Last Year: 9-7, second in the AFC West
Key Acquisitions: WR Jeremy Maclin, G Ben Grubbs
Key Losses: WR Dwayne Bowe, TE Anthony Fasano
Two years ago, the Chiefs reached the playoffs and then had the world’s biggest choke job against the Colts in the Wild Card round. Last year, the Chiefs barely missed the playoffs after having a historic season. That history, of course, was that they played 16 games and not once did a wide receiver catch a touchdown pass. At one point Dwayne Bowe almost had one, then fumbled it at the one-yard line and Kelce got the TD. The Chiefs, everyone.
People have finally started to realize Dwayne Bowe isn’t good anymore, and the Chiefs let him walk. They replaced him with Jeremy Maclin, a solid producer who was excellent after the catch in Chip Kelly’s system and already knows Andy Reid’s system. Since Alex Smith can’t throw a pass beyond 7 yards, having a YAC guy like Maclin might finally lead the Chiefs to a WR TD. They still have Jamaal Charles and Travis Kelce, so the offense will be fine. Alex Smith scares no defense but he’s led them to the playoffs once, maybe he can do it again.
However if anything makes it easier for Tiny Hands to be successful it’ll be the KC defense, still anchored by pass rush monster Justin Houston. Eric Berry beat cancer and is coming back to the field to play safety again (give this man a tip of the hat). The Chiefs are a solid team and a contender for the playoffs. They’ll probably be competing with the Chargers, who are about the same level, for one of the wildcard slots. Maybe we’ll get extremely lucky and the Chiefs will face the Bengals in the first round, then someone has to win.
For the fan perspective on Kansas City, we go to internet Chiefs fan “Grittybeard,” who is a die hard local and may have been drunk when writing this:
Ah the Chiefs. I live in Chiefs Kingdom (this is actually a thing if you weren’t aware). A land where you can argue for days with Bengals fans about who has had it worse since 1990, both sides of the argument sporting mullets and wearing zubaz as God intended.
Optimism is pretty high in general here, we’ve replaced Mike McGlynn who was one of the worst guards in football with Ben Grubbs who is pretty cool even if he’s on the downside of his career. The abysmal wide receiver corps got a plus player in Jeremy Maclin. Travis Kelce at TE figures to actually play most of the time this year and I wouldn’t trade him for anyone other than Gronk and I’d even pause to think about that. Jamaal Charles continues to own to the point where I’m kind of worried that he ‘only’ averaged 5 yards a carry the last couple of years.
Justin Houston damn near broke the sack record last year and is locked up. Tamba Hali is a good aging pass rusher and agreed to take a pay cut to stay in KC this year with Dee Ford waiting in the wings. Marcus Peters has everyone excited, he’ll almost certainly get a bunch of illegal contact penalties but he does seem to make plays so far. Derrick Johnson is back and looks to be moving well after blowing his Achilles last year along with Mike DeVito who is coming back from the same injury. The hope is they will shore up the horrendous Run D from 2014. And of course Eric Berry is inhuman and will likely see significant playing time/maybe transition back to being a starter after going through chemo to beat Hodgkins lymphoma in less than a year, which is awesome.
So what’s the downside? Dontari Poe plays more snaps than anyone else in the league as an interior defensive lineman and just had surgery on his back before training camp. It’s not supposed to be a big deal and he’s theoretically going to be back somewhere in the first few games of the season but the man weighs 346 pounds and has back problems…
Yeah. I’m hopeful but more than worried. Sean Smith, a man Dolphins fans might be surprised to learn turned into an amazing CB, is suspended for the first three games because of DUI. That sucks, but at least they play the Texans and their horrible QBs! And the Broncos (of course)…and the Packers. Sh*t. At least he gets an easy time in his first game back facing AJ Green.
I don’t even know what there is to say about Alex Smith. People around here love him because he isn’t Matt Cassel or Brady Quinn. And hell, I agree, he isn’t either of those guys and that is awesome! On the other hand he’s probably the most boring somewhat competent quarterback in the league.
That’s a chart showing the distance to the first down marker on third down and how far quarterbacks threw the ball in the air. Yeah. Having bad receivers doesn’t explain that.
Every year one of the training camp things people talk about is how Alex is going to go deep more this year. It will never happen. The man is aggressively bland. Unseasoned grits can look at Alex Smith and ‘damn, you ought to spice things up a little.’ Jeremy Maclin is a fine upgrade but I expect him to put up 900 to 1100 yards this year instead of the 1300 he put up with Chip Kelly last year.
As a whole I wouldn’t be surprised with anything from 10-6 to 6-10 out of KC this year. If Peyton falls off terribly (he won’t, if for no other reason than to annoy me) I could see them fighting off San Diego to win the division.
And then losing in the first round of the playoffs, because Chiefs.
