A bittersweet season ending in a one and done postseason appearance has us looking around the room for areas to improve on. An offense brimming with young talent and a Super Bowl caliber defense, we need someone to lead this team to a Super Bowl. While Cam Newton is far from his 2015 peak, Coach Carter believed he was more than capable of keeping the offenes afloat.
The results were half and half. 8 games where Cam threw for 1 or less touchdowns. 8 games where he threw 3 interceptions or more. Too often we found ourselves down early in games forced to play hero ball. In a perfect world, the present Cam would run an efficient, ball control offense only taking shots when opponents displayed openings to do so. Despite the meh season and horrid playoff game, 45 total(10 rushing) TDs is not something thats equally duplicated in this league. Which is why we've re-signed Cam Newton to a 1 year deal worth 10 million.
However, if visual progress is not seen from Cam during this offseason/preseason changes will be made. In what looks to be a weak QB draft, we may have to get creative in bringing in competition or aquiring the ever so coveted franchise QB of the future.
Leading up to the 2021 season we traded promising but raw QB Drew Lock and a 4th rounder to Washington for DT Matt Ioannidis. We had every intention of seeing Lock blossom into our franchise QB but our window is now for a ring. A hidden gem burried on a stacked Washington defensive front, Matt was too good a player to pass up on.
The goal has been to assemble a God Hand on the defensive front with hopes of creating scenarios where Von Miller nor Bradley Chubb could never be doubled or chipped. Acclimating to a new system, Ioannidis' stats don't tell the full story of the impact he's had on the defense since joining.
Accumalating 5 sacks to go along with 16 tackle for losses, Matt proved he's among the elite interior lineman in this league. Heading into the offseason Ioannidis looks to work on stuffing inside runs and his near elite bull rush move. Looking for a new contract, this was the perfect time to emerge as a superstar.
Coach Carter once again found his team missing the playoffs with an 8-8 record. Kansas City had the best division record at 4-2, a marked improvement from last year. However being .500 isn't enough in this death division. Two seasons in a row the AFC West has had every team finish with a .500 winning percentage or better. Unfortunately, we eliminate each other from postseason berths in the process.
Despite an indentical record from last season, this team is far from the same. For the second year in a row we had the #2 offense in the league. The difference is that there was a much more efficient run balance due to new acquisiton Ezekiel Elliott. Rushing for almost 2k(1,814 ryds, 21 TDs), he took a lot of pressure off of the offense having to throw all game. No conincidence Mahomes completion pct, sack rate, yds, and TD's all improved from last season.
Offense has never been the main issue in Kansas City. Finishing games and stopping teams from scoring(via the pass) once again led to our downfall. Finishing once again as the 31st pass defense and yards allowed defense in the SFL. Some of it can be attributed to how quick we score on offense. Our defense is on the field for extremely long periods of time with suspect defensive backs.
Coach Carter went into this cycle belieiving that the best defensive front in the league(on paper) could mitigate the talent discrepancy in the secondary. We were wrong. Until we can improve on defense we may never make the postseason. Thanks to smart cap casualties in Season 1, Kansas City finds themselves with some leg room to make a move or two in free agency should they see fit. We also have more than 4 draft picks this year with intentions of infusings this defense with some young talent. Slow and steady progress each year, I feel like we're on the cusp of breaking through next season. The sky's the limit for this team if we actually get into the playoffs.
After letting more than 31 impending free agents test the market...all that reamins are WR Sammy Watkins and CB Chavarius Ward. Re-signing Ward was a no brainer. The 25 year old corner is an ascending talent who should have made the Pro Bowl last year. He's no doubt the corner for the future and maybe the best DB on this team. That's saying something considering All Pro Safety Tyrann Mathieu is on this team.
Then there's mercurial WR Sammy Watkins. He often gets lost in the shuffle of his Pro Bowl teammates but is damn good in his own right. There's still potential yet to be unlocked within him which is why this contract exstension was conflicting to give. In the grey area of not old but not young, Coach Carter hopes a move to the slot will allow Sammy to unleash his full potential this upcoming season.
Strapped for cash, strapped for picks. We've learned how to make a dollar out of 15 cents. It doesn't look pretty right now with 36 players but we will rebuild this roster on the philosophies of Coach Carter. The roster is extremely top heavy, we're gonna have to bank on scheme over players. Under the radar players will have to be the move this offseason and beyond. Your window is only so finite to win, there will be some tough decisions regarding contracts for key players this season. Time will tell if we succeed this season, but the vision is clear even if others can't see it.
So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
With aspirations of repeating as champions, Washington fell a game short of the goal. In a season that was pretty much cruise control every loss we suffered were to playoff teams. The common theme? A struggling passing game with a combined 10 INTs in the three regular season losses. When the run game got stymied we often found ourselves looking to make something happen vertically even when it wasn't there. In a league that allows defenders to get handsy with receivers, it often times resulted in disaster.
In the Conference Championship Round vs Atlanta we couldn't even muster 100 yards passing. As we reflect on this season and look at the resources we have, changes will be made this offseason. With the amount of money allocated on the offensive side of the ball we should be damn near unstoppable. In the words of Kountry Wayne, "Help is on the way!"
Wanted to do something a little different this time around. Instead of focusing on "MVP's" on our team lets analyze the struggles and trends that could undo our chances at at Super Bowl.
As mentioned earlier in our 2nd Quarter Review we have struggled to dominate in the run game since the "patch". We went from breaking runs like these...
To struggling to even get 4 yards past the LOS. Its a known fact that many coaches have all the assists on, but it's like we're running with a force field around us now. A juke turns into not being able to move and random defenders leaping from 5 yards away to clip up our ball carriers. Before the patch(B.P.) Zeke Elliot was averaging 10 yards a carry. Now? It looks more like this...
Another disturbing trend we've noticed since the injury to DT Madara Uchiha is the struggle to contain powerbacks and the run game in general. Following the loss of Madara vs the Chargers, we've given up 100 yards to McKinnon, Fournette, and Blount. Wk9 saw LeGarrette Blount amass 161 yards with what was essentially the icer here(peep the LS)...
Finally, we faced our first real threat of a mobile quarterback in Deshaun Watson. While offensively he didn't a lot, he extended drives on fuckery such as this...
This is something DC Lucius Fox will have to correct going forward with mobile QBs such as Luck, Watson, Carr, and Bridgewater all in the mix for this playoff race. Till next time.
We kicked off the 1st Quarter of the season 4-0 and a two win lead division lead in the AFCW. Starting the 2nd Quarter of the season we had an opportunity to sweep Denver and Los Angeles in Weeks 5 & 6. Decisive wins over both division rivals proved beneficial as Oakland was only a game behind in the AFCW at 7-1. However, lost in the destruction of DEN and LAC our budding star DT Madara Uchiha was injured in a garbage time, stat padding, no huddle barrage from LAC in the head to head finale.
Because GM Jim Gordon built a roster of depth and talent the lost of Madara wasn't deemed a big deal. Coach Bruce Wayne would soon realize in the following weeks we were wrong as a staff. The following three weeks(DEN,JAX,HOU) we would allow a combined 407 yards rushing as a defense. This was only a portion of the disturbing trends Kansas City developed over the 2nd Quarter of the season.
Gone were the impact special team plays from the previous quarter. The big runs from RB Ezekiel Elliot devolved into breaking multiple tackles behind or at the LOS only to fumble(3 Fumbles Lost). We found ourselves offensively in unfamiliar territory, having to rely on QB Pat Mahomes passing more than 15 times a game. The results weren't pretty in the game versus Houston. 3 Turnovers, lack of balance, and a inability to control a game from a tempo perspective.
With that being said, its not all bad over here Chiefs Kingdom. We find ourselves 7-1 as the #1 seed in the AFC and still in the top 10 in points scored and points allowed. We'll check back in four weeks to see if the bad trends we developed carry over into the 3rd Quarter of the season. Till next time.
As we head into the 2nd Quarter of the season I would like to take time to analayze and review the 3 most impactful players on our team up to this point. For the first four games these players demonstrated the importance of winning in all 3 phases of the game.
*Sidenote: the stats used don't take into account games played after this article was thought/written.
Special Teams MVP: CB Jacob Bouye
Drafted in the 3rd round this rookie wasn't expected to play much outside of Dime and Sub packages. Turns out he's an ace on the FB Block team with a league leading 2 Blocked FGA that lead to 2 TDs off the scoop and score. He's an early favorite for the Pro Bowl as a special teamer.
Defensive MVP: $Backer Eric Berry
The jack of all trades has done it again. After playing corner for two seasons(1 Pro Bowl at CB) Berry has been asked to move to the $Backer position where he takes on a more in the box linebacker role. He hasn't dissapointed with impact plays in every game thus far. He leads the league in pass deflections(10) to accompany 4 INTs, half a QB Tackle and a FF. He has literally eliminated the field between the numbers(check gifs vs Detroit and LA) and has came up with big plays in the most clutch moments of games.
His ability to DELETE the middle of the field in an almost Brian Urlacher way makes things easier for defensive coordinator Lucious Fox. He also allows us to cheat/help other areas of the field as well as be agressive in our pass rush. The results speak for themselves with the 4th ranked defense in points allowed.
Offensive MVP: OW Cordarrelle Patterson
When he was signed in the offseason there was skepticism and sass when it was announced he Patterson would move to RB. Coach Bruce Wayne couldn't understand the sass seeing as he played RB quite a bit when Adrian Peterson was hurt and petitioned to move to RB to stay in Minnesota in 2016 after seeing the success of RB Ty Montgomery.
With that said, you could argue he's been the most valuable player on the entire team. When prized RB Zeke Elliot left with a shoulder tear mere minutes into the season opener it was CP who exploded for a league leading 201 yds rushing in Wk1.
When Mahommes was inaccurate in the adjustment to a new offense, CP was the security blanket.
With Zeke returning for the Wk4 matchup vs Denver, CP was able to play more special teams and showcased his ability once more in an epic KR TD. We probably wouldn't be where we are if weren't for him.