Could Kansas City Chiefs be Anquan Boldin’s mystery visit?
By Matt Conner
Veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin will reportedly visit with a mystery team this weekend. Could it be the Chiefs?
It’s a question we’ve asked before. Earlier this offseason, we wondered whether veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin made any sense for the Kansas City Chiefs to investigate. Now that Boldin is finally making moves toward joining an NFL roster, just before training camps will offically begin, Boldin is said to be taking a visit on Sunday with an unnamed team, per Omar Kelly.
NFL receiver Anquan Boldin told me he's had conversations with a number of teams about signing & has a visit set up for Sunday.
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) July 17, 2017
Is it possible that the Kansas City Chiefs could be the mystery team? After releasing Jeremy Maclin, they have the cap space to sign a veteran on the cheap, and it’s possible the team might want the veteran leadership Boldin would provide versus relying solely on a room in which Albert Wilson is the most experienced voice.
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Even more important for the Chiefs would be their tepid results in the red zone in 2017. Last year with the Detroit Lions, Boldin put up eight touchdowns, a solid red zone number that shows he’s still a go-to target able to provide in clutch situations for a needy offense. Enter the Chiefs, who ranked No. 26 overall in red zone offense (touchdowns only) with only 47% conversion rate, a full 10 point percentage drop from the previous season (57%). That’s the difference between the playoffs or not.
Last year, Chris Conley was the second worst wide receiver in the NFL in catch percentage in the red zone. In fact, only Jermaine Kearse of the Seattle Seahawks was worse. All of NFL players with at least 10 targets inside the 20-yard line (the red zone), Conley had the second worst catch percentage with 23%, tied with Devin Funchess of the Carolina Panthers, by catching only 3 of 13 passes when it counts most.
For the sake of comparison, Tyreek Hill caught 10 of 13 passes in the red zone, good for an incredible 77%. Travis Kelce caught 50% of his targets, going 8 of 16. It’s also notable that the Chiefs back-up tight ends, Demetrius Harris and Ross Travis, combined for only 1 catch in 6 attempts as well in the red zone. But that’s another column for another time, stopping only to point out the need behind Kelce.
But back to Boldin. Playing for the Detroit Lions last season, Boldin had the third-most end zone targets in the NFL last year with 22. He caught 14 of them, good for a 64% catch rate.
It’s unknown whether or not the Chiefs are even really interested in adding any veterans at this point, or whether Boldin could be had at the right price. The Chiefs still have to sign Patrick Mahomes and save about $5 million for a rainy day, so to speak, for breathing room in the regular season, which leaves only a couple million for a player addition like Boldin. (The Chiefs have $11.4M in cap space at this time.) If he’d take it, it could be money well spent, a competitive play for 2017 in an offseason mostly geared toward the future.