What These Chiefs Deserve
Laddie
After three games we can begin to see some patterns emerging for the 2022 Kansas City Chiefs. So far, it doesn’t look like that includes another Super Bowl win, or possible even a Super Bowl berth, much less the opportunity to host a fifth Lamar Hunt AFC Championship game in a row. Let’s take a look at why I might think that.
AFC West
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The Next Three Week’s Schedules
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While the Denver Broncos jump out at me as having the same record at thsi point in te season, their Sunday game this weekend followed by a Home game four days later vs the Colts, looks like a vulnerable game for them.
Since we don’t yet know where the Chiefs game this weekend will be, that also looks like a strange game for the Bucs, more than the Chiefs. However, since we know that pilots of airplanes must file a flight plan ina advance, we’d expect the NFL to decide where this game is to be played. I’ll be surprised if the game time and location haven;t already been decided by the time of this publishing.
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The Minneapolis Home of the Dome — US Bank Stadium. There another punch in the Nut-bucket.
While the Broncos record is disconcerting for me, it’s still the Chargers that I’m most concerned about. With their @ Houston, @ Cleveland and then Hosting the Broncos on Monday evening schedule, I can easily see them going 3-and-0 over the next three weeks and if K.C. goes 2-and-1, or even 1-and-2, then the Chargers are right back in the mix. Then, they could also possibly take over the division lead.
Team Rankings
ArrowheadPride has a great article on the NFL Power Rankings and has the Chiefs dropping almost universally and we can understand why:
NFL.com: 5 (down from 2)
ESPN: 4 (down from 2)
The Athletic: 4 (down from 2)
CBSSports.com: 5 (down from 2)
The Sporting News: 6 (down from 2)
USA Today: 5 (down from 2)
Mile High Report: 3 (down from 2)
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“Down from 2” is a popular idea this week. I guess the Mile High Report surprises me the most. I’d have thought they’d have the Chiefs lower than the #2 spot to begin with, and much lower than 3 this week. BTW, they have their own Broncos ranked at #10.
LT Orlando Brown Jr.
What is up with Orlando Brown Jr.? I was waiting for him to assert his prowess and show everyone this year why he might be right in demanding a huge raise and become the best LT in the NFL. Boy have I been bamboozled. Now, I’m glad the Chiefs are only paying him the $16.7M, — the franchise tag — amount for a Left Tackle this year. CrasherSports has a video called: “This One Game May Have Just Cost Orlando Brown Jr Millions Of Dollars” and I can’t say I disagree with their hypothesis.
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David Bell agrees that the Chiefs need to do something this next offseason to get a top notch replacement for Orlando Brown at LT, but that we should wait until the offseason to do so. If you think I’m picking on Brown Jr., I’m not. Why, because his stats don’t back up his own statement, that he is one of the best — if not the best — left tackles in the NFL. Consider what he’s done so far this year:
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I’m trying to be fair minded here. This says, “Out of all” the NFL linemen, Brown has allowed the 13th most pressures. I’m sure that stats would be much worse if the focus was just on the Tackles, or Left Tackles of the world. Well, I found it, so here’s that information too:
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To be 100% transparent, that second Tweet was from last week… but let’s be honest here, that means… 45 other Offensive Tackles have been better at allowing pressures on their QBs than Orlando Brown Jr. in the first two week of the 2022 season. You may have heard me suggesting that the Chiefs move Andrew Wylie to LT and bring in Prince Tega Wanogho to the right side. After three games, I’m willing to give Orlando Brown Jr. another chance, but if he continues to become a revolving door, let’s be real. Some are not ready to give him another chance:
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Not all analysts would agree with me, but some do. I think Brown has been the Chiefs worst OL this season, thus far.
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While you may be feeling it’s too early to make the kind of judgement I’m making, remember we have last season to go on as well. Yes, he made the Pro Bowl, but no one in K.C. thinks he deserved that. He’s a big reason why I think the Chiefs might fail this year.
Mecole Hardman = Unhappiness
In WR Mecole Hardman’s career, prior to this season, he’s had 126 catches for 1,791 yards. That’s 597 yards per year, or 12.1 yards per game. This year, Hardman has a total of 7 receptions for 67 yards which comes out to 22.3 yards per game, and 2.3 catches per game. That is not what any of us had in mind when the Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill away. Hardman had been promising that he’d do better this year, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Scant Stats From Valdes-Scantling
Marquez Valdes-Scantling (MVS) has had little to no better results this year than Hardman has. MVS has 105 receiving yards in 3 games for a 35 yards per game average. 18 targets for 10 receptions doesn’t sound very good either.
Special Teams Nightmares
I’m not as down on the Special Teams unit, or Dave Toub, as others might be. However, the Chiefs have chosen to go with rookies, and there is nothing they can do about that now. In an article for ArrowheadPride called: “Marinated’ takeaways from the Chiefs’ ugly loss in Indianapolis” by Stephen Serta, he quotes John Dixon — an ArrowheadPride Editor — as saying:
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“It is absolutely true that one of the biggest reasons the Chiefs lost this game is because of the special-teams play. What I absolutely disagree with is that Dave Toub should be on the hot seat as a result… It’s not Dave Toub’s fault that his kick returner is a rookie… Rookies play special teams early on to adjust to the speed of the NFL game… There’s a reason that rookies return kicks and sometimes they make mistakes… This was going to happen and it was reasonable that Skyy Moore would make mistakes this season… Neither is it Dave Toub’s fault that Harrison Butker is hurt and they had to sign Matt Ammendola.”
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By the way, if you haven’t heard, K.C. has moved on from kicker Matt Ammendola:
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Looky, Looky, We Gots Da Rookies
There’s no way of getting around the fact that these 2022 Chiefs are made up of 15 rookies and 9 of those are on the 53-man active roster. So, what does that mean? Well, CB Trent McDuffie should continue his assault on the WRs of the NFL and become a way above average mainstay… once he returns from IR. This year.
As you may know, I’m still expecting big things from WR/KR Skyy Moore, but he had only 8 offensive snaps in this game. Hard to make your presence felt in a positive way when the coaches aren’t giving you a chance to show what you can do as a WR. However, it was his fumble leading to a 1st TD for the Colts that set that game on the wrong trajectory. Do I still think he can turn it around? Sure. This year? Maybe, maybe not. That’s the rub with dealing with rookies, isn’t it. They are all a “Maybe, Maybe Not” proposition. With so many other questions to deal with, the Chiefs can’t afford so many, “Iffy” propositions.
I think it’s BJ Kissel who predicted that rookie DE George Karlaftis would break Derrick Thomas rookie sack record of 10 and break out this season with 11 or more.
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It’s a rookie record that has stood for 33 years, I beg your pardon. Kissel goes so far as to say that Karlaftis will lead the Chiefs in sacks this year. I don’t know about that one, but I also thought GK had the potential to break that rookie record. So far, Karlaftis has zero sacks. So unless he ups his rate of sacks per game, BJ Kissel — and moi — will have to eat their words.
Good Reasons For the Rainbows
The positives — so far this season — come down to what the Defense is doing.
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Here’s the Chiefs beat reporter, Matt McMullen, on the plus side takeaways of the Chiefs Defense on Sunday, and the first three weeks of this season:
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I’m not so sure that the old maxim still works in today’s NFL, the one that says: “Defense Wins Championships.” Unless the K.C. rookies ball out the rest of the year… consistently… I’m not sure what accolades these Chiefs will deserve, if anything, when the end of January rolls around. Let me know what you think.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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