It’s time to spin a Chiefs simile grade card
By Laddie Morse
Drafting De’Anthony Thomas in the 4th Round in 2014: A perpetual Hat-trick in the making
If you can play running back, wide receiver and return kicks and do all of those things successfully… you are the equivalent of a hockey hat-trick… only by doing it every single game you become a special player. That pretty much describes De’Anthony Thomas (DAT).
Now, I was a fan of Dexter McCluster, who played DAT’s role, before he skated off a year ago for the Tennessee Titans. Once we knew he was going to be gone, I was hoping against all hope that the Chiefs could land the self-proclaimed Black Mamba De’Anthony Thomas… and they did. Although Thomas was out the first month of 2014 with a hamstring, once he touched the field, and the ball, he was breathtaking to watch and teams had to make sure they had him properly scouted and planned for the rest of the year.
While much of DAT’s success last season was as a punt returner, Andy Reid has asked him to move to wide receiver and there’s no reason to expect anything less than exceptional results from him there as well. Call him the Black Mamba, call him the Hat-trick, call him whatever you want, just make sure you call him a Kansas City Chief. This will be one Chief to watch out for in 2015. And don’t try body-checking DAT. You’d have to catch up to him first. Good luck with that.
Drafting CB Phillip Gaines in the 3rd round last year: A “Kill Shot” in volleyball
Just think where the Kansas City passing defense was two season’s ago. Now, try to forget it… I apologize for asking you to relive a horrid memory. Now, understand that just one year ago the only team in the league better at defending the pass was Super Bowl winning (then losing) Seattle Seahawks.
The turnaround of the passing defense in one off-season didn’t happen by magic or mistake. That happened with careful scheming and personnel changes. One of those changes was drafting the speedy (4.34) Phillip Gaines. As the 2014 season progressed so did Gaines. Now, he looks to weigh heavily in the team’s future plans for minimizing the opposition’s passing attack. Adding Gaines last year and adding Marcus Peters this year along with Steven Nelson will help set-up the team for another Kill-shot in 2015. As long as the front seven holds up, this is one Kill-shot that should help take them a long, long way.
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Your Turn Addict fans!
Alright Addict fans, here are the sites I listed above again for your consideration. Let’s see what you think of the moves the team has made in the past 3 off-seasons… using some similes, metaphors, and analogies stolen from another discipline. Enjoy… but be careful not to score an “Own-goal” in the process… that would mean you’d basically proven yourself wrong. Don’t be afraid to give it a shot though, because that’s happened to me plenty of times.