This may seem obvious, but I believe Hunt’s loss created a more glaring void than anyone could’ve imagined. The simple reality is that our offense no longer has the ability to sustain drives because we can’t run the football. It’s easy to bitch at Reid for not running the ball, but the truth is that we can’t block well enough to run the damn ball, and the RBs we have now aren’t capable of creating things on their own. Hunt was and was at the top of the yards after first contact category. Now, no team in the league fears our run game and they’re teeing off on our shitty line as a result.
Getting Fisher back will help, but it won’t change things significantly enough to matter. Until we find another guy in the backfield that commands the oppositions respect, we’ll continue to struggle offensively. There will certainly be games that Mahomes is unstoppable in, but they likely won’t be in January. Damien Williams, McCoy, and the others aren’t nearly good enough. [Reply]
Originally Posted by philfree:
Not disagreeing but it's like losing Hunt was the thread that started the unravelling.
That makes no sense. We still kicked ass last year after he was gone. It's not like we lost him this off season. I'm convinced Andy wants to break offensive records and you're not going to do that by running (in his eyes). McCoy has been good and running the ball is working. Then we go away from it. [Reply]
And yet Damien Williams filled in last year and almost nobody noticed. I blame Reid's playcalling and an offensive line full of swing tackles for our running game than anything. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
That makes no sense. We still kicked ass last year after he was gone. It's not like we lost him this off season. I'm convinced Andy wants to break offensive records and you're not going to do that by running (in his eyes). McCoy has been good and running the ball is working. Then we go away from it.
We had momentum at the time but as we transitioned to this year the threads keep pulling out. [Reply]
Losing Eric Fisher + hobbled Patrick Mahomes killed us. It's not that hard to figure out. With a healthy Mahomes, he can buy time and offset the turnstile Cam Erving. Without that, we see how bad Erving truly is. [Reply]
He wouldn't have helped us a bit against the Colts or Texans or any of the teams we played this season for the same reason that he hasn't helped the Browns. He's suspended. Also, let's not act like it was a 1 time thing. He had a pattern of bad behavior. He was involved in multiple instances of violence, and he thought that he could lie his way out of it. Based on that history, he's likely to get in trouble again and be suspended again. The team doesn't need that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
He also brought a physicality and aggression that helped our mostly finesse offense, now we lack any type of player like that.
He also brought a physicality and aggression to women in hotels and men in bars. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
I guess you're just going to ignore the part where the backs last year were more productive than Hunt after he left? You have a paired example you're not even discussing.
I would imagine that a significant downgrade at center couple with several other injuries on the OL is what is affecting the play.
Yeah, I don't understand why this seems so difficult for so many fans to understand. Damien Williams didn't just suddenly become a much worse player. He's getting demolished in the backfield due to the complete ineptitude of the offensive line. [Reply]
Fact: since cutting Kareem Hunt, the Chiefs record, including this season, is 7-5.
Now, not all of that is about Hunt. The Chiefs have had an entire off-season, a new DC, switched from 3-4 to 4-3, new players, injuries to the OL, etc, and so on. It's not all about one RB.
But Hunt was a 3-down back, that could get yards on the ground where Damien and Darrel can't. The Chiefs could lean on Hunt to make up for, and hide a lot of issues, on the OL.
If you lose that much production, you have to makeup for it somewhere else. This year we lost Hill and Watkins, Fisher, brought in a new center, Shady got dinged, etc.
Hill, Watkins, and Fisher combined on the field can hide a lot of flaws in this team. To the point a lot of people were saying silly things like, Damien is as good as Hunt ever was, because the stats over 5 games seemed to suggest it. But again the stats aren't the whole story; the eye test suggested something else.
The truth is, that Hunt got a lot of yards by grinding, and fighting for them. They were yards that he got almost by himself.
Damien isn't that guy. He's a speed back. He's finesse where Hunt had more of a punch-you-in-the-mouth capability.
Damien needs good OL play to get his yards. Hunt's production wasn't as tied to great OL play. Simple. [Reply]
Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy says the offense is "not clicking, not getting it done." Says they do need to run the ball, but doesn't want to second-guess decisions in the RPO game.
Couldn't agree more. This game and the Colts game - we could just pound Hunt until he wears the D down and breaks one. We should at least be trying that with Darrel Williams now imo.
So dumb to just cut him. At least trade him or something. Ugh. [Reply]