xen

Could be. Andy sees something there though and we have a good oline coach so who knows.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2020/9/11/21431850/clyde-edwards-helaire-chiefs-debut-win-texans-patrick-mahomes Clyde Edwards-Helaire Is Exactly What Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs Needed Entering this offseason, the defending champs didn’t seem like they had any holes to fill on offense. But in Thursday’s win against the Texans, their rookie running back made them realize just what they’d been missing. By Danny Heifetz Sep 11, 2020, 12:45am EDT Share this story Share this on Facebook (opens in new window) Share this on Twitter (opens in new window) SHAREAll sharing options Getty Images/Ringer illustration Before the start of April’s NFL draft, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach texted Patrick Mahomes and asked who he wanted the team to select. Mahomes texted back six characters: “Clyde.” You know it’s serious when there is a period for emphasis. Either Kansas City listened to Mahomes or Veach already had the same thought as his franchise quarterback, because the team drafted LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire with the last pick of the first round. One game into his NFL career, it’s clear why Mahomes wanted the running back in Kansas City. RELATED It Sure Seems Like Deshaun Watson Could Use an Elite Wide Receiver Bill Belichick and Cam Newton Are Having a Great Time Together, Thanks for Asking The Chiefs toyed with the Texans in Thursday’s season opener, earning a 34-20 win in a game that was 31-7 early in the fourth quarter. Kansas City’s offense did not seem to need much help after last season, when Mahomes led one of the best passing attacks in NFL history and the franchise won its first Super Bowl in 50 years. But the Chiefs looked dominant on Thursday night in an unfamiliar way: running the ball. Kansas City ran 34 times for 166 yards (averaging 4.9 yards per carry), and Edwards-Helaire had 25 of those carries for 138 yards (5.5 yards per carry). He also scored a touchdown by juking out Texans rising star safety Justin Reid and running for pay dirt, though he easily could have added a second or third with a number of almost there goal-line carries that made fantasy managers jump out of their chairs. This kind of rushing performance was out of character for the Chiefs. Kansas City ran the ball 16 times in the first half, which was more rushes than the team had in any first half in 2019, according to ESPN Stats & Info. And last season, the Chiefs became the first team to win the Super Bowl while averaging less than 25 rushes per game—the same figure CEH recorded on Thursday night. Edwards-Helaire was the do-it-all running back at LSU on a record-breaking offense that scored more points than any other team in college football history. He was the first running back in SEC history to record 50 catches and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season. It’s a charmed football life to go from playing with LSU’s Joe Burrow to Mahomes, but Edwards-Helaire also has a game that reminded Chiefs head coach Andy Reid of his former back, Brian Westbrook. He’s not the fastest guy on the field, but he has elite balance, and ultimately football is a game of staying on your feet. “The guy is a star,” Mahomes told NBC’s Michele Tafoya after the game. “He works hard, he works his tail off, his vision is incredible, and I thought the offensive line did a great job giving him those holes for him to run, too.” Mahomes did a great job on Thursday night, too. He finished with 24 completions on 32 throws for 211 yards (6.6 yards per attempt). But like Edwards-Helaire, his night was more impressive than his stat line. Mahomes had a few passes that looked routine for him but would have been stunning from any other player. For instance: While falling backward in the first quarter, he flicked a pass so hard it hit his receiver in the face, or, rather, IN THE FACEEE. Not only did the Chiefs run more often than usual, but each team seemed like they were dinking and dunking in the passing game at a much higher rate than you’d normally see in the regular season. Both offenses possess a lot of speed, with Kansas City’s Legion of Zoom receiving corps being the fastest in the league and Houston having Will Fuller V, Brandin Cooks, and Kenny Stills. But they largely seemed to avoid the downfield passing game. Deshaun Watson started the game 0-for-5 on passes of 15 yards or more downfield, according to ESPN Stats & Info, and the Chiefs focused on getting the ball out fast. Mahomes released his passes on average at 2.3 seconds in the first half, which would be the fastest of his career across a full game, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The Chiefs are known for throwing the ball downfield and scoring fast enough that you can’t go to the bathroom when they have the ball. In this game, you could have grown a quarantine mustache during their scoring drives. That isn’t necessarily a style adjustment either team wants to adopt long term, but one they needed to make on Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the NFL to eliminate the preseason and has drastically limited practice time. As a result, basic football skills like timing on passing routes and tackling have been hard to nail down. The short routes Kansas City and Houston used were likely deployed in an effort to avoid costly mistakes like interceptions. Those routes also allowed them to test the other teams’ tackling, and the Texans failed the test more often than they passed. But the Chiefs are just better at every aspect of the game. Reid is a far better play-caller than Houston’s Bill O’Brien, and the Chiefs’ players are far more elusive in the open field than the Texans’. The game was a flat disappointment for the Texans. They seemed to sorely miss receiver DeAndre Hopkins, whom the team traded to Arizona for running back David Johnson and bare bones in March. Johnson finished with 11 carries for 77 yards and a 19-yard touchdown that was his longest touchdown run since 2016, but did not make an impact in the second half when Houston needed one. The Chiefs, on the other hand, look like a juggernaut. The defending Super Bowl champions didn’t need to make their offense better. Yet they have. With Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Robinson, Mecole Hardman, and now Edwards-Helaire, the Chiefs have six players who can break multiple tackles in open space. The outing wasn’t perfect. When the space truncated near the goal line, the Chiefs (including CEH) stalled on multiple drives. But it was a hell of a debut given the shortened offseason. This isn’t the first time a Chiefs rookie running back has made a splashy debut. Kareem Hunt broke records with a nearly 250-total-yard debut just three years ago. But Edwards-Helaire’s abilities might take Kansas City to even higher heights given that he joined a team that has fully blossomed. Somehow, this Chiefs team is still getting better. There will be a lot of reasons we use to explain why Kansas City looks like it’ll return to the Super Bowl this season, but to boil it down to one word: Clyde.

5 things we learned from Chiefs-Texans on opening night Patrick Mahomes is still the king. By James Dator Sep 11, 2020, 9:55am EDT 2 Comments https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2020/9/11/21432106/chiefs-texans-opening-night-clyde-edwards-helaire-patrick-mahomes-deshaun-watson Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images The first game of the NFL season is in the books with a limited crowd at Arrowhead Stadium. When the dust settled it more or less played out how most people expected, with the Chiefs beating the Texans 34-20 in a game where KC’s powerful offense was on full display. We also learned a lot from two AFC playoff teams a year ago, and in many ways the game on Thursday night will set the tone for what we could see out of the season. No. 1: Any hopes for a Patrick Mahomes drop-off are out the window. We’re conditioned to believe that whenever a player has a season like Mahomes did in 2019 there’s bound to be some sort of regression. It didn’t take long for the Chiefs’ QB to prove that isn’t going to happen. While Mahomes only threw for 211 yards on the night, it wasn’t so much the volume, but the efficiency that tells the story here. The dude was simply on fire, completing 75 percent of his passes and connecting on three touchdowns without a turnover. The reliability of Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelce is still a nightmare for defenses when paired with a QB with the accuracy of Mahomes. Normally you can point to a way to rattle or isolate a quarterback to get him out of his rhythm, but it’s seemingly impossible in this case. Mahomes is going to do what he wants, when he wants on the gridiron, and teams are going to have to come up with ways to hope to slow that. There’s no beating it, only contain — and while 211 yards passing is pretty much the definition of “containing” Mahomes, he still made everything look way too easy. No. 2: The decision to trade DeAndre Hopkins is going to be questioned all season. Let me preface this by saying that David Johnson really isn’t bad. In the grand scheme of things he’s an effective and solid running back for the Texans. The issue here is that all night long it was apparent that DeShaun Watson is in desperate need of a reliable second target. Will Fuller broke out big time on Thursday night and proved he can be a top flight No. 1 receiver, but after that the gap was precipitous. The Texans had hoped that trading Hopkins, moving Fuller to the No. 1 and trading for Brandin Cooks to be their No. 2 would pay dividends, but in the end Cooks managed just two catches for 20 yards. There’s an argument to be made that Cooks wasn’t completely healthy entering Thursday, but either way this is going to be a talking point all season long. Especially if this issue keeps rearing its head and Watson remains in dire need of another target. No. 3: Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the real deal. It takes a ton of guts to put the fate of your running game in the hands of a rookie, especially when you’re as accomplished as the Chiefs. While there was a lot of belief Edwards-Helaire could be excellent, he really showed it off on a national stage. Finishing with 138 yards rushing on the night, the rookie showed that a terrifying Chiefs’ offense could somehow become even more unstoppable. The threat of his home run ability from the backfield, paired with Mahomes’ arm makes the idea of stopping this team unbelievable. Both players are able to take the pressure off each other, which manifested itself with the efficiency in which the Chiefs’ offense ran. It’s important not to put too much stock in one game, but right now Edwards-Helaire looks like the steal of the draft. No. 4: The Texans’ pass rush remains a problem. On paper there’s no reason the Texans should have issues getting to the quarterback. After all, they have J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus — two players who can go off. On Thursday night there was a distinct lack of pressure, bringing Mahomes down just once and letting him have a safe pocket for much of the night. Facing the Chiefs Week 1 is enough to demoralize any defense’s pass rushing ability, but this is still going to be something to watch moving forward. The Texans can certainly compete in the AFC South regardless of their weaknesses, but when it comes to tough teams they’re going to need a lot more to stay in games. No. 5: Meanwhile, the Chiefs’ pass rush is a problem in different ways. For other teams. Seriously, I don’t know how much more I can gush over this team. Watson was under constant pressure all night and really never found a comfortable place to lead the Houston offense. Finishing with four sacks on the night, Kansas City proved they can beat teams in myriad ways — making them truly the nightmare team of the NFL. At this point there’s zero reason to believe they won’t repeat as Super Bowl champs until someone finds a way to slow them down. Whether that’s possible or not remains to be seen.

We'll see. Wylie looked really good replacing LDT at right guard a few years ago. I believe those memories were overridden by his shitty play on the left side last year, but i assure you it did happen. Some guys are naturally better on one side or the other. Or maybe it was all a mirage and he's really the guy that sucked last year.

Makes sense to me. Game is over at that point. You've got a new interior line mix amd you've had no preseason games. Line em up and see what you're working with. If it doesn't work that's also valuable information so you can figure out why and fix it.

Survey: Who Will Be the NFL's Five Best Quarterbacks by the End of 2020? Albert Breer polls more than 50 NFL decision makers about which quarterbacks they expect to lead the pack at the end of this season. Plus, power rankings, how the NFL will look on TV and market-setting contracts for star players. ALBERT BREER SEP 10, 2020 Saying the 2015 Texas Bowl changed the landscape of the NFL would not be overstating it. On Dec. 29 of that year, the Chiefs were a good-not-great team. Andy Reid had stabilized the franchise and was entrenched in his third year as coach, with John Dorsey at GM and Alex Smith at quarterback. Those guys, at the time, probably couldn’t pick Patrick Mahomes out of a lineup. But what went on tape that day would soon become very identifiable within the walls of team headquarters. Back then, Brett Veach was still in his first year as co-director of player personnel, working underneath Dorsey and VP of football ops Chris Ballard, and alongside Mike Borgonzi, who held the same title. And when Veach and I talked a couple months ago—a conversation you may have caught on my podcast—he explained it was that game that stirred his awakening on what was coming to the NFL. Veach tells his scouts he has an “excite-o-meter” watching prospects, set off by “guys that you start the tape and when you look up, you don’t even realize that four or five hours have passed and you’ve watched every single game because you’re not even thinking of this as an assignment.” Mahomes’s Texas Tech team lost by four touchdowns in that Texas Bowl. And Veach’s excite-o-meter might as well have burst into flames. “This was visual evidence that was so eye-popping,” Veach said, from his vacation. “Here you are—you’re watching Texas Tech. They’re playing an LSU team that has a bunch of first-rounders that year on both sides of the football, and he’s single-handedly unstoppable. So you want to talk about making people around him better, making things happen when things shouldn’t happen? And then your mind starts to think … What if you put him with Coach Reid? And what if he’s able to understand the West Coast offense? And what if you put a ton of talent around this guy? “If this guy can line up against LSU and have first-round defensive linemen breathing down his neck, have first-round corners covering his wideouts, have first-round safeties playing the deep half of the field and he is able to just—on his own—move the ball up and down the field and make something out of nothing, what if you put him with Coach Reid? And what if he had better receivers than the other team, and what if he had offensive linemen that could protect him? The sky could be the limit for this guy because this guy is like nothing we’ve seen before.” It’s been almost five years since that game was played. We know what’s happened since. This week, I reprised an exercise I ran back in 2015 and again in 2018—asking NFL folks to list for me, 1-through-5, who they believe the top quarterbacks in football will be when we get to the end of the season. The results prove how right Veach was back then. We really haven’t seen anything like this before. *** Football is here! And to get you ready, in this week’s GamePlan, we’ve got … • My Week 1 Power Rankings ballot. • A look at what you’ll see on your TV this weekend. • The NFL’s recession-proof contracts. But we’re starting with the guy you’ll see climb back on the big stage tonight, six months after he rubber-stamped all the excitement he’d created over two season with a Super Bowl title. *** Dan Marino won an MVP in his second NFL season, as a sort of Mahomes-level phenom of his own time. Joe Montana and Tom Brady each won championships, and Super Bowl MVPs, within their first three years as pros. And all three of those guys went on to become the all-time greats those sorts of starts promised them to be. Mahomes has already done both, and he doesn’t turn 25 until next week. So it was that when I scrambled to put together the poll—honestly, just because I felt like this would be a good time to do it again—I sort of expected it to turn out the way it did. But to see NFL people agree so overwhelmingly on something was still jarring. Most of these guys could disagree over the color of the yard markers (orange or more of a tangerine?), and yet on this one they were in complete lockstep. The request, again, was to rank who they believe the top five quarterbacks in football will be at the conclusion of the season, and I scored it simply—five points for a first-place vote, four points for a second-place vote, three for a third-place vote, two for a fourth-place vote, and one for a fifth-place vote. The idea, of course, is not to rank guys on where they’ve been, but where they’re going. Keeping the number to five is, for me, an exercise in figuring out who NFL folks believe are capable of being elite this year, and to get the answer I canvassed a pretty wide range of people. Head coaches. General managers. Scouting VPs and directors. Offensive coordinators. Quarterback coaches. I got 53 ballots back. The results … 1) Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs: 261 points (49 first-place votes) 2) Russell Wilson, Seahawks: 153 points 3) Lamar Jackson, Ravens: 88.5 points (2 first-place votes) 4) Deshaun Watson, Texans: 70.5 points (1 first-place vote) 5) Aaron Rodgers, Packers: 69 points (1 first-place vote) 6) Drew Brees, Saints: 54 points 7) Tom Brady, Buccaneers: 41 points 😎 Carson Wentz, Eagles: 16 points 9) Dak Prescott, Cowboys: 15 points 10) Kyler Murray, Cardinals: 12 points T-11) Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers: 4 points T-11) Cam Newton, Patriots: 4 points 13) Matthew Stafford, Lions: 2 points T-14) Ryan Tannehill, Titans: 1 point T-14) Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers: 1 point Mahomes got 261 of a possible 265 points, a result of finishing first on 49 ballots and second on the other four. For context, Rodgers topped the list in both 2015 and 2018, winning with 18 of 27 first-place votes the first time, and 23 of 32 the second time around. That’s 67% and 72% of the vote—a strong majority, just not as strong as Mahomes’s majority. The K.C. QB was first for 92% of the voters. And we’ll dive a little more into how to process all of this with Mahomes in a second. But first, a little more on the results of the poll. • Wilson was a very strong second—even though he didn’t get a single first-place vote (those were tough to come by). He appeared on 48 of the 53 lists I got, easily the closest number to Mahomes’s clean sweep. In fact, Jackson was the only other quarterback to make it on to more than half the ballots, appearing on 35 of them. Watson and Rodgers, showing up on 26 apiece were on just under half the lists. • Even as public perception on Brees has started to erode a little, a lot of NFL people believe he’s got another good year in him. He outdistanced his fellow 40-something Brady, both in points and the number of ballots he appeared on (23 to 19). • Of the guys still inside their first five years, it was pretty obvious, to me at least, that I’d see a lot of ballots with the names Mahomes, Watson and Jackson on them. It is interesting to see the three others in that age range who made it—Prescott was on 10 ballots, Wentz and Murray both showed up on eight—and then who didn’t. • Stafford is the one guy I thought there’d be a little more love for. But he didn’t do great in 2015 (5 points) or 2018 (0 points) either. All right, so those are the numbers. Now let’s get to what I see as the really interesting part of all this. *** Most of the people I polled, even if their teams didn’t need quarterbacks in 2017, took at least a cursory look at Mahomes coming out of college. And it’s not like he was a fourth pick or anything that year. But lots of people who presumably had the same access to that Tech/LSU tape that Veach did thought Mahomes’s game wouldn’t translate to the NFL and, as such, 10 teams passed on him—the nine picking in front of the 10th overall pick, and the Bills, who traded that pick away to the Chiefs. So what did everyone miss? How, exactly, did this happen? “I think more than anything, we overcomplicated the evaluation of that position,” said one NFC scouting director, when I asked after he voted Mahomes first. “When it’s not like what you’re used to seeing, that tends to make you nervous about it. And coming from Texas Tech, you had all those guys that put up big numbers. Kudos to those guys in Kansas City for seeing the talent and how it fit what they do.” Another scouting executive raised his 25 interceptions over 25 games in his last two years at Tech, the aforementioned history of video-game numbers from Red Raiders quarterbacks who didn’t pan out as pros, and the team’s 12-13 record over that time. And if you roll that all into seeing something that doesn’t fit into the box of what you’re used to seeing at the position—and Mahomes’s style is undeniably unconventional—it’s not hard to see where doubt crept in three years ago. Those who are honest about it now acknowledge that. “People thought he was one of these guys that just ran around and chucked it up,” said an AFC scouting chief. “Decision-making was something people dinged him on, and you never really got to watch him play from the pocket. When you have a guy running around, not being disciplined in the pocket, running out of the pocket all the time, it doesn’t fit to the preconceived notion of what a quarterback is.” And what we’ve seen since is unmistakable—that a guy with that style, all the talent in the world to pull it off and a great head on his shoulders to grow in the areas that didn’t show up on tape as much, can be a premier prospect. Or, as that scouting chief succinctly put it, “People thought, Well, this is a sandlot style, and lived in that box of the traditional pocket-passer forever. And I think now maybe your mind has to be open to the guy with the big arm who just makes plays. Because now who do you think about when you see it? You think of Patrick Mahomes.” So the NFL will change. And maybe if another kid capable of throwing it like Marino once did, but doing it off-platform, and from different arm angles—as one scout put it, “Like a shortstop making a double play, but instead of throwing it to second, he’s throwing it 50 yards across his body”—comes on the scene, he won’t be looked at like he was playing a different sport in college. Sometimes, it’s just as simple as that. Good for Veach for seeing that. Good for us, for getting to watch it again tonight—and for a long time to come. https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/09/10/top-five-quarterbacks-survey-no-fans-tv

“I’m pissed off. I felt like we played fairly decent, up until the last couple stretches in the fourth quarter, started giving up big plays, big chunks. Things that we weren’t necessarily doing throughout the game. In my mind, we have a lot more work to do. If we would’ve held those guys to seven points, it would’ve been a much better feeling. Those guys scoring 20 leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We got a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to next week.” - Tyrann Mathieu in his post game presser. light em up HB!

Kendall Fuller played DB with a cast on his hand in 2018 for us. I bet he plays through it.

Here's the other one.

Yeah ironically he may be the best non-Saban coach to come out of Belichicks tree. If only BO'B the GM would get out of BO'B the coaches way, he might be on to something.

14-2 Losses to Aints (tough vet team on the road) and Bills (short turnaround week on the road against a great D does not usually go well). KC runs it back, dunking on the Bucs and Brady in the Superbowl.

let's see if we can have a reasonable discussion on this. The Chiefs have a plan for The Chop, and it’s ... subtle. Here’s what’s in store Thursday BY SAM MELLINGER SEPTEMBER 09, 2020 04:15 PM , UPDATED SEPTEMBER 09, 2020 04:23 PM After months of conversation and much internal debate, the Kansas City Chiefs’ strategy with Native American imagery will be subtle. Some fans probably won’t notice it. But here’s what will happen at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday, before the Chiefs and Houston Texans kick off in what will be the country’s most watched game since the Super Bowl: Native Americans will bless the big ceremonial drum like always, and before the drumbeat starts an announcement will be made that incorporating the drum into the game-day experience is a “privilege” and that fans are invited to join as they beat the drum. The cheerleaders will then do the same chop motion, but with a closed fist instead of open palm. You know, signaling the beating of the drum. “Admittedly it’s a subtle change,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. “But it’s a step, and it’s a change.” This is in addition to other previously announced changes for this season, including the elimination of Warpaint the horse, headdresses, and face-paint that references Native American culture. Donovan cited conversations with what the club has called its “working group” of Native Americans from regional tribes, as well as the National Congress of American Indians. Both offered support for the organization’s subtle alterations, Donovan said, with the understanding that these are steps in a bigger process. “For us, it’s trying to find that balance,” Donovan said. “Knowing our fans are going to do this, no matter what we do. If we can change it into the beating of the drum, we think that’s better than the chop.” Again, these changes are small. The drumbeat song will still be played, and Donovan said there will be no direction given to play it more or less often. They’ll still call it the Arrowhead Chop. Most fans, Donovan knows, will still call it the tomahawk chop. He characterized it this way: Some fans won’t notice, some won’t care and “others will appreciate that it’s a change in the right direction.” Some analysis. The Chiefs are essentially splitting the middle here. The organization has had ongoing conversations with various Native American groups for six years. They’ve heard different perspectives, though they’ve never had formal talks with any who want the name of the team or stadium changed. They can be fairly criticized for that, but they also have a constituency to consider. The Chop has become a beloved part of the game-day experience at Arrowhead for many. Once, in the 1990s, the team announced it would no longer do The Chop. So many fans wrote and called in that the decision was almost immediately reversed. That history echoes here, now. The team has been shown that radical change to these elements won’t work, so it’s hoping to find a middle ground that can be satisfactory enough. Some will view this as a non-stance, and the Chiefs will likely be criticized on both sides — for not doing enough to stop appropriation culture from one, and for too much capitulating to activists on the other. The truth is that the Chiefs have made real efforts toward education and provide a platform that’s only growing to do more. The truth is also that the team would prefer the debate simply go away. “This is a process,” Donovan said. “This is years. We’re going to do this, and hopefully it’s well received and we’ll continue to do more.”

well there's your problem right there.

He'll be one of the 4 protected PS spots. Can't be poached.

Not a bad choice. Arrians has a good track record with QBs.

Not really surprising. The plan all along was to put him on the protected PS I would think. Have to release him to do that.

Washington hmmm. Interesting. Either one of the protected PS spots or we're looking at FA backs. No way we only carry 3 RBs.

deadline is 3pm So far... Waived/Released: CB Chris Lammons, WR Gehrig Dieter, OL Ryan Hunter, WR Jody Fortson, WR Justice Shelton-Mosely, RB Elijah McGuire, OL Darryl Williams, WR Maurice Ffrench, CB Adrian Colbert, LB Emmanuel Smith (from injured reserve with injury settlement) Waived/Injured: Reserve/Exempt (suspended): Bashaud Breeland, Mike Pennel Reserve/Non-Football Injury: Reserve/Injured (ending season): Alex Brown Reserve/Opt-Out: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Lucas Niang, Damien Williams

I'd be ok with that

Let's GOOOOOOO. Get here already.