Chief Concerns: Case in Point VOLUME II

In a piece called “5 players who shouldn’t have made the pro bowl’ ProFootballFocus stated,

"“We can’t ignore the fact that Peters has been beat for seven touchdowns this year (fourth-worst in the league) and allowed more yards into his coverage (902) than every NFL corner except Pittsburgh’s Antwon Blake.”"

However, this week Peters also sounded like he’s stepping up to fulfill a leadership role this year when you don’t normally hear players take that role until many more years have passed,

"“We’re going to be as good as we can make it this year…. We have some excellent leaders. I have to step up to be a leader. We lost Sean, so it makes for me to make my job as a leader to step up. But we still have Ron Parker, we still have [Gaines] coming off the knee (injury), we have [Eric Berry]. He’s an amazing leader.”"

So, Marcus Peters is not only going to be playing with more purpose but he’s going to have the benefit of playing in OTAs which he didn’t get last offseason because of college class commitments.

I think there’ll be a bit of coming back to earth in terms of how many interceptions Peters gets. However, there’s a strategy many educators use which applies in this case… if you want to teach something to someone… have them teach it. With Peters assuming the role of “teacher” his coverage skills and overall game should get better and his total knockdowns may go up as well.

Some fans are not too hunky-dory with the idea that Chiefs players and fans should be talking realistically about the team getting to the Super Bowl this coming season.

Firstly, if the Chiefs had Justin Houston, Jeremy Maclin and Jamaal Charles at full strength… would they have beaten the New England Patriots in January? I’d say that’s a high probability. They lost that game to the Pats by one touchdown, 27-20 and you can easily argue that JHo, JMac, and JC would have made the difference.

While health issues may be an issue this coming season with Houston, indications are that he’ll be back in action by mid October… at least.

It’s a simple equation: will the defense be better or worse… and will the offense be better or worse… in 2016?

It’s hard to deny the offense being better because or the addition of right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, the return of Jamaal Charles (even if he’s only 75% of who he was before) the improvement of the wide receiving corp and the progression of Alex Smith, being in the system for a fourth year.

The defense is facing: the subtraction of Sean Smith at cornerback, the possibility of no Justin Houston for half the season (it no longer looks like he’s missing the whole season), and the recovery of Tamba Hali and his possible continued decline. So, it’s a possibility the defense is worse this year than in 2016. However, the defense could also be just as good with Dontari Poe’s complete healing, Jaye Howard’s continued improvement, the return of Phillip Gaines , the improvement of Steven Nelson, and the addition of DL Chris Jones and a boatload of rookie corners who all look solid.

Special Teams should be as special as they have been so there appears to be no reason the Chiefs can’t advance to the AFC Conference championship game this season. Which also means, they should be considered in the conversation for the Super Bowl, especially considering that their AFC West rival, the Denver Broncos, have taken a huge step backwards this offseason.

Also consider, the Chiefs beat the Super Bowl champion Broncos in Denver last year and had them on the ropes in their first meeting in Arrowhead before Jamaal Charles fumbled the ball.

Should the Chiefs and their fans be talking about contending for a title? It’s hard to see why not.

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What do you think Addict fans? Do you have any cases you’d like to point out?