Chiefs: Where’d He Come From?

Chiefs: Where’d He Come From? – Well, I really know most of them and their potential but it really struck me that we had some major surprises due to performance in camp so let me take a brief bit of your time and provide a view of what I am seeing.

D’Montre Wade

I hope that Wade is turning heads because he was undervalued as a talent by NFL Scouts and maybe he was. I hope that his game speed is better than his Underwear Olympic speed of the combine. His 40 time was 4.57 which is not a good time to post for making headway to a starting role and he didn’t improve it at his Pro Day either.

I should not find it odd that I turned a page on Wade to start a new book because since the first day in camp his name has come up in a positive manner. Wade signed with the Chiefs as a UDFA in 2018 and was retained to the PS for his first year. Right now with Bashaud Breeland out, he is getting a lot of snaps in his absence and appears to be taking advantage of the circumstance. That caught my attention. Still, it doesn’t mean anything… yet.

Three of the last four days of reporting on camp in a row, have Wade clearly demonstrating all the effort needed in his bid for a roster spot. On the day that the team transitioned to pads, Wade was noted for two plays. The first was a pass defense and the second was an  interception of Pat Mahomes. Remarks by various observers over 3 or 4 practice sessions have been positive. On day 3 he was taking snaps with the “Ones” as he did today the first day with pads.

Having Wade play up with talent and ability would clearly be a boon to the cornerback position which I regard as the only dangerous exposure on defense due to unproven players in the mix. As of yesterday’s practice, Keith Reaser is lost for the season.

Now let me refer back to a May 17th article by Seth Keysor at The Athletic with it’s extensive focus on acquiring Patrick Peterson, an option that I truly hope Brett Veach is intent on making happen and it still could since Peterson has a 6 game suspension and has been unhappy with the Cardinals front office and coaching staff. This is where I am in my basic assessment of the Cornerbacks. I like Ward. I hope for Fields and Wade. They have Tremon Smith but… I think they are “proven starter light.”

Mark Fields

Mark Fields is another CB who is a UDFA. He doesn’t have the length that one would like in a CB but he does have the closing speed, he has quick feet and diagnoses plays and appears to possess ball-hawking talent. Like Wade, Fields is garnering attention and being noted for making plays. There have been tweets out there from observers about his closing speed so that is a positive also. Fields has NFL pedigree: his father was an NFL Linebacker. Fields has a lot of positive attributes but there is only a small amount of tape for him. He has natural cover talent, is athletic, has great footwork, and good play strength for a 5’10” CB. He is a gritty tackler in run support and is quick to top end speed at the snap.Drawbacks are his length, only 6 collegiate starters, lacks fluidity and this is noticeable in the back pedal. I picked Fields among UDFAs to make the roster and now with Reaser down that is probably close to being assured.

Aside: This has come to a head as Keith Reaser left the field in pain yesterday as I was writing this piece. Turns out it was an Achilles injury. He is when that is verified, gone for the year.

Reaser was my top choice to be the #4 CB and he is lost for the season with an Achilles tendon injury. This is tough luck for the player but worse for the Chiefs as the CB room is their weakest group and greatest exposure.

I do expect the starters to be Fuller in the Slot with Ward at LCB and Breeland RCB… but from that point if Wade can fit upwards and join the top 3 it would make me far more comfortable with the Cornerbacks, the weakest group. That is unless Veach makes that one huge move which I think he should make — get a starter in the mix and break Ward in slowly. Let the others fill depth roles as we go.

On Sunday I covered the offense and my next article will be coming out shortly, this time focused on defense.

What has happened though, is some surprising notice of players making strides to stick around on the roster. Wade’s success thus far really garnered my effort in writing this piece.

Apparently the same attention to Wade struck Lyle Graversen who also wrote about him and he published an article that was released Monday over at ArrowheadAddict.com. I really like Lyle’s stuff so it would behoove you to go take a peek yourself.

Behind the starters (I listed Ward, Breeland and Fuller) I listed the competition as being Tremon Smith, Keith Reaser [now lost to the season] and Mark Fields. I have to now add Wade to that group and that is not a bad thing. We’ll see how it works out but it was surprising enough for me when Wade got the snaps that ordinarily would go to the starter (Breeland) which is what caused me to write this article and present it this way: “Where’d He Come From?'”

No matter what happens with Wade and/or Fields, I fear it is not enough. See the next topic below.

Because I have sincere concern about the ability of the CB room to play at a the level of a championship team and since the players are logically an exposure until proven, then the Chiefs have a huge concern about the viability of Fuller, Breeland and Ward to handle the combined pass coverage duty at a level sufficient to avoid problems.

Further, if an injury occurs to any of the starters (my proposed list), then it is evident to me that even if Wade pans out and even if others do as well the Chiefs remain exposed at the CB position. I have hopes for Ward, Fields and Reaser (in the future) and now Wade climbs up a bit in consideration. It’s not enough. I wrote this past week about Veach signing a viable starter level CB. I think the exposure remains at this point with the personnel that exist on the Chiefs roster.

I am pleased that D’Montre Wade has shown he can contribute. It remains to be seen if he has the speed to play at the NFL Level. More to come on CB’s as we proceed toward preseason games.

Kyle Shurmur

Kyle Shurmur, son of Giant HC Pat Shurmur, has been taking all of the snaps as the #3 Quarterback. This is clearly a surprise for most of us as Chase Litton was the #3 QB in 2018 and is on the roster for the second straight year. This positioning may not be the true order of QB position as it may be an effort to get Shurmur on board with the offense, as with various players up and down the roster, to understand the playbook.

Mecole Hardman

Hardman is only 4/100’s of a second in speed running the 40 compared to the number put up by Hill. This is a huge factor in adding him to the roster. I am not stating he was brought on board to replace Hill. I think Veach and Co had him as a “must draft in the right circumstance” on the draft board. Hill’s fiasco probably mitigated any consideration. Everything I have seen of Hardman in camp is telling me he was very much undervalued and underrated by all the talent scouts, evaluators, coaches and pundits but was known to KC’s scouting crew.

What I believed about Hardman and why he was drafted was not for merely attempting to cover Ty Hill, should he have been unavailable. The Hill situation was not resolved until last week but Hardman could have played a role in covering one of the top 3 WR spots until Hill returned… or… it could have been that he could, at some point in the first season of starter snaps, moved up into a top WR taking the #1 WR snaps by the end of the season. Also, I think he was drafted to get cheaper at WR since the Chiefs are paying Sammy Watkins big money and soon would have to either drop Hill, or extend his contract and that is exactly where we are right now.

I believe Brett Veach knew about Hardman, knew about his speed and had Hardman on the draft board. I think he would have been observant enough to know that other teams would overlook Mecole because he played for Georgia, not known for it’s aerial game.

I think most of us believe he is a good draft choice but as I have been, were focused on defense. What my conclusion is though, is that Veach used his first draft pick very effectively and it came down to #2. It may be that this was where Veach planned to take Hardman anyway or it could have been that he swapped the pick at #3 to get Hardman and moved Saunders to #3 either moving down the board or adding him to #3 because Veach had to consider the plausibility that Hill would be lost for the season, or completely or partially unavailable to the Chiefs for 2019.

That is a moot point now, but suffice it to say that the result was, Veach pulled in Frank Clark with the use of the #1 pick and drafted Hardman in the 2nd round. See the video that demonstrates that Hardman indeed has the speed over the top which is very strong in comparison to Hill and as mentioned, 4/100’s slower than Hill’s 40 time. It should be noted that Hardman has had a couple of drops thus far. I don’t believe that this is going to be an issue but should be noted. He has shined a few times the past 2 or 3 days.

Kahlil McKenzie

McKenzie has an obvious advantage in that he has NFL pedigree, his father the recent GM of the LA/Vegas/Maybe Raiders now led by Jon Gruden with my favorite talent evaluator, Mike Mayock,  whom I have depended on a lot for player evaluation for the draft each year but not any longer I am afraid. Mayock replaced the previous GM of the Raiders, Kahlil’s father, Reggie McKenzie. It does show the NFL pedigree of Kahlil.

McKenzie was drafted last year and was on the roster but did not play a single snap. He was put there to protect him and develop him so the question will revolve around how much he developed switching from defense in college to OG for the Chiefs?

Credo’s should be shown and a favorable view has been discussed in observing McKenzie’s footwork and use of his hands. He has been getting lessons and instruction from Will Shields and it appears a least to casual inspection to be something that Kahlil took to heart.

What is important here is that he has been taking snaps with the “three’s” as a Center. If this takes then the consideration would be that McKenzie can play all three interior positions.

If the above work proves out, it may prove to be the end of the next player’s stay on the roster as discussed below.

I don’t have video of McKenzie on offense as he switched from defense to offense after arriving at KC. The fact that he is working with Shields is important and that the observation is what they are working on McKenzie is employing. This is another big… “We’ll See!”

Jimmy Murray

Jimmy Murray became a known factor last season and I thought he looked pretty strong as the Center in camp and then preseason games. I thought he might make the roster based on that and based on the fact that he could play all three inside lineman roles.

This season he looks even better. From the little I have seen, he has become totally solid in his base stance, stays squared up to the opposing defensive player, keeps his pads low, his eyes up and is not being pushed back into the pocket even with a double team pass rush. Murray also moves with his feet from position to position without losing balance, and does not lunge.

To me, Murray is a solid player and again has a shot at making the roster. Time will tell on that but Murray is demonstrating why he is back in camp. I don’t believe he is just camp fodder. We’ll wait and see.

You can view a bit of the highlights for Holy Cross and Jimmy Murray here:

Matt Connor wrote earlier this year about Murray possibly being a hidden gem on the roster for the Chiefs. See this in an article –> here.

Final Thoughts

As camp proceeds along its course, I expect the normal shifting and positioning will go on and we will arrive at play in the preseason games. At that point, we will surely see the starters in the third preseason game play at least a couple of possessions which the staff can view and then have time to make adjustments.

We have seen the starters go fairly deep in the 3rd preseason game and sometimes use the first series of snaps in the 4th preseason game. By the end of that game, the staff will have gone to work on their boards to build the final 63 players (roster plus ten Practice Squad players).

More to come! I must say that I am impressed by the comradery I am seeing and taking note of some special play that has already been viewed and observed.

David Bell — ArrowheadOne