Top Five Chiefs to Ball Out in Year Two

Laddie Morse

While the Kansas City CHiefs had 10 draft picks in last year’s draft, they had more than 10 players who were new to the team. Here’s a look at their draft picks:

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LB Jack Cochrane was an Undrafted Free Agent who not only made the roster last year but played on 65% of the Special Teams snaps, or 262. Tershawn Wharton was a UDFA who made the team, like Cochrane, but from the 2020 season, and he tore his ACL in a week five game last year. In any event, he won’t be counted here as he is a fourth year player now.

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Last year, Isiah Pacheco was known for saying he’s “ready to take another grown man’s job.”

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A lot was made of Patrick Mahomes playing hurt in the playoffs and the Super Bowl, but Isiah Pacheco played hurt too. Pacheco played through both a broken hand and a torn labrum during the Chiefs Super Bowl season last year. Did any of us know that when it was happening? No. Still, it goes to show just how tough Pacheco is.

Pacheco runs a 4.37 40 yard dash time and gained 830 yards on 170 attempts for a 4.9 yards per carry average. Should we expect more out of him this season? Yes, as Pop — as his team mates refer to him — only started in 11 games last year. It should be a lot of fun watching him this season. I have to wonder what plays HC Andy Reid will design for him… to get him busting loose on some longer runs than a 31 yarder (his longest run in 2022). BTW, Pop had 130 yards receiving last year to bring his total yards from scrimmage to 960.

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While we know these are two different players, the Chiefs cornerback situation has never been better because of these two. In the first game of the season — last year — CB#1 Trent McDuffie, was injured and had to sit out for several game. Enter Williams and Watson. They not only held their ground well, but excelled many times. Joshua Williams — the 4th rounder — played on 437 snaps in 2022 which is also 38% of the defensive snaps, and had 4 starts. Jaylen Watson played on 605 snaps in 2022 which is also 56% of the defensive snaps, and he had 6 starts.

They combined for 2 INTs during the regular season. Even though J. Watson was the lower round pick — in the 7th — he appeared to have the better overall season. Here’s a graphic from ArrowheadPride showing fans approval going into the playoffs last season:

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Can we expect an improvement over the next season? Why not! Here’s what Matt Conner at ArrowheadAddict had to say about how Williams ended the 2022 season:

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“While the rate of usage ebbed and flowed throughout the year, Williams even played 89 percent of all snaps against the Bengals in the conference championship—a sign of the trust he’d earned over the course of the season. By season’s end, he’d deflected 7 passes, intercepted 1, and had 40 tackles. He put up another 9 tackles and 1 inteception in the team’s Super Bowl run.”

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Nate Christianson wrote a piece for ArrowheadPride called: “Projecting the roles the Chiefs’ defensive backs will fill in 2023” in which he said this about Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson in 2023:

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“While I think Watson is a better player, we should expect the two of them to rotate. Which one sees the field in a given moment is likely to depend on which one of them is playing better or has a better matchup. Watson is a better zone defender and has better ball skills, while Williams has more speed — which will give him the edge in certain matchups.”

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George Karlaftis (GK) was the recipient of much insight after each practice from Frank Clark. While — as an ex-teacher — I’m aware that students who re-teach something to other students learn that thing even better… I’d still like to see Frank Clark return and rotate into each game… plus, teach George and FAU after practice.

Cole DeRuse of “How Bout Those Chiefs” podcast said recently that George Karlaftis had played a higher number of snaps during hte first half of the season when he had fewer sacks — then when Steve Spagnuolo, the Chiefs DC — cut back on Karlaftis’ snaps to about 50%, he had 5 sacks in the second half of the season. It looks like resting does George a lot of good.

Also, GK has been getting some tutoring from ex-Chiefs DE, Tamba Hali, this offseason which bodes well for him in the future.

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Should we expect more out of George Karlaftis this year? I think he’ll pick up where he left off last year… which was 5 sacks in the last half of the season.

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Cook was the 62nd pick in the 2022 NFL Draft for the Chiefs. He had 342 of the defensive snaps (32%) and he also had 272 of the Special Teams snaps (62%) overall. With Juan Thornhill exiting this offseason, Cook will be depended upon to make more of a contribution on defense. Cook has already made noticeable progress this offseason:

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“Nick Bolton told the media that second-year safety

Bryan Cook has taken huge strides forward in the

Chiefs’ offseason program.”

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Nick Bolton deserves our support and belief… at face value. If Bryan Cook comes on stronger than Juan Thornhill did in his rookie season, we’ll be in good shape, not only this season, but the next.

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No, the reason I have chosen Skyy Moore had nothing to do with my 2022 prediction that he’d turn out to be the Chiefs #1 WR by year’s end. Here’s a great shot of Mahomes hitting Skyy Moore in practice.

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BradHensonProductions said of the Mahomes to Moore connection, last August:

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“Patrick Mahomes to Skyy Moore is going to be lethal!”

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Like me, he may have been off by a year.

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Andy Reid said of Skyy Moore this past week:

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“I like what I see. He’s getting strong. You can tell that he’s worked this offseason. He was down there with Pat the whole time and never missed a day with him, so he’s done a good job. [He has a] better understanding.”

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Patrick Mahomes has noticed the progress of Skyy Moore before the 2022 season ended:

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“I think you could see it, especially with Skyy at the end of the season, how he was getting more and more involved in the offense. I think he’ll continue to take those steps and be even better this next year when he’s more comfortable and can utilize his talents even more.”

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With Moore making his presence felt in the Super Bowl (and scoring his first NFL TD), we can expect more from Moore this coming season. Here’s a K.C. crowd reacting to the Skyy Moore TD in February (0:40):

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Who do you think will ball out this year from last year’s crop of draftees?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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