Look At This Photograph: Parker Ehinger Edition
The Kansas City Chiefs season has been a whirl of ups and downs. General Manager John Dorsey’s 2016 draft class has, thus far, followed suit. Chris Jones has been phenomenal, bull rushing huge linemen like they‘re big H-backs or small TEs. KeiVarae Russell, on the other hand, somehow managed to do the impossible and get fired his rookie year. DJ White has looked both great and terrible, Tyreek Hill has been a really nice addition, DeMarcus Robinson has really showed up on Special Teams and Eric Murray even got a few snaps when Gaines and Peters were both out. Who I really want to look at though is Parker Ehinger.
Ehinger was a pick most Chiefs fans weren’t very happy with at the time. Sure he had great technique, and nice size, but fans tend to go on draft evaluations from various media outlets, and most had him rated as a late round pick. The pitchforks would have probably come out a lot earlier, had it not been for a similar experience last year with a young man by the name of Mitch Morse. Based on what I’m seeing from Ehinger so far, I think he’s closer to the type of reach pick Morse was than the type of reach Russell was. While Ehinger, like most college players, will still need to build strength in the off-season, he is absolutely good enough to be starting right now. I wanted to open the photo album to highlight some of his skills against the Raiders on Sunday.
In the picture above, you see #79, Ehinger, in the middle. You can clearly read his number, because he’s done a great job of walling his man off from the lane they’ve opened for Ware. Ware would ride that nice gap for an 11 yard gain. Fans often think of the run game relying on brute force and pushing your man off the ball, but players in the Zone Blocking System don’t need to do that, all they need to do is use good technique and know their assignments. While Ehinger was out, Chiefs used Fulton is his spot. Fulton is much stronger, but he lacks the mobility that allows Ehinger to succeed. Ehinger’s subtle adjustments put him in a position of strength, and, in this case, they led to a first down.
This next picture below comes from the play where Khalil Mack manhandled Eric Fisher for a sack. If you look to Fisher’s left though, you will notice that the refs missed an obvious penalty on Oakland. Ehinger’s defender has his hand under Ehinger‘s chin and is pushing his head back. What’s remarkable, is that Ehinger didn’t lose much ground on this play in spite of the illegal contact. Even though his head is crammed back, his body is still in excellent position, preventing the defender from taking advantage.
Here you see a play where Ehinger gets beat, but is able to recover. The defender got leverage on him and pushed him back, but Ehinger was able to regain his balance, and shove the defender wide. Indeed, Fisher was able to do the same with his man and, had Smith stayed in the pocket, there would have been time to throw. Hopefully, as Smith learns to trust the left side of the line more, he won’t panic at the first sign of pressure. The measure of a player on the OL isn’t just how often they succeed, but also how they handle their failures. There’s a big difference between an instant pressure, and a delayed one, even though neither is ideal.
This picture here shows Ehinger actually displaying some power. He walls off his defender, like the other play, but in this case he has actually gained a yard or two by pushing his defender backwards. While it could be attributed to weak competition, it’s nice to see big Park getting some push in the run game, since he wasn’t earlier in the year.
Finally, I should say that Big Park does still need some work. Here’s an adorable snap of him trying to block at the second level. Here’s hoping, by this time next year, we’ll all be looking back saying: “They grow up so fast.”
File these away in the family album. This draft pick is going to be hanging around for a while. For the first time in quite a while, Chiefs have a solid line… when everyone is healthy. Let’s hope, now that they’ve gotten that way, they’ll stay that way.
Bonus Pic (below): Why what is this? It’s a picture of Alex Smith in the Pistol formation last Sunday. Clearly, the only explanation is that Andy Reid is becoming an avid ArrowheadOne fan.
Editor’s Note: Please feels free to give Ransom Hawthorne’s post from last week another look, “Ault-ernate Plans: Give The Pistol A Shot” to fully capture the intended meanings.
And those are my Sizzling Takes.
