Kansas City Chiefs Offseason WorkBook 2019

Kansas City Chiefs

2018 Record: (12-4) 1^st AFC West   

2018 Season Recap:

Offense

Points: 35.3 (1^st)

Yards: 425.6 (1^st)

Pass Yards: 309.7 (3^rd)

Rush Yards: 115.9 (16^th)

Defense

Points:  26.3 (24^th)

Yards: 405.5 (31^st)

Pass Yards: 273.4 (31^st)

Rush Yards: 132.1 (27^th)

Coming into the 2018 preseason, Patrick Mahomes was throwing bombs all over the field providing a gleaming foreshadow of things to come.

As the season began, the Chiefs became the greatest show on turf scoring points at will while putting up record breaking statistics in the process. Patrick Mahomes was turning heads with each performance proving that Andy Reid had made the correct choice to make him the starting quarterback.

In the first 11 weeks of the regular season, the Chiefs found themselves to be men playing amongst boys racking up 9 victories while only losing to the Patriots and the Rams. In both their losses, the Chiefs still showed great skill and prowess taking each contest to the wire, but ultimately being letdown by their anemic defense.

Coming off their bye week (week 12) the Chiefs had the most unfortunate news they could’ve ever received as they were poised to make their giant run at the Super Bowl. Star running back Kareem Hunt was caught on video in an assault of a woman which prompted the league to place him on the exempt list, subsequently forcing the Chiefs to release him. Trying to regroup quickly and move forward with the backs they had on the roster, the Chiefs offense did see a slight difference, but still managed to perform. Closing out the season with a 12-4 record was the outcome.

Heading into the postseason, everyone knew the Chiefs would be ready to dismantle their competition, and in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Colts, they did just that. Heading to the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick had his team ready with a masterful game plan which exploited the Kansas City defense, leading to their downfall. Patrick Mahomes and the offense played their best, but came up short ending their season.        

  

2019 Offseason WorkBook:

The Coaching Staff

While Andy Reid will remain as the Chiefs sideline boss for yet another season, the issue remains for his lack of overall success in the postseason. Looking to improve his team as a whole, Reid completely looked to revamp his defensive coaching group in hopes to make it back to the Super Bowl.

Moving quickly, Andy Reid relieved coach Bob Sutton of his duties as defensive coordinator while hiring Steve Spagnulolo to take over the reins. Adding other assistant coaches to help retool this defense, Reid also hired many who were familiar with Spagnulolo to help ease the transition.

While the offense proved to be the best in the business, the defense surly was the weakness of this club and should prove to be better under different leadership.  

The Offense

When Patrick Mahomes took over as the team’s starting quarterback this season, we truly believed he would have a great future, but no one could’ve predicted this type of record breaking success. In his first season as a starter, Mahomes reached over 5000 passing yards while throwing for a whopping 50 touchdowns placing him in elite company. Leading the Chiefs to hold down top rankings in all offensive categories, it’s no question that Kansas City has a very bright future ahead of them with Mahomes throwing the ball.

While the passing game looks to be in fantastic shape, the running back group does leave some speculation attached. Now that Kareem Hunt has been signed to the Cleveland Browns to eventually work out his suspension, the Chiefs will move forward with newly signed Carlos Hyde, and spark plug Damien Williams. Before Hyde was signed onto the team, the outlook did appear that Williams would have a very large role, but knowing Andy Reid, he would like a back he can lean on in crunch time through the tackles. The way this is shaping up, Williams and Hyde could form a nice tandem in the backfield that should produce solid numbers. Let’s face it; the Chiefs will never see stacked boxes with Mahomes throwing the ball.

When reviewing the teams pass catchers from the past season, the Chiefs were able to support the multitude of talent they possessed. With Tyreek Hill showing he is one of the deadliest deep threats in the entire league - when he was on point, it was near impossible to stop. While Travis Kelce isn’t part of the wide receiving core, he is also one of the most dangerous weapons in the pass game. Leading the team in receptions, Kelce was the perfect complement to the deep pass with Hill. With Sammy Watkins again dealing with injuries derailing the overall output once again, when he was on the field, he did flash that level of greatness we knew he had. If all three could remain on the field in 2019 for a full 16 game slate, there’s no question that Mahomes could toss another 50 touchdowns to this group.        

The Defense

Unfortunately for this side of the ball, each and every weakness was exploited leaving the offense to carry this team on more than one occasion.

What we struggle with the most when reviewing the Chiefs defense - is how a team can be a league leader in sack production, while showing some of the worst rankings in yards allowed. Led by Dee Ford and Chris Jones, Kansas City piled up a whopping 52 takedowns of opposing quarterbacks. Together the two managed to secure 28.5 sacks equating to 55% of the production. While Ford is technically an edge rusher/outside line backer, the true defensive linemen played quite well in finding the quarterback. While having success in one area was great, stopping the run was a big problem, one that should be rectified this offseason.

When reviewing the line backing core, last year’s free agent pickup Anthony Hitchens proved to be a great choice as he led the team in tackles with a healthy 135 on the season. Showing that he could be very opportunistic, the level of play from his partner (Reggie Ragland) did leave us wanting more. With the club announcing that they have released long-time Chief (Justin Houston), we should see added depth to this group.

The Chiefs secondary was an absolute abomination last season having glaring issues in stopping anyone from passing on them. Holding the worst ranks in pass yards against, this is an area of great need for Kansas City. While clearly the big issue has been the absence of their star Eric Berry who has only played 3 games in the last two seasons, Kansas City has already added Tyrann Mathieu to help bolster this unit. With Fuller being the only viable cover corner on this team, we should see the Chiefs hit the secondary hard in the draft.

Team Free Agents / Team Salary Cap

As the Chiefs have parted ways with Justin Houston and already adding players to the team, the salary cap still appears to be an issue. Until the Chiefs make the Tyrann Mathieu deal official (March 13^th), Kansas City sits with a mere 22 million (+$22,424,190) on the books to help round out this roster.

With Mathieu looking to eat up another 42 million, with a cap hit of 14 per season, there will be little wiggle room for the Chiefs to resign their 25 team free agents. Lucky enough for them, a lot of these names do appear to be replaceable with the exception of defensive back Steven Nelson. Some other may draw interest, but the Chiefs will have to make other roster moves to help their cash flow problem.

Looking to find players that can be true cut candidates is never an easy task, but in this case rumors have floated to suggest Eric Berry may find his walking papers with Mathieu on the roster. While that move looks to save funds in the form of 16.5 million, the team would have to eat a roaring 14.9 million in dead funds. Cutting Berry would continue to affect this club after this season. Seeing more speculation that Dee Ford is also on the trade block, finding a partner to take his services would alleviate another 15.4 million toward the cap, but would leave a giant hole in their sack production for 2019.

Finding other avenues to save funds is possible, but would be minimal in the grand scheme of things. As of today, last year’s Sammy Watkins contract is looking quite regrettable with his 19.2 million holding a team lead of 10.16% of the total cap space taken. With that said, winning isn’t cheap, and finding a way to continue to win is even harder.

The NFL Draft

Entering the 2019 NFL draft, this will be the best opportunity for the Chiefs to add credible and viable depth talent to this roster. Holding 8 picks in this year’s class, including two extra picks in the 2^nd round, Kansas City could revamp rather quickly to the point they don’t miss a step.

With last year’s draft class fully dictated in selections for the defense, we can see almost the exact same turnout in 2019. Though there will be a few picks to help displace the losses they have already had on offense, improving the defense is literally the top priority.