3 Chiefs position battles that gained some clarity after first preseason game vs. Saints
No, a loss in the preseason isn't the end of the world. In fact, a win or loss in the preseason really doesn't matter. It's more about what you see from your team on the field. For the Kansas City Chiefs, there were a lot of good moments but a lot of bad as well.People […]
No, a loss in the preseason isn't the end of the world. In fact, a win or loss in the preseason really doesn't matter. It's more about what you see from your team on the field. For the Kansas City Chiefs, there were a lot of good moments but a lot of bad as well.
People tend to overreact to the preseason, or they underreact. The common phrase "the preseason doesn't matter" gets thrown around quite a bit when it's very important in reality. This is where the Chiefs evaluate their talent going into the next season.
If that is indeed what they were doing on Sunday afternoon, then I'm sure a lot stood out. It's easy to see the Chiefs definitely gained a bit more clarity about a few position battles before the 2023 season starts.
Chiefs' position battles that gained more clarity
Defensive tackle
It's pretty clear, just by watching the entire first defensive drive, that the Chiefs also missed Chris Jones. Without the All-Pro defensive tackle, this defense is bad, and we saw that as they got gashed repeatedly in the run game but also struggled to put any pressure on the quarterback.
Not only that, but Tershawn Wharton, the backup to Chris Jones, didn't play on Sunday. So the internal position battle on the defensive line, between guys like Danny Shelton, Keondre Coburn, Daniel Wise, Matt Dickerson, etc., saw Shelton win this week. He was the only defensive tackle that did much of anything. Shelton took up space in the run game by plugging gaps and even got a sack, which was just one of the more wild plays.
It's easy to see now, after preseason Week 1, that the Chiefs have a ton of work to do on the defensive line with their tackles. That position battle is currently chalked up because no one played great. They now know that if Jones doesn't show up, they could be screwed.
Wide receiver group
Yeah, the Chiefs definitely gained more clarity regarding the wide receiver unit. The clarity they gained was that it would be awfully hard when it comes time to cut from 90 to a 53-man roster because there are some really good players in that wide receiver room. The last two seasons have seen the Chief's initial 53-man with just five receivers, so if they keep it that way, there will be some hard cuts to make.
Guys like Nikko Remigio, Kekoa Crawford, and Cornell Powell all had decent games where they made at least one play. Not to mention the five that we expect will make the roster and Justyn Ross, who scored his first touchdown in over two years; they gained clarity for sure – that this will be hard.
Offensive line
The Chiefs gained some clarity when it came to several different positions on the offensive line. For starters, we now see just how athletic Donovan Smith is after throwing a defender to the ground during one of his few reps on Sunday. We saw how well Jawaan Taylor was for his little time there.
But we also saw that the battles behind them with Niang and Morris were pretty good too. It seems like the Chiefs will have great depth there, and the tackle situation is finally settled, as the drama over the issue this offseason was just too much. The Chiefs allowed just two sacks, which came with the third and fourth units. The starters and backups have established themselves as so, and it doesn't look like any movement will happen anytime soon.
If you went to Twitter during the game or even after, you likely saw people thinking this Chiefs team would be bad. And, while the take is fair to have on the defense, as long as Jones is out, the team won't be bad. This is preseason, and the slowness we saw from the offense is because Andy Reid kept it about as vanilla as possible. The Chiefs are fine for now, but they realize what positions they need to return to the drawing board for.
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