Kansas City Chiefs, Year 3: The importance of continuity

It’s tough to gain traction as a football team when there are so many moving parts from one year to the next. The Chiefs have a golden opportunity in 2015 to capitalize on time served in the same offensive and defensive systems. They’re twice as fortunate to have the same coaching staff in place to refine and expand upon those schematic ideas. Second-year players go into the season with experience and an opportunity to do less thinking on the football field. That presents a real chance for them to mature and be more productive in their sophomore seasons.

I can’t help but think the De’Anthony Thomas move to wide receiver is a by-product of him having had a full year in Reid’s system. It’s pure speculation on my part, but I’d venture to guess that his truncated offseason last year, due to NFL graduation rules, is partly why he reported to running backs coach Eric Bieniemy.

Reid’s system is complex for receivers newly introduced to it. It might’ve been too taxing to have Thomas start out at receiver with so many missed practices in Phase 2 of the offseason. The Chiefs coaching staff has confidence in Thomas’ ability to digest more offensive information so he’ll join David Culley’s group and get a shot at making an even bigger contribution in year two.

If you extrapolate the same idea for the entire roster and all three phases of the team, you get a real picture of how feasible it can be for the Chiefs to take another step toward becoming a viable Super Bowl contender. The players are another year vested into the team’s core philosophies, coaches can extend greater trust to the players who’ve come through their program, and the front office can monitor the growth and maturation of personnel and audit their approach to building a championship-caliber roster.

How important do you think keeping the core of this franchise together will be in the years to come? Can a familiar cast of characters, both on and off the field, help the Chiefs secure Super Bowl silver? Use the comment section below to weigh in on the topic. As always, we appreciate your readership and support.

Until next time, Addicts!