Hey folks.
Practice is over. I’m sitting in a Chipotle in St. Joe, and between the period of me finishing my barbacoa burrito and the massive shit I’m about to take, let me drop some nuggets from the practice.
First of all, get ready: this defense is going to be every bit as rocky and maddening the first 8-12 weeks of the season as it was to start last season. We are so low on bodies at DT that Austin Edwards started playing there today (Taylor Stallworth was not on the field, nor was Fortson, Deandre Baker, Fenton, Niang, and perhaps Tayon Fleet-Davis). We’re going to get trucked up the middle all year, as Nnadi seems to be the only guy who can stop the run effectively outside of Chris Jones splash plays.
I like our run defense better on the edges, and Bolton/Gay/Chenal will help, but there is no recipe for a good run defense that says “go light at defensive tackle.” But that’s exactly what we’re doing, unless Stallworth possesses a reservoir of talent I was unaware of. Saunders still looks useless, Wharton is still very quick but small. Austin Edwards may sneak onto the 53 down the road this season if Wharton gets hurt, by the way. The backup guards had no answer for his speed. I liked what I saw in the 1v1s.
Starting DL today: Clark, Jones, Nnadi, Danna. Dunlap and Karlaftis were 2nd team, but that’s a crime. Karlaftis is different. His play today suggests he’s every bit as good as his scouting reports say, and I’d argue he’ll be better. His hands are so heavy, he puts tight ends on roller skates, and he strip-sacked Mahomes in the team drills. He’s got surprising speed. I love him. Clark does not look like he’s taken a serious step forward, though. I think he still sucks.
Starting LB: Gay (W), Bolton (M), Lee (S). Spags ran some dime coverage drills as Bolton was on the field for all of them. Make no mistake: Bolton is going to play 100% of the snaps this year. They’re neeeeever taking him off. Second string was Carter (W), Harris (M), Chenal (S). Chenal will likely start by the end of the year on early downs; he is a problem coming downhill. He all but caught Henne from behind in a team drill, flushing him on a blitz and chasing him. Mike Rose is headed to the practice squad.
The biggest reason this defense is going to struggle will be corner. Defensive tackle will hurt too, but we simply don’t have the horses at corner, because McDuffie isn’t ready yet. He made a good play against MVS in team drills, but he was roasted in 1v1s. He lost every time: MVS bested him, JuJu beat him, Skyy got him, even Cornell Powell. I can’t pinpoint what deficiencies he has in his game but his recovery speed just isn’t there. If you get a step on him you seem to own him.
Williams fared better, but not perfectly — he has great arms for PDs. Lammons actually looked pretty darn good, as did Sneed who swallowed up almost everyone he faced. Watson and Nazeeh Johnson may be headed to the practice squad. But we simply don’t have the horses to face down strong WR corps, and god help us against elite WRs. We simply don’t have a guy you can point to and say “he’s the lockdown.” Two-minute drills when teams are flinging the ball around are going to infuriate Chiefs fans with this defense.
I like the safety arrangement they have. Spags really likes dropping Reid deep and letting Thornhill play shallow coverage more. They rotated Cook in a lot, which beats the pants off the Zayne Anderson experiment I witnessed in camp last year. Cook plays solid coverage. Deon Bush really seems to be the only other safety they like a lot. Zayne may head to the practice squad.
They played McDuffie and Williams on the outside, and Sneed lived inside. I’m not sure I ever saw him take a snap outside; I think he plays “joker” this year.
The offense has some high points and interesting players, but mostly they looked very sloppy. Mahomes’ passes were off, the other QBs were worse, and we were robbed of one round of Mahomes snaps with excessive false starts.
I opted to watch other drills so I do not have any insight at RB, other than Ronald Jones doesn’t even look like he’s trying, to me. The team really loves Pacheco, though. The hype there is real.
JuJu looks as good as we’ve heard, and MVS, I’m sorry to say, looks as bad as we’ve heard. Mahomes targeted him repeatedly, but misses him regularly. They never seem to be on the same page, and his hands aren’t great. Hardman, on the other hand, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this: may have a darn good season ahead of him. He has better cuts now than he used to, and won some deep routes, not just gimmick plays. He’s still a bonehead and had a bonehead drop, but this is the best he’s looked I think.
Also: Fountain definitely makes this team, but I think Cornell Powell does too. He looked very quick and fast in 1v1s, and he was everywhere in team practice. I think he has a real chance to make this roster and get playing time. He’s got a physicality that our other WRs lack.
Starting OL: Brown/Thuney/Humphrey/Smith/Christian.
Second: Johnson/Gurman/Allegretti/Wylie/Kinnard
Third: Wenogho/Caliendo/Reiter/Ksiezarcyk/Steinmetz
I didn’t like any of our right tackles this practice, but Mahomes and Reid have shown they can play around that. Just seemed like they all got beat regularly. I think Brown looks pretty good, but not elite. Johnson to the practice squad.
I’ll leave assorted notes below, but I came away underwhelmed big time with the defense, and massively “whelmed” with the offense. Mahomes is going to have to be Superman with this crew, at least early in the season.
Assorted notes:
* of the first seven defensive players to hit the field today, six of them were new to the team: Reid, Lonnie Johnson, Bush, Cook, Lee, Karlaftis. Just goes to show you how much is changing on defense. There will be growing pains and it may be a whole season of them.
* DiCaprio Bootle played at CB, Jerron Ealy at WR
* I really liked how Malik Herring played. He has taken a step forward, same with Joshua Kaindoh, who has added some power. Both guys are long and very athletic, and they were tricky for the backup tackles.
* Azur Kamara and Kehinde Hassan are both listed very light, but they look to both be well above 250.
* who is number 80? I didn’t have him on my depth chart
* KR tryer-outers in no order: Pacheco, Gore, Ealy, Moore, Hardman, Coleman, Gordon, Parker
* speaking of Aaron Parker, it wouldn’t shock me if he ended up on the practice squad. His motions are unbelievably smooth.
* Josh Gordon is bad
* Fountain looks really polished in the 1v1s. A real technician at the position: I think he has a roster spot locked
* 1st team WRs: JuJu, MVS, Hardman. 2nd team: Moore, Fountain, Justin Watson??
* Kelce took one snap. (Reception and juked past Lee.)
* Gray looks pretty good again, making a fantastic leaping catch across the middle from Henne. And oddly enough, Jordan Franks took a couple snaps with the 1s, but I think he’s practice squad talent at best.
* at the end of practice, Nagy set up a couple silly drills for the QBs to hit cones and buckets from a distance. Mahomes missed the bucket by inches in the corner-end zone drill, but concluded it by striking the crossbar on purpose from 40 yards out.
* Justin Reid started practice by successfully kicking a 65 yard field goal.
Let me know if you have any questions. Don’t know if I’ll have any good answers, though.
If you have any questions, fire away.
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