With Jeremy Maclin hurt, who steps up for Chiefs?

Now the Chiefs are on to New England without their best offensive weapon and going up against arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. Bill Belichick is a master of taking away a team’s best weapon and making you beat them with secondary options.

Without Maclin the Patriots defense will key on stopping Kelce, bumping him at the line and not letting him get into free space where he enjoys much of his success. The Chiefs are going to need at least one other player to step up and take some of that pressure off of Kelce as well as Smith, who will probably be facing more blitzes from a team who won’t need a second defender to shade over Maclin.

Who will the Chiefs turn to try and fill No. 19’s potential absence? There are a few options that Andy Reid will have for Saturday:

Albert Wilson: The player fans have lovingly dubbed as “Bert” slides into the top role by default. Wilson has enjoyed success this year in taking advantage of single coverage due to defenses keying in on Maclin and Kelce and has shown the ability to take simple plays and turn them into TDs. He has deceptive speed and good hands, but as we saw this weekend he struggles on tracking the deep ball.

It was the second time this year Wilson could have caught a deep pass from Smith that was slightly overthrown. He didn’t attempt to dive on either throw and while that doesn’t guarantee a catch it certainly would have been possible. He did make a great catch on the sideline towards the end of the 1st half that was overturned (but should have been upheld) but was pretty much a non-factor with two catches for nine yards. He’ll need to be a lot more productive against a stingy Patriots secondary.

Next: A few other options...