-3-300, South Florida [a Worry Bug point of reference #1]: The Chiefs had a couple of alternatives for replacing Morse and Austin Reiter was the choice. 2018 was Reiter’s 3rd year as a pro. He was previously a player who knocked around rosters, got a chance to start for the Cleveland Browns. Unfortunately for him, he suffered a knee injury in that first game of the year start and missed the rest of the season after Surgery then was released. Due to the Morse Concussion, Reiter got the 2nd start of his NFL Career in the game against the Broncos on October 28th and played well enough to get a tendered contract from the Chiefs for 2019.
LOG Andrew Wylie – 6-6-310, Eastern Michigan [a Worry Bug point of reference #2]: Andrew Wylie came out of a known program for the Chiefs at Eastern Michigan and is in his second year as a pro. Wylie knocked around Practice Squads in 2017 and 2018 until the Chiefs finally signed him, first to the PS and then as an active player in 2018. He is of the length and weight generally characterized as a tackle but he is playing guard due to less than stellar play at the LOG position in 2018 which means he displaced Cam Erving.
Eric Fisher, 6-7, 315, 7 yr pro, pro bowler, C. Michigan, 1st round draft pick by John Dorsey, 2013. I have had my difficulties with Fisher being a Chief because he didn’t live up to his pick until the last 2 years but especially 2018 — he is now a solid blue contributor for the Chiefs and a great bookend LOT to Mitch Schwartz ROT. As it turns out in 2019, Eric Fisher’s tear of a core muscle in a groin injury has knocked him out of play for at least 6 games in 2019 and thus the weakness of the offensive line is exposed with Fisher out (Pro Bowl level player, thus, finally, a blue Chip player on the front line accompanied by his bookend Mitch Schwartz). Fisher’s injury was inopportune but the Chiefs were able to counter with getting snaps from Wylie in 2018 which gave him game time experience which was needed as he was competing for the LOG role which he eventually won from Erving.
Worry Bug Point of Reference
Cam Erving, SW/T, 6-5, 315 – FSU[Worry Bug Point of Reference #3]: Cam Erving was a pick up from the Browns, a 5th year former first round pick for Cleveland from FSU. He did not live up to his round 1 selection and this type of player is someone Brett Veach has his eyes on as he could be acquired economically and perhaps worked with to ascend to playing the game at a solid pro level of play at the very least. Erving, a 5th year player (3rd with the Chiefs) is of the length to be an OT but had held down the LOG spot in 2018. He lost that job to Andrew Wylie in Spring Training and preseason.
Brett Veach constructed a trade to bring the 1st round pick out of Florida State for a 6th round pick. Erving had started 17 games for the Browns but was moved all up and down the LoS and then he was sitting on the bench. Veach saw the opportunity to get a first round pick in house and took the gamble. At worst, Andy Reid would have a player who could play all positions on the offensive line, a true Swing player. At best? Erving would live up to his first round billing, something he did not do with the Browns.
Unfortunately for the Chiefs, he has not ascended in KC either. This does not mean that he can’t be a solid contributor for the Chiefs off of the bench as a SW/T, for example, and that is how Reid and Bieniemy looked for him to contribute. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, when Eric Fisher went down in game one and could not return to play in game two it meant that Cam Erving would assume the duty as the LOT.
A depth player who is not a Worry Bug is OG Jeff Allen 6-5 310. Very solid player with a solid history both here in K and at Houston. His return is highly welcome. Jeff’s level of play across his career would be pink tinged blue. With Allen and Erving, the Chiefs have a solid pair to backup all five positions if they have to do so: a Swing Tackle (SW/T) and a Swing Guard(SW/G), if you will.
The Worry Bug Belief System (WBBS)
With Cam Erving, who was a worry bug at LOG as a starter, ceased to be a starter and became a SW/T, he was no longer a Worry Bug.
As with any NFL team, disaster struck: an injury. Our’s was to Eric Fisher. It seemed to me that Erving, if he was not going to be a starter, should be a top Swing Tackle (SW/T). The disaster was that Eric Fisher was injured in week one so SW/T Erving was now not just giving Fisher a blow by filling in for spot snaps, he ascended to the level of being a Worry Bug (again).
Now that we’ve moved Erving to SW/T or in other words, a depth player albeit with a lot of starter level snaps in the NFL, I cannot see how he is ascends back to being a Worry Bug, even if he is a spot starter or a replacement starter. Erving may never ascend back to the valued status that we wish all starters to be but as a depth player he has a lot of valuable experience. The Front five is not left high and dry and that is the role of a depth play for the position in which he is deployed. Maybe he could be but i don’t think Erving is a “Jah Reid” type of journeyman.
This means, if you haven’t figured out what there are three Worry Bugs, not just two. With solid bookend tackles who might be considered to be “Blue” rated players, they would protect the interior three and one of those three is LDT, a starter whose color might be considered “Pink” not red, but tinged blue itself.
So, there are three to worry about, not just two: meaning Andrew Wylie at LOG (who should be playing OT) is Worry Bug #2 and Offensive Center, Austin Reiter, Worry Bug #1 presents the fan with a lot of Worry Bugs to worry about. Erving is a Worry Bug returned and some view Fisher as a Worry Bug as well, no matter what. That is if you see all three of these positions as worthy of being worthy of worry.
You could be like me for example. I may not be pleased about this or that player but, I am not a Worrying Bug.
I question the Worry Bug Belief System (WBBS)
Here is why.
The Chiefs, without their starting LOT are the 13th ranked offensive line in the NFL (PFF). They have two Blue Level Players across the front five (Fisher and Schwartz). Fortunately, Eric Fisher is only going to miss time for 5 or 6 weeks. Fortunately, they have a player who has had significant starting snaps to replace him. Since I do not believe that having Erving be a replacement player (Depth, SW/T), I do not believe the WBBS is valid as constructed. For that matter, I don’t believe having Nick Allegretti, Jeff Allen, Cam Erving, Martinas Rankin, Greg Senat or Ryan Hunter as being the depth players on a 53 man roster.
The True Worry Bug May Lie Elsewhere
I might have to scheme more frequent use of quick passes to prevent Patrick Mahomes getting sacked or hit or knocked down or hurried. At the same time, I realize that my QB has a belief system that has him hold the ball longer than most QB’s hold be ball — because he believes in himself so much and has proven to be dang good at making throws in traffic and later in the time duration that is oft sensible.
If I am a worry bug, I would make that attitude from my QB as my #1 Worry: He holds the ball too long and that exposes him to hits and sacks.
David Bell — ArrowheadOne
Catch a piece at noon by Michael Travis Rose called,
“The Great Meme Wars of 2019: Chiefs vs Lions”
