Three Chiefs players that saw their stock fall after loss to Lions
It's pretty easy to see why the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. The team made mistake after mistake and couldn't execute when it mattered most. But, let's also not take anything away from the Lions: They played pretty damn well. Regardless, it's easy to pinpoint the players most at […]
It's pretty easy to see why the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. The team made mistake after mistake and couldn't execute when it mattered most.
But, let's also not take anything away from the Lions: They played pretty damn well.
Regardless, it's easy to pinpoint the players most at fault for the opening night loss. So let's not waste another second and dive into the bad parts that have the Chiefs at 0-1 on the season.
WR Kadarius Toney
This was one of the easiest selections, of any team I've written about, in a very long time.
Toney had an awful night. There is no way to cut it. It's completely fair to say that his two drops cost the Chiefs a win. The first caused the deflection that led to Brian Branch's pick-six. Without that, the score is 20-14 instead of 21-20. The second was the wide-open drop with 2:25 left in the game that would've moved the Chiefs into field goal range, giving them a chance to kick a potential game-winning field goal or even possibly score a touchdown.
Toney missed a lot of training camp/preseason recovering from knee surgery, so there is certainly some rust to knock off. The Chiefs still have confidence in his abilities and the Super Bowl hero should receive a chance to redeem himself in Week 2 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"I have trust in (Kadarius) KT (Toney) he missed a lot of training camp," Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters after the game. "Obviously he wanted to play and fought in rehab hard so he could play. Stuff is not always going to go your way obviously he would have wanted to catch a few of those in the game but I have trust that he is going to be the guy that I go to in those crucial moments and he’s going to make the catch and win us some games like he did last year and get him more and more reps. I’m sure that those drops will disappear.”
LT Donovan Smith
As someone who has covered Donovan Smith since 2018, I can say that it's safe to expect more of what you saw on Thursday night.
Per Pro Football Focus, the ninth-year vet allowed a team-high (and game-high) seven pressures that included five hurries and two QB hits. He also had the crucial holding call that wiped out Skyy Moore's 17-yard catch and forced the offense into a 2nd and 20 that eventually led to the 21-20 loss.
Smith dealt with injury in what was one of the worst seasons of his pro career last year, but he didn't look very much improved against the Lions. The big concern is the one argument that went in Smith's favor in 2022 was that he no longer had Pro Bowl guard Ali Marpet playing next to him and instead had rookie (and woefully underprepared) Luke Goedeke and UDFA Nick Leverett by his side. Therefore, Smith underwent a big adjustment period.
Well, Smith was next to two-time All-Pro guard Joe Thuney all night long and still didn't play well. At this point, it's clear the borderline-dominant play we saw with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the back half of the 2020 season through the 2021 season was Smith's peak and he's likely on the decline.
For the offense's sake, hopefully he can stop the bleeding before it becomes too much. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
Chiefs' tackling on defense
For a unit that held the Lions offense to 14 points, it sure looked like the Chiefs defense really knew had to tackle.
PFF has six defenders combining for 11 missed tackles (!!) on the night. Cornerback L'Jarius Sneed led the way with four and five of the six players missed at least 20% of their attempts.
The Chiefs defense has had issues tackling on opening day for years, now, so it's discouraging to see this unwanted trend continue.
NFL coaches don't teach tackling – it's something should already be refined coming into the league. So, the players are going to have to buckle down and get things on track or else they could be in for a long 2023 season.
Three Chiefs players that came out of Lions loss as winners
These guys were the bright spots on what was a pretty dismal night.
Featured image via Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
