2014 Chiefs: Nine Reasons To Believe

7. DAT is All That and More

De’Anthony Thomas has world class speed? Maybe but I say he doesn’t have JC class speed. Nevertheless, when Thomas was returning a punt against the Panthers, the first time he was tackled, the defender picked him up and it looked like he was about to head slam him down into the ground but, another Panther defender ran into them and Thomas went down without injury. De’Anthony “Tiny” Thomas is going to have to learn how to avoid such collisions and although I don’t recall any tape on him from college where he was placed in danger by a defender, he’ll need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

That being said, Chiefs fans everywhere have been expressing their excitement about DAT and it’s all justified. Lyle Graversen pointed out several very humorous times in his piece on Monday that the “Kansas City Chiefs vs. Carolina Panthers: Game Notes,” play calling should not include such an excess of screen passes or passes in the flat. Those can be dangerous plays for a RB of DATs size unless the play is properly planned within a whole game plan calling scheme and then correctly executed. Once those things happen, DAT is going to be a dynamic part of the Chiefs offense and help the team win first downs and games. And to echo what Lyle has said, “Stop calling screen passes, before someone gets hurt.”

In the meantime, preseason football could be damaging to his health.

8. Hali and Houston: Numb and Nummer

Given that the Chiefs defensive schemes so far this preseason have been pretty vanilla… just enough to whet the appetites of guys like Jaye Howard and Joe Mays… there’s no reason to worry about the way Justin Houston and Tamba Hali will be making opposing QBs feel this season: numb and nummer. Or is that nummerer?

Houston and Hali, in the past two seasons, have a combined 46.5 sacks between them. Don’t expect that to take a downward turn any time soon. With Bob Sutton dialing up the sack thermostat, the Chiefs could very easily experience the most sacks by a pair of their players in one season ever in K.C history, in 2014.

Go ahead… it’s okay to smile now.

9. Alex Smith is Consistent

So far this off season Alex Smith has been called one the 12 or 13 best QBs in the league by Peter King and then called as good as Brees or Manning by a Sunday evening FOX telecast announcer. No, he Chiefs didn’t punch the ball into the end zone when they had three chances to do that, but you can’t blame those drives ending that way on Alex Smith. It’s not my intent here to pump up anyone’s opinion about Alex Smith because so many have differing ideas about how good, or bad, he is. What I will say is that Chiefs fans can expect Alex Smith to be every bit as consistent as he was last season if not more so. With Jamaal Charles to go to, Travis Kelce to make him look good at any given moment, and a “somewhat improved” set of wide receivers… Alex Smith should have the best year of his career. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t.

Now, ignore 75% of what you see in the preseason games and enjoy the drubbing the Chiefs D is about to lay on Matt Cassel this weekend.

How ’bout it Addict fans, do you think we’ve got at least 9 reasons to believe this season? Or, do you have your own reasons to believe?