David Bell
The Kansas City Chiefs Interior Offensive Line
‘The success of the team depends on the men in the trenches. If they play well, the team does well. Andy Heck is the Offensive Line Coach and instigator on the offensive side of the deal. It’s no secret that I think the Chief’s Interior Offensive Line is a superior unit. So when Veach acquired Joe Thuney, I was gushing about it from the start and had mentioned that he was a player I would like to bring to the Chiefs offensive front when discussing the team needs with Laddie Morse, and then Brett Veach made it happen! I had been watching Thuney as a Patriot, and I had told myself: “He is the kind of OG that the Chiefs need.”
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Two draft picks that followed in 2021’s NFL Draft turned out to be icing on the cake. Center Creed Humphrey is a Pro Bowl Center in 2022, his second season in the NFL. You have to love this pick by Brett Veach (even though I didn’t think the Chiefs would draft him because he is a south-paw).
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Humphrey could have been a Pro Bowler in 2021, but was snubbed.
When Brett Veach “stole” Trey Smith in the 2021 draft, getting him as late a pick as possible, I knew that the Chiefs were going to have one of the best Interior Offensive Line Groups in the NFL. Hallelujah. It was a steal. Smith should have been a round 2 pick (maybe even a round one pick), but health issues were the worry, and he slid to Brett Veach at pick #226 (the third to the last pick in round 6).
Andy Heck recently discussed the Offensive Line’s work to prepare the players for each game: He is quoted as often saying:
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“Let’s plan to work, then work the plan.”
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Quoting more Heck provides illumination:
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“So that’s the fun part of the game. We put together a plan — and then watch our guys go out and execute it. For me, that’s about as good a feeling as I could get in this sport — since my days of being able to knock someone down are over.”
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Smith did have some pass protection struggles in 2021, but by the end of that year, he had become a very solid ROG. Now? You can see it game after game, especially when Trey Smith pancakes an opponent, and usually, it’s two or three times in a game.
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Smith crunch’s opposing players so frequently and too often I think fans, observers, analysts, and pundits completely miss what has just happened in front of their/our eyes. Here is one example: watch the video which first focuses on McKinnon and then follows with Smith’s pancake block:
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You may not notice the first player Smith takes out in the above video. It’s obvious when he pancakes the player opening a lane for McKinnon that you could drive a Mack Truck through. Here is an even better view of what Smith does — he takes out two players, knocking both to the ground:
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So I am completely satisfied that Kansas City’s interior is in good hands.
The future? Joe Thuney will be 33 and after the 2025 season, his contract is up. Further, he is scheduled to make $22.6M+ in that year. That’s a hefty price tag for an OG, plus at 33, he is at an age where he will be in his 11th NFL season. It’s not that I want to see Thuney depart. Instead, I want to see the Chiefs cover all the bases and then some.
Those men on the interior take a pounding year after year. I wonder if Joe will be considering retirement at that point. At any rate, it will behoove GM Brett Veach to lock in a rookie in 2023’s draft looking to replace our LOG, technician, Joe Thuney, and give him time to develop. Of course, that could also be something that Veach does in 2024, which is probably more likely.
I’ll leave it there until the 2023 off-season work begins.
Holding up the Books?
It’s no secret to anyone who follows ArrowheadOne that I am not happy with our OTs. I have written about Andrew Wylie as a quality depth player — as his primary usage — and I value Wylie in that role. However, he is not a starter-quality OT.
Additionally, like most fans, I have been unhappy with our LOT Orlando Brown, Jr.. So, for the Pro Bowl, the fans get to vote, but allow me point out that the rest of the tally is the voting done by players in the NFL –> which has got to be how Brown was selected for the accolade, as opposing defensive players cast their vote for Brown. I must suggest that we keep this all in perspective.
Is there a “But?” Sure thing. I must remind myself, though, that part of the problem that our OTs experience is due to our QB. Patrick Mahomes causes pressure on himself. At the same time, we often see blocks break down after the 3-second mark on some of the snaps. It looks awful, but we observers fail to consider that beyond 3 seconds –> it’s Patrick Mahomes who has not pulled the trigger. So, some of that is due to play-calling and deeper routes being run.
Here is the truth of the matter about Orlando Brown (keep in mind that this is 2022 numbers):
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Obviously, I see the whiffs. Also, obviously, I miss what must be apparent and why Brown gets player votes for the Pro Bowl, which Brown himself decries anyway.
Patrick said in the press conference this week that he needed to take the pass plays as they were presented to him by the defense meaning –> find the target and pass to that player. Then those passing plays would be, quicker and less time-consuming.
We should note that with Tyreek Hill’s departure, Patrick Mahomes game has shifted considerably. Mahomes has more targeted more players who are viable receivers than he has ever had at his disposal. That was undoubtedly true for Alex Smith, who was PMII’s predecessor.
I wonder what Smith would have accomplished with the receiving corps that KC now has?
Of late, the offensive line has been doing well protecting PMII. The run blocking the past two weeks has been excellent as well. These notes are to present reasonableness to the outlook to ArrowheadOne readers.
My biggest disappointment is facing the fact that Lucas Niang hasn’t been able to break back into the starting five, and another blow has been that OL Geron Christian hasn’t been much of a factor either. 2022’s draft pick, Darian Kinnard, was an OT at Kentucky and now there is, apparently, coaching going on that moves Kinnard to the IOL. Considering Joe Thuney’s age and contract, perhaps that is what Andy Heck is seeing farther down the road and planning for the future.
I still see the 2023 draft addressing the: OL, a LOT and LOG must be part of the plan, but at the same time, I believe the defense will again be part and parcel of next year’s draft.
The Defensive Front Four
Compared to 2021, the Chiefs are getting to the QB for Sacks, far more than the 31 they tallied in 2021. That’s a good thing. Right now, the sack total for 2022 stands at 45. Aside from getting a sack of the opposing QB, I see many good things going on.
The Chiefs DL is doing very well getting pressure on the opposing QBs. At the same time, as we saw in the game vs. the Seahawks, the Front Four were getting pressure into the Seahawk backfield on passing downs, and they were also closing down the lanes to minimize their running game. While they did a great job preventing passes, moving Smith off his square and batting down passes, they were also causing the loss of an offensive play to the opposition by the linemen batting down passes. In this statistic, Rookie George Karlaftis is second in the NFL lead in passes defensed, while teammates Carlos Dunlap and Chris Jones are also figuring into the picture for passes defensed. Karlaftis has also been a factor in defending against the run.
What the front four accomplished on Sunday needs to continue if the Chiefs are to win the Super Bowl. This was a game where they produced negative yards for the Seahawk offense snaps. Their TFL numbers climbed to new heights in this game. Thus far in 2022, the defense as a whole has produced 78 TFLs. The Front Four has been a significant factor in achieving those negative yard plays. Of course, this is the defense overall, but the DL provides the push that allows other players to get home, such as LB Nick Bolton and CB L’Jarius Sneed. Clearly, the biggest boost the defense could have the rest of the way is to force turnovers.
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What’s not to like about GK? I can’t think of anything. When a pass is batted away, it is a lost opportunity to the opponent’s offense, which is a “Stop” on those pass plays — Laddie observed in his article a couple of days ago that a batted down ball counts just as much as a sack.
GK will get another sack in the last two games of the season. If George gets two, he will have fulfilled my prediction that he would get at least seven. Right now, his tally is 4 1/2 sacks. The first play highlighted at the Inside Scoop has Karlaftis’ sack vs. Geno Smith in the game Saturday. See the video below. It also highlights how well the Chiefs defense played vs. the Seahawks.
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DE Frank Clark has made his presence known to the opposing QBs on passing plays. The pressures that he forces move the opposing QB off of his comfort spot. That also enables other players to get to the QB or forces the QB’s timing to change. It has been a work in progress all season long and is coming to fruition as the season closes in on post-season play.
Over the past few weeks, defensive tackle Brandon Williams added one additional play-maker. So, Williams has already contributed two (2) Tackles plus a half a sack on only 45 snaps. I look forward to watching the guys in the trenches take a step forward and dominate both the Broncos and Raiders. They will have two sequential games in which they dominate their opponent.
Quite some time ago, Laddie had an article in which he covered the potential of the defense to finish the season as a top-10 unit. I thought the Chiefs defense would finish the season and rank about #15. However, they are close to that achievement already at #16. If there is an exposure, it relates to red-zone, aerial defense, and the turnover ratio. I am not knocking the secondary in this article; instead, I am casting a lot of sunshine on the defensive front.
Overall Season at a Glance
We all recall the Colts debacle. That was a game that the Chiefs –> should not have lost. Geoff Schwartz and Mike DeVito broke down the reality of the game, followed by the turn-around the team made the following week vs. the Buccaneers. It’s worth it to go back and tune in at KCSN here (Geoff Schwartz talks about Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith at the 21:25 mark so don’t miss out on that take):
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Two AFC West opponents are coming up. The Chiefs already have a win against each team this year. Today, we found that Derek Carr was benched for the next Raider Game and probably the season’s final game when the Chiefs come to town. So it appears that Derek Carr’s time with the Raiders is ending. I found an amusing observation about the situation: ‘The Raiders are “Raider-ing” again.’
This week, the Chiefs need to take care of business at Arrowhead Stadium and notch up their 13th win of the season vs. a team that appears to have followed the Texans into the quagmire of bad decisions –> the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs need to win both of the remaining games to have a chance to earn the playoff bye. It will depend on at least one Buffalo Bills loss to get to that goal (hopefully to the Bengals in Cincin this weekend). It’s not all rainbows and unicorns for a young defense, but it is getting closer to the goal of having a top-10 defense.
If the Chief’s defensive front plays as they did last week, with two games remaining, they should notch two wins, and then we’ll see where it goes!!!
Go Chiefs!
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David Bell — ArrowheadOne
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