The Kansas City Chiefs are still a Super Bowl contender this season, despite their 5-4 record. Yes, they dropped a frustrating game to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, but that shouldn’t change how this team is viewed.
The Chiefs aren’t a perfect team, but Patrick Mahomes gives them an incredibly high ceiling. They just have to overcome a few shortcomings. One of those shortcomings this season is their pass rush, and that’s why it’s so frustrating that Brett Veach wasn’t able to make an addition there at the trade deadline.
When opposing offenses are game-planning for the Chiefs’ defense, there are only three things they have to account for when protecting their quarterback: Chris Jones, George Karlaftis, and Steve Spagnuolo’s blitzes. While Jones and Karlaftis are good players and Spagnuolo is one of the NFL’s best defensive coordinators, there just aren’t enough tools in the pass-rush toolbox to get the job done. The Chiefs desperately needed somebody to help take the load off Jones and Karlaftis, and Kansas City general manager Brett Veach just couldn’t find a deal he liked.
No smart fan should have the attitude that their team should trade away whatever it takes to get a player. Reasonable fans understand that good GMs will only pull the trigger if they can get a player they like (and their defensive coordinator will actually play in games) and at a price they are willing to pay. However, when that same general manager has built a defensive line room that is clearly short on contributors, it is fair to criticize them for not finding a solution to their own problem.
Brett Veach’s quiet trade deadline may come back to haunt a tired pass rush.
Chris Jones and George Karlaftis are two of the most overworked defensive linemen in the NFL this season. Only Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders has played a higher percentage of his team’s defensive snaps than Karlaftis and Jones, who rank second and third in the entire NFL, with right around 80% of Kansas City’s defensive snaps played. That’s a recipe for failure both now and when the postseason arrives.
Currently, the Chiefs aren’t giving their only two pass-rush weapons enough rest to stay fresh. Then you add in offenses being able to double-team Jones because of their lack of fear of Kansas City’s other options, and it’s no wonder Chris Jones hasn’t put up huge numbers. He’s tired and getting all the attention of the offensive line. Countless Chiefs fans have complained about Jones taking plays off this season. That’s because the Chiefs aren’t giving him any actual plays off like every other defensive tackle in the NFL gets. Also, don’t forget he’s 31 years old, and this isn’t a new problem that just came up. Brett Veach has even said on the record that defensive tackle is an area of need.
The reason Jones and Karlaftis are getting overworked is that Kansas City’s other options just aren’t good enough. They are a bunch of role players who are good enough to be on an NFL roster and get some rotational snaps, but they’re basically just snap-eating bodies. Yes, the Chiefs are better with guys like Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna, and Mike Pennel than they would be without them, but they just aren’t players that opposing offenses have to change their game plans for.
The Chiefs needed another reliable guy at either defensive tackle or defensive end who could be a plus player on passing downs. They simply don’t have the horses to succeed in that area on the roster right now. Sometimes a general manager’s offseason plan for the pass rush doesn’t pan out. Sometimes a general manager can’t find a deal at the deadline that he likes. Those are both normal things in the NFL, but when you’re trying to win a Super Bowl and both of those things are true, you failed to set your team up for success. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for Brett Veach and the Kansas City Chiefs when it comes to the pass rush this season.
