The Kansas City Chiefs, in the Andy Reid era, have always held their own, but perhaps never really dominated at the line of scrimmage. Team strength has always been at the skill positions. Favorable for the flash, but not for the getting down and dirty. Not until now. Now, General Manager Brett Veach has not only nearly completely re-built the offensive line, but fortified the defensive line like never before, well not since the Marty Schottenheimer era of the 1990s. Now, the Chiefs will make getting down and dirty… purdy… as in fashionable.
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Offensive Line
In recent years, the OL has used a zone blocking scheme – mostly – which requires finesse and the ability get two or more OL in space on running plays to block the defense. To be sure, most teams use both: the zone blocking scheme and, power blocking scheme. From his book, “Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to watch football by knowing where to look” Pat Kirwan writes,
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“If the guard is pulling, your team is angle blocking. If he doesn’t pull, your team is zone blocking.”
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That may a rather simplistic way to tell if, or when, a zone blocking scheme is being used on running plays, but the important thing for Chiefs fans to understand is that this season, the Chiefs will likely be using more of a power blocking scheme… and doing it exceptionally well.
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From Saturday’s “Live from Chiefs Training Camp,” here’s a 54 second snippet of Mitch Holthus, the voice of the Chiefs, and Matt McMullen, the Chiefs Team Reporter, talking about how K.C. has gotten so much better this offseason in the trenches. I flipped it so, first, McMullen and then Holthus:
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Matt McMullen talked about the Chiefs getting “so much better this offseason in the trenches” so I put together a list of last year’s offensive linemen showing where they’re at thsi season, and who’s still with the team, and in what role.
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Since the players haven’t even put the pads on — that’s next week on Tuesday — we may not know yet who’s going to wilt under the pressure that hitting entails.
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OL: Back to the Future
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I’ve been convinced for some time now — a few months — that the Chiefs starting OL in 2022 (next season) will be:
LT -Brown, LG -Thuney, OC -Humphrey, RG -Smith, RT -Niang
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The question then is: how do we get there from here? Andy Reid has said he’ll start the best five guys on the OL this year. We also know he likes to start his veterans when possible. So, if Mike Remmers wins the RT position, it must mean that Lucas Niang is going to serve as the Swing Tackle and if Niang wins the starting role at RT, Remmers swings. Probably the most intriguing battle up front is at RG where rookie Trey Smith appears to be winning the starting spot, so far. While Humphrey looks like he’s getting the majority of #1 snaps at OC, nothing will be set until preseason game two, which is like preseason game three in previous years (when the starters usually play just a little over the first half).
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Let’s not forget, the hitting starts when the pads go on this Tuesday and Reid has said he likes to see who can take the constant pounding. We’ll see, but for now, it looks like the Chiefs will be the ones doing the pounding this year.
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The Defensive Line
During the last offseason, Sam Hays of SI.com wrote a piece called: “Chris Jones is even more dominant than you think” in which he said:
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“[Aaron] Donald is well on pace to be the greatest defensive tackle in football history, and Jones is closer to Donald than any other interior defender in football.”
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Hays goes on to back up his unbiased claim with loads of stats which I’ll not bore you with, but he goes on to say:
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“Jones is one of the most effective, valuable defensive linemen in the NFL and he terrorizes offensive lines on a consistent basis. That is part of why he is double-teamed on nearly 70% of pass-rushing snaps, the most among all defensive tackles according to NFL Next Gen Stats.”
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I’ve long trumpeted that Chris Jones is right there with Aaron Donald, he just plays fewer snaps. That’s made clear to me by the “sacks-per-snap” ratio I’ve put together several times here at AO. Hays adds:
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Jones is one of the most dangerous pass-rushers in the NFL. Since the 2018 regular season, Jones has racked up 132 pressures and 25 sacks, according to Pro Football Focus. He ranks third among interior defenders in pressures and second in sacks in that span. Sounds great, right? Well, those numbers are even more impressive than they look. Jones also plays dramatically fewer pass-rushing snaps than most of his competition.
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That was before last season… before he received a 90.3 grade from PFF (Pro Football Focus) this year, which — fyi — is a very high grade.
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Yes, yes, yes, we know Ladner, Chris Jones is an excellent interior line defender, so why are you bringing all this up? Because we may finally be seeing Chris Jones getting more snaps than he’s ever gotten in a season. With him showing up to camp in the best shape of his career, it doesn’t just signal that he’s ready to take on more DE snaps… he’s ready to take on more snaps, period. The Chiefs new LT, Orlando Brown, had a positive take on CJ as well:
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“Chris is an elite talent. He’s been really good for a long time… I got a ton of respect for him and his game. I enjoy working and going against him. That’s something you don’t get every day unless you play here.”
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Then there’s the addition of Jarran Reed. Reed has been linked to the best year of Frank Clark’s career. However, Reed has drawn fond comments from another Reid, Andy:
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“He doesn’t spell his name quite right, but he sure plays right. That signing right there was a good get, and I think will pay off for us in a real big way this season. He gives us flexibility with what we can do with Chris. You’re talking about a Pro Bowl-caliber player.”
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So much of what happens in the NFL is based on relationships. Steve Spagnuolo, the Chiefs Defensive Coordinator, has indicated he knew the coach who helped Jarran Reed when he was a player at Alabama, and also said he has a lot of respect for that coach.
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This association probably has as much to do with Reed joining the Chiefs as anything because, we also know that there were 8 other teams who wanted him. It’s not enough to merely say, “Jarran Reed is going to help the Chiefs defensive line,” because his sheer presence on the team is a game changer.
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Much talk has ensued about the possibility of Chris Jones spending time at the Defensive End position, but little talk has arisen about what happens on the interior of the defensive line when he’s not there. That’s largely what Jarran Reed brings to the team… the ability for someone else to step up — along with Jarran Reed — on the inside when CJ jumps to DE. Tershawn Wharton was the first person Chris Jones mentioned on Friday in his post practice comments. Wharton may have had only 2.0 sacks last year but he did that in less than half of the Chiefs defensive snaps, and he was only a rookie. By comparison, Dontari Poe had 0.0 sacks in his rookie year. I’m not saying he’ll be a Poe level player, but he has potential, with a high ceiling. I’ve seen his lateral movement skills and DL line coach Brendan Daly should be able teach him how to get around offensive linemen consistently, given the increased snaps. Here’s one of Wharton’s sacks from last season:
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The Better Bump Method
Some may recall that during draft season I talk a lot about “the Bump Method” in which good prospects the Chiefs want are bumped down to them because, other prospects, for example: like multiple QBs, which the Chiefs don’t need right now, helps to move those prospects into the Chiefs drafting range. A similar situation has happened this offseason with the Chiefs defensive line.
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Here, it’s a matter of Jarran Reed making every other player around him better. He gives every one a bump upwards in performance. So, not only will Chris Jones get more time at DE… and Tershawn get more snaps and sacks at DT… and Frank Clark get’s better by association… but when Reed was drafted in 2016, he was taken with the idea that he was a run stopper. True enough, he has been that. However, five years pass and… viola… he’s developed a pass rushing game (which he’s had for more than 3 years now –> he had 10.5 sacks in 2018 and has 19.0 sacks in the past three years combined).
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I’m not saying that Jarran Reed is the best thing since sliced pizza, but he makes the Chiefs in the trenches — the defensive trenches — much improved.
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Let’s extend the Better Bump Method to Chris Jones as a DE. His presence there makes Frank Clark better through the competition factor alone. In my experience as an educator, I know that when someone teaches another person something they have learned, it makes them even better at what they’re teaching. That should be true for Frank Clark as a DE tutor for Stone Cold… while CJ gets to pass along what he knows as well.
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It also gives Clark a peer to bounce ideas off of. CJ will also make Taco Charlton better… and newly re-signed Alex Okafor better… and every other DL, like Tim Ward, or Mike Danna, not only by imparting his own expertise to them, but through the reduced snaps they do get, which should make them more effective when they do get on the field.
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Summary: Winning Trench Warfare
It’s easy to look back at the Chiefs in their most recent Super Bowl endeavor and sum it up as a loss in the trenches, because of the trenches, as well as recognize that the Bucs were a better team, in the trenches. It’s also easy to see that the Chiefs have the best skill position group in all of football, which leads you back to the real reason SB LIV was a failure –> the trenches. Well, that is now clearly a thing of the past. The 2021 Chiefs boast one of the best OL/DL groupings in all of football. They’re so good now that teams had better be ready to duke it out now… in the trenches!
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While pads come on this coming Tuesday, don’t forget, there’s no practice today, which is Sunday. Here’s a look ahead at the Chiefs Training Camp Schedule this week:
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Link to get tickets for Chiefs Training Camp.
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Go Chiefs!
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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