Craig Stout was all over this kid since January. I don’t listen to a ton of KCSN but it’s pretty well known that Craig was the best of the KCSN lab which sucks bc now he’s stepped back from full time.

Elite intelligence (engineering major at Cornell), played almost everywhere don’t he line and has a really really high floor.

I remember Craig noting his excellent athleticism to go with his elite hands (nearly 11”) and his 27 bench reps. He’s really hard to move and just does everything really well.

I think he’s Trey’s replacement. I don’t think you’ll see the pancakes and physicality Trey produces but you’ll see more consistency in pass pro where Trey can really struggle with technique and hand placement sometimes (Barmore beat his ass in NE).
[Reply]

If you're looking for similar 'archetypes' on the line, Morris would replace Smith and Nourzad replace Thuney.

And honestly, I don't think that's untenable. I think that IOL gets the job done IF the OTs step up and play at a higher level than they played the last couple years.

If you don't need the IOL to help as much on the outside, you don't need them to be quite as good.

Ultimately you have to to look at the OL as an entity. And I think the elite nature of our IOL allowed us to operate with slightly lesser performance at OT. Well if the OTs move up in the world to at least average to slightly above, we can function with average to slightly above on the IOL as well.

Lots of moving parts on an offensive line and there are a TON of ways to scheme around a weakness here and there. We'll make it work.

And yeah, I think Nourzad will prove to be a pretty big part in all that.
[Reply]

Do you think I pissed in your cheerios? What's your main malfunction? Where is this attitude coming from?

Trey being the last one in line to be resigned out of Creed/Bolton/Butker/Trey is not an out there, weird opinion. In fact, the majority of Chief fans think the same thing.
[Reply]

Lighten up Francis
[Reply]

I think that the acquisition of Tranquill is horribly underestimated in people's eyes. The guy has been solid, loves playing here and wants to stay here.

The look on his face after he won his first Super Bowl ring here with the Chiefs said it all....going from the hapless Chargers to playing in and contributing to a SB win was priceless.
[Reply]

Love that we got him for the next three years
[Reply]

https://t.co/5JGmpEWiB2 pic.twitter.com/b6wgNodTXT

— Rickey (@prettyrickey213) August 1, 2024

[Reply]

People aren't going to want to hear this, but a huge part of the reason they committed long term to Tranquill is because of what you just posted. Every move this team makes has both a short and a long term purpose. Drue took a very reasonable deal to stay, and that's why he's still here.

As you mentioned, the drop off when he was in there for Bolton wasn't that extreme. I think they want Nick back in a big way, but I just can't see them giving him $18 million a year, either. There's just no way, there are too many guys to pay and this team has proven time and again that, unless you're one of the Big 3, they will let you walk if you won't play under their terms.

I would absolutely hate to see him go, but all the talk about him and Reid being the keys to the D just makes me think of all the times Spags said the same things about Hitchens and Honey Badger. They still had no problem letting those guys walk. It's going to be all about the money, and whether or not there is enough. I hope there is, but I'm not counting on it.
[Reply]

There's almost zero chance Bolton signs an extension before testing the market. They aren't going to offer him Roquan Smith money so he will want to take his talents to the open market and see what his options are.
[Reply]

Yep, and that's likely going to lead to him going elsewhere. There's always a chance his value on the market might not be what we all expect, but with all the new cash that's going to be flowing in and all the dogshit teams out there with gobs of cap room to throw around, someone is going to give him the bag.

I could see one of our division rivals trying to snatch him up. His knowledge of both our offense and defense makes him that much more valuable to them.
[Reply]

I know this will controversial, but is this defense dominance sustainable or will we regress to the mean closer to the defenses spags started out with here. Right now we have the right scheme with an incredible core of players. But I think as times change and players swap out defense dominance will be way harder to maintain where on offense Reid and mahomes are always locks. Good news is spags’ floor especially in the playoffs is plenty good enough to win.

At some point we have to make choices about positions to deprioritize. And much as I love having real good MLBs, I kinda think the old eagles way of constantly churning young, cheap talent is the way to go.
[Reply]

Historically it is much harder to sustain dominant defense than offense.
[Reply]

Yeup.

Defense is about not having a weakness. Very few defenses involve a great player patching up holes in an otherwise average unit. Most elite defenses are teams that are strong from top to bottom.

And that takes luck or money.

And in either event, it takes really good timing that rarely lasts for long. Especially in a league where CB play is historically extremely erratic. HOF corners are great every year. Merely very good CBs have almost as many mediocre seasons as great ones.

Last season was a perfect confluence of career years in the defensive backfield, a deep LB corps and good enough play on the DL. That's just damn hard to bank on year over year.
[Reply]

You're not wrong, we did win a SB with them. But 2020 and 2021 were dark days for that defense, and they were very much part of it. They were slow, they couldn't cover, they could barely wrap up for a tackle. The only reason the stupid ass "keep Mahomes off the field, chew clock" strategy was even viable was because the LB corps allowed it, we were getting gashed. Did we overcome it the majority of the time? Totally. But that doesn't excuse how awful they were.

Is Bolton the answer and we need to pay him? Not necessarily, although I really would love to keep him. But if they move on from him for one reason or another, ill be okay with it. Veach has obviously earned himself plenty of leeway.

EDIT: I forgot how they responded when fans started boo'ing/calling out the defense that 2021 year. One of them said something to the effect of "fans should be more grateful, we got you guys a ring". They were totally content resting on their laurels, not even acknowledging how bad they were playing. So if I'm sour about LB play and I dont want it to go back to those days, this is partially why.
[Reply]

i've said it before, and will again, butker does not need a raise. if he isn't doing kickoffs, and keeping the leg warm, his accuracy will suffer and will halve the number of kicks per year. :-)
[Reply]