The defense was a bit of a mess outside of the ever-impressive Marcus Peters. The biggest issue from Seattle’s first drive came from the linebackers as they were missing stars Justin Houston and Tamba Hali. Not a lot of pressure was able to be applied to quarterback Russell Wilson and the Chiefs could not stop the run when needed.
While Justin March has been turning heads in camp, Ramik Wilson and Derrick Johnson got the starting gigs on Saturday and while Johnson continued to recognize the plays and submarine in the hole, Wilson tended to let the blockers come to him and engage him to take him out of the play instead of lowering his base and seeking the ball beyond the blocker.
Wilson may be a step quicker than Josh Mauga in coverage but experience may win out over the next few weeks and with March continuing to make solid plays then Wilson might find his way out of Kansas City.
Getting five quarterbacks down to three
The quarterback position will be the most difficult group to cut down to make the 53-man roster in September. The Chiefs currently have five very capable guys who all got playing time against Seattle on Saturday. Obviously it has been stated many times by Andy Reid and Nick Foles that this is Alex Smith’s team.
That doesn’t mean Smith is beyond question and as @SRobinson25 pointed out in an article after the game, should the season start to go sour, the fans may clamor for a change at quarterback.
Foles worked well in the system that he knows and squeezed in some tight throws in coverage. Unfortunately he missed behind Tyreek Hill who may have taken it all the way after beating Richard Sherman and a few of his other passes were dropped. He did run some of the zone-read that Smith is famous for and I think Reid is going to have to accept that if the Chiefs are ever without Smith then that play should be removed from the playbook as he looked about as ungainly as possible trying to run.
Next: More QB talk