Chiefs: Wednesday’s Notes and Quotes

Chiefs: Wednesday’s Notes and Quotes

 · By David Bell

Craig Stout: BarleyHop is Back!
Craig Stout’s @barlyhop out-takes are back. Here is a summary on his view of Chiefs CBs David Amerson, Kendall Fuller and Steven Nelson. Well worth the look. Stout is back at Arrowhead Pride and is worth the review any time he puts out an article. He took a look at film and had the following thoughts about three Corner Backs.

• David Amerson: When David Amerson was signed, he was told to expect to play “press” coverage about 90% of the time. If you take the time to find them, you can find video of Amerson in just such a set up and as an outside cover man as well. You will also find him lined up on a WR in the slot with the same ‘press man coverage’. The important part of Stout’s relates to footwork, hip turn and disturbing the WR Route Running – in the case of this video example, the WR is Terrell Pryor. He states: “…Amerson didn’t have to get particularly physical on this play to have good coverage out of press-man. Proper footwork and positioning resulted in very sticky coverage….”

• Kendall Fuller: Taking a look at video of Kendall Fuller covering slot WR Seth Roberts, Stout observes that Fuller shades the WR inside, also does a good hip turn to the move by Roberts, makes left hand jab to disrupt Roberts and then shadows the WR perfectly, with Derek Carr under-throwing at the same time resulting in an INT.

• Steven Nelson: Next Stout took a look at Steven Nelson. He writes: “…Now there’s some pop! Nelson is playing the slot…he starts the snap off with a … perfect mirror of the wide receiver. The receiver starts to come out of his break and wants to go outside with his route, but Nelson shuts the door on that with a nice two-handed punch to the chest, throwing him back inside…  and handing off to the free safety…. Nelson may not have flipped his hips to run with the receiver after the punch, but this was always designed to cover for a short period of time. Even with that release, Nelson was moving into trail coverage as Parker took over the press man.

[DEB – the planned defense in this case was press man and then handing the WR off to the Safety as noted in the last sentence.]

Kent Swanson’s Look at Armani Watts
I believe you could see rapid growth from Watts, as he now has a chance to make football a full-time job. The more he sees and processes, the quicker the instincts can take over. As he adds more gigabytes to his football database, he’ll make strides. Watts appears on tape to be a smart player. He doesn’t look like someone who will be fooled twice. If that’s true, he’s the kind of player that could figure things out quickly.
Watts has the ability to make an impact as early as this year. If they use him correctly and position him to use his instincts, Watts can add immediate value. [emphasis added-deb]

Taking An Early Look at Tre’ Smith
Willie Davis, Chiefs area scout discusses CB Tremon Smith(5’11-190).
Smith’s Pro Day had a lot of teams(Chiefs, Raiders, Bengals, Colts and Eagles) taking a hard look: “Tre” Smith ran a 4.32—40 at his pro day and had a 34 inch vertical.

Willie Davis, area Scout for the Chiefs said about Smith: “(he is) competitive, always goes full speed… confident that he can play against the best.” Davis also stated that Smith knew he would have to earn his way onto the team and is aware that. Lance Zierlein at NFL.com observed about Smith:

“Extremely confident and extremely greedy as an on-ball defender, Smith was asked to play the role of island defender and did so at a high level(at Central Arkansas)…possesses the size, speed, athletic ability and instincts that should be able to translate to the league.”Smith has the potential to fight for either an outside or slot role, but he’ll need to play with better discipline in order to avoid penalties and big plays.”

My own observation is that with so many teams interested and what we saw from Smith at the Rookie Mini-Camp, it might be a mistake to let him dangle on the PS if what he is showing continues through training camp and he makes the most of his opportunities in the Pre-Season games.

Chiefs First Pick: Speaks Speaks
“I did get the playbook and my first reaction had to be, I could do this. I looked at a few defenses that we install for the day and pretty much went over those and know those by heart already. Feeling pretty good about the playbook so far.”

Improving the DL: Derrick Nnadi
“How I see it, as a defense, we have work to do. They drafted me for a reason, to be here for a reason to improve the defense. All the defensive players that got drafted, we kind of clicked as soon as we met each other. That just adds to the bond since we are already cool with each other we can really better ourselves that much more.”

Room-Mates – Breeland and Dorian
“Me and Breeland (Speaks) we’re rooming together and sitting in that hotel room we’re like alright, ‘What’s your deal? Who are you? What are you about?’ I think that’s the way it should be with teammates. Bringing in a group of rookies that are all defensive we have to stick together and we have to form a relationship. Because if we form a relationship off the field it will definitely show on the field and being able to communicate. Even today, me and Breeland being able to communicate because we’re on the same side on some plays. So just having that chemistry off the field definitely will translate well.”

Flipping Sides: McKenzie’s Issue
Kahlil wrote about growing up a Raiders son: “After school, I would just go to my dad’s office (Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie) and wait for him to get off work, and then I’d go home. I had conversations with guys at times. I was a little kid running around, so they would sit there and talk to me about whatever I had to say at that young age. I don’t know. You see how they carry themselves. As you get older and you still see it. You get a lot of respect for how guys carry themselves. When you get to college, you’re around a whole lot of different guys. You appreciate even more the time spent that some of those guys had with you.”

Just the Berry’s — a Family Thing
Elliott on his Brother stated his brother was tough and resilient–a natural leader. He said:  “….We’ve never played on the same team before. I don’t know if you have any siblings but I feel like anybody that has siblings—they love their siblings. It’s a close bond. You can’t really describe it. I just want to play with my brother—not many people get that opportunity.”

Oh Sammy! What’s This I Hear?
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star wrote a piece for Sunday about overhauling the Chiefs in Brett Veach’s first season. Mellinger noted that the draft picks had flaws but they were all bringing to the table something that was the missing ingredient about the Chiefs player mix and what each draft pick brought to the table. They have some nasty he noted. Completing that thought he quoted Veach: “…Sometimes it just comes down to having guys that are wired right. Guys that want to line up and play four quarters of football. Our need is to just get tougher.”

AA Writer Lyle Graversen’s Out-take
One of the AA site authors that I follow is Lyle Graversen. Today he observed about the 2017 Chiefs defense: “The 2017 Kansas ity Chiefs defense was, in a word, bad…. …What I now find interesting is that it appears a big focus of Brett Veach’s overhaul of the Chiefs defense seems to be on character and chemistry….just because these players are bonding early on doesn’t mean they have the ability needed to succeed in the NFL as rookies, but that’s not something that can be proven yet. In the meantime, reports like the following by Chiefs reporter BJ Kissel are nothing but encouraging….”

Chiefs Digest: Matt Derek Has a Say
Matt Derek of Chiefs Digest also had similar views of the new defenders and their bonding. He wrote: “…I’ve been following Chiefs rookie camp reports for years now and I can’t ever remember a year where there were so many reports about a group of draft picks bonding from day one like this. Maybe it’s because they are all on the defensive side of the ball, or maybe this is just a special group of guys that the Chiefs specifically targeted because they liked their personalities and mental make up just as much as they liked their game tape.”
Matt added: “… Instead guys just seemed to go out play after play and focus on their job. That’s fine in theory, but in a physical and emotional game like football sometimes you need some fire, you need some energy, and sometimes it takes a teammate to bring that out…That is why I am encouraged by these early camp reports. The Chiefs not only seem to have injected some youth/speed/talent into their defense they seem to have done it by adding guys that are going to really work well together as a group.”

And Now… Here’s Today’s Finale
I mentioned on Monday that Reggie Ragland had extended himself in Leadership for the Veterans to the New Hands. I read with interest what BJ Kissel wrote about linebacker Reggie Ragland has already extended himself for UDFA’s and Drafted Rookies alike. This was also picked up by Lyle Graversen and his last thoughts were: “It’s only May. Training camp is still months away. In the meantime most of the talk about this defense being improved will continue to be speculation. However, the little things we can get a glimpse of now seem to be very positive…..

What these quotes and observations do is buttress the article I wrote for Sunday. I continue to develop optimism for 2018 to say the least. Are they there yet? Certainly not. Will they be competitive? I have absolutely no doubt about the offense and my support for what the restructured defense brings to the season is steadily improving.

David Bell – ArrowheadOne – NSLU

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