How the Chiefs Will be Improved In 2022

How the Chiefs Will Be Improved In 2022 – by Laddie Morse

Sure, sure, we’ve all heard it before: “But we lost Tyreek Hill.”  That’s supposed to make us believe that the Kansas City Chiefs will worsen in 2022. Poppycock! I say, poppycock. The Chiefs may have traded away the fastest man in the NFL to the lowly Miami Dolphins, but that doesn’t mean the Chiefs are worse off. On the contrary, they will be improved.

While we can’t just say the addition of Skyy Moore is meant to be the “replacement piece” for Hill, Moore will be a critical part of what will make the K.C. Attack better.

So will Trent McDuffie for the defensive backfield, as will George Karlaftis for the DL.

Offensively

Opponents of the Chiefs, over the past two seasons, have learned how to take the top off the Chief’s offense by dropping two Safeties deep. They then forced Patrick Mahomes to go to one of his alternative options by double-teaming TE Travis Kelce.  While that hasn’t worked all the time, it has forced Andy Reid and his staff to come up with various ways to beat teams.

On the one hand, you could say the off-season moves the Chiefs have made are just another of those various ways that Andy Reid has designed to beat opponents. However, the changes made to the offense this off-season hint at other changes being made to the attack, to which other teams will once again have to adapt.

While Hill was shipped to Miami, K.C, also signed JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdez-Scantling, both of whom not only have good size but have speed of their own, not Tyreek Hill’s speed but speed that must be respected.  It may be their speed that has many fans looking past the genuine advantage they bring to the Chief’s offense: their size. JuJu is 6-foot-1 and 215 lbs. while Valdez-Scantling stands at 6-foot-4; and 206 lbs. together, they give the Chiefs a decisive advantage in the run game, at least as far as blocking at the second level is concerned.

Imagine you are a defensive back one of the Chief’s new WRs are headed full steam towards, and you have to decide if they’re about to put a move on you or block you into oblivion?

It’s not hard to see this change in strategy if you look at their fifth-round pick, Darian Kinnard, or consider the big brats Veach snagged for to OL in the 2021 off-season, especially when it comes to Trey Smith and Orlando Brown. Reid often talks about utilizing the players’ skills and working with their talents. Last week, he spoke about the topic again on the Colin Cowherd show. (David Bell thinks Kinnard is a “steal” in the 2022 Draft.

Then when you consider that the Chiefs also drafted the 4.37, 5-foot-11, 215 lbs. RB Isiah “I’m coming to take a grown man’s job” Pacheco, you get the feeling Reid is about to change his high-flying trapeze act of an offense show and turn it into a hand-to-hand ground attack. Of course, Reid will never abandon his passing game, but there’s a good chance we’ll see a lot more RBs catching passes out of the backfield, especially with the bigger bodies of Smith-Schuster and Valdez-Scantling clearing a pathway.

Those wondering if Andy Reid may be giving up on the long ball would be akin to Steve Kerr asking Steph Curry to stop shooting threes. Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes which means Reid still plans on taking advantage of his most skilled player’s strength.

Think Mecole Hardman. We’ll see Hardman running many of the long routes and Jet Sweeps to keep defenses spread out. The most significant difference in this year’s offense will be that Reid now has three other go-to targets for Mahomes to hit over the middle of the field besides TE Travis Kelce and Mecole Hardman: JuJu, Marquez, and Skyy Moore.

Imagine what the aerial game will look like to defenders with this mix of players coming at them? Project also the idea of adding another pass-catching TE threat to the mix: Jody Fortson. Phil Maxwell wrote about Fortson’s return and what it could mean in his article yesterday: “Achilles Heal,” then Patrick Mahomes will have that added dimension at his disposal! See Phil’s article here: https://arrowheadone.com/achilles-heal/

Let’s not forget that Marquez Valdes-Scantling runs a 4.37 40 or that Skyy Moore runs a 4.41.

Defensively

David Bell and I have had many conversations about Anthony Hitchens and how he “might” fulfill the promise he came to K.C. three years ago. But that never happened. I hoped Veach would draft a replacement for Hitchens and that’s precisely what he did… as well as releasing Hitch, which was the right move. Drafting Leo Chenal was also the right move and that one (actually two) moves alone improves the Chief’s defense.

Veach also added LB Jermaine Carter to the group and signed Iowa State’s Mike Rose(UDFA). Brett Veach has taken a group that was a weakness, turning it into a team strength as a position group across three consecutive drafts. I thought that Rose would be a draft pick. We’ll have to wait to see if he makes the active roster, but I think he will.

Another significant move was not to bring back Daniel Sorensen and then draft hard-hitting sure, tackling Safety Bryan Cook, who was in on 96 Tackles his Senior season at Cincinnati.

Losing Tyrann Matthieu was a blow, but signing 25-year-old Justin Reid to a 3-year $31.5M deal should compensate both cap-wise and on the field. Reid is entering his fifth year in the league and only allowed 16 receptions on 30 targets last year with a QB passer rating of 82.2, allowing only two TDs.

The 6-foot-1, 203 lbs Reid could improve the Chief’s Safety situation as Mathieu allowed 36 completions at a 69.2% rate and gave up an 88.1 passer rating in 2021. Reid’s 4.4 speed should help him reach any receiver or running back who enters his workspace.  

While the back-end coverage should be improved this year, so should the pass rush. Restructuring Frank Clark may not have been my solution, at least the Chiefs still have an operational edge rusher in Clark. Assuming Melvin Ingram returns after signing the Chiefs offer sheet, that leaves The Greek Freak George Karlaftis to add to the mix.

I’ve heard speculation that with Ingram back in the house, the Chiefs could move Karlaftis inside next to Chris Jones and rush four: Ingram, C.J., Karlaftis, and Clark. That may not be the best front four in the league, but it’s undoubtedly a better group of rushers than any lineup the Chiefs could put on the field in 2021. Let’s not forget, Karlaftis has been told to “slow it down” by Andy Reid during their 3-day minicamp, and he’s already being mentioned in the rookie of the year conversation.

The Chiefs will be better in 2022, and I hope fans are ready for that.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne