Sizzling Takes: Contracts and the Combine

As off-season weeks go, this will certainly be one of the most eventful for the Kansas City Chiefs. K.C. signed three players — oddly enough, all from the same agent — cut one, and Dorsey and his staff can now get down to the business of scouting the NFL combine. With so much to consider this week, including the last days of Jamaal Charles in Kansas City, it seemed best to cover all this news in one broad-ranging article. Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Eric Berry: Leverage

If the Chiefs had wanted to, they could have put the screws to Berry. Sure he could sit out 10 weeks, but who’s going to pay a 30-year old safety, who skipped out on his team, 11 million dollars, let alone 13m. The only leverage Berry would have had was the cap stress that would put the Chiefs under and the effect it would have on the locker room, but Chiefs didn’t do that. Eric Berry’s contract shows you who John Dorsey is at heart. He’s a good guy, the Chiefs are a family organization, and they try to do right by their players. This tends to bite them in the salary cap department, but it sure makes it easy to sign UDFAs and veteran free agents on prove-it contracts. Which brings us to the next item of news.

C.J. Spiller: Value

Dorsey occasionally hammers out some bone-headed contracts: that said, he also knows how to get maximum value out of free agency at times too. C.J. Spiller is one of those cases. He seems to be on his last legs and certainly struggled to stay healthy, that said, he’s the kind of speed back the Chiefs have been lacking since Charles body quit. He’s an experienced kick returner who should allow K.C. to move on from Knile Davis — finally! — and he’s a great receiver out of the backfield. Of course, all of that’s contingent on his health, something the Chiefs should have a pretty clear idea of by the end of preseason. It’s this kind of low-risk-high-reward signing that has helped the Chiefs add talent in more ways than one. Tyvon Branch made some nice contributions to the team in 2015, but, after signing with the Cardinals, he’s still giving to the Chiefs, in the form of a 2017 compensatory pick. Gotta love those prove-it deals.

LDT: Underrated

Many fans were shocked to hear that the Chiefs had extended Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and also made him the 4^th highest paid guard in the league. Of course, that fact is kind of misleading. Contract value is more based on when the contract was signed than the skill of the player. Basically, when the guards who are better than LDT are up for a contract extension, they’re going to get more money. In the long run, this is a tremendous thing for the Chiefs’ offense. A lot of us Chiefs fans want new starters on the O-line, but I think we forget the importance of continuity in a Zone Blocking System. The Chiefs running game is not based on getting a big push, it’s based on opening holes in the right spots at the right time. That requires timing, precision and above all, practice. NFL restrictions on practice time in pads are making it increasingly difficult for teams to field decent O-lines. Funny thing about a ZBS O-line, sometimes the best thing you can do for it is nothing. Kansas City has had a ton of turnover. If they can finally develop some consistency, the O-line might start looking more like it’s supposed to.

Jamaal Charles: Legacy

It proved to be a mistake to extend Jamaal Charles, but I can’t really blame the Chiefs too much for doing it, at the time. He was the heart and soul of the Chiefs offense, and they’re still struggling to find an identity without him. He’ll always be one of my favorite players and, I’m sure, will retire a Chief. He might play with another team for a year or two, but I don’t expect his career to last much longer. The Chiefs made the right decision to cut him, even though it stings.

The Combine: Opportunity

For most players, the combine is about maintaining their draft stock. A few teams focus mainly on the numbers, but most still rely heavily on game tape. For this reason, their performance at the combine doesn’t really hurt or help most prospects very much. The notable exception to this rule is guys from small schools. It’s easy to see a SEC prospect, like Leonard Fournette, and project him to the NFL. Much harder to watch a guy like Charcandrick West, destroying low-level competition, and know what he’s going to do against better players. For small school guys, it’s all about the combine. A good performance can vault a prospect from obscurity to the early rounds (guys like Ali Marpet and Dontari Poe). A bad performance can leave you un-drafted, searching for a team that will give you a chance. It’s important to remember that combine numbers are just context for game tape. If their athleticism didn’t translate in college, you can’t expect that to change in the NFL. Even a guy like Chris Conely, who set a combine record with his vertical, couldn’t vault his stock beyond the third-round, because his game tape in the SEC wasn’t all that great. His performance, thus far, seems to validate this approach, as it seems, he was drafted in the right spot.

Dontari Poe: There’s Still a Chance

The Chiefs wisely opted to avoid using the franchise tag this year. With minimal cap space, and no free agents worthy of the price tag, this was a smart move. This means that Poe will hit free agency. While Poe certainly could go to another team, I don’t think it means Chiefs are done with him yet. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago we were sure Jaye Howard was gone, but no market materialized for him, and he really liked playing for the Chiefs. The D-line group is pretty tight, and they seem to have a lot of fun. I wouldn’t rule out a situation where Poe gets a decent offer from a bottom feeder team, but decides to take slightly less money and stay in Kansas City. It might not be the most likely outcome, but it’s certainly possible.

And those are my sizzling takes. Go Chiefs!

Bonus Sizzler

A QB prospect who makes a ton of sense for the Chiefs this year is Johnny Manziel. He was a head case in Cleveland, and who knows whether his recovery is just an act. That said, he’s a tremendous athlete who fits Reid’s WCO‘s need for a mobile QB. He’ll need to learn to take snaps under center, which could take a while, but he shouldn’t command much of a salary. Chiefs could probably get him on a 2-3 year deal for cheap. They might cut him, or get a compensatory pick from him when he signs for another team, but there’s an outside chance they could fix him and have their QBOTF without investing any draft picks. That possibility certainly makes this move worth considering.

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