ESPN names Chiefs young wide receivers as team’s biggest worry

An anonymous NFL executive mentioned the Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers as their biggest weakness and worry heading into the season.

This isn’t about being a homer. It really isn’t. There are a lot of positions on the Kansas City Chiefs that worry me right now, and I can see how someone could point to the wide receiving corps and question things. I would be one of them, if the conversation were pitched in the right angle.

However, the new NFL preview from ESPN (which looks amazing and is worth checking out for sure) mentions an anonymous executive grading the Chiefs biggest worry. He points to the wideouts and then fails to give any kind of real insight into the team. It’s as if they talked to an anonymous executive from the Canadian Football League instead. Or maybe, and this could be a good thing, executives from other teams really don’t know as much about each other as we think they do.

Here’s what Mr. or Ms. Anonymous said concerning the Chiefs:

"“Their receiving corps is really, really young and kind of a question mark. They are built on dink and dunk, and they just don’t have anyone who threatens you in their receiving corps. They are hoping [Chris] Conley will become that guy, but he really hasn’t.”"

There are myriad problems with this statement. I like numerical lists so let’s approach it in preferred fashion:

1. If the average NFL team has leaders in place who think the Chiefs don’t have a wide receiver who can “threaten you,” then the Chiefs are going to go 16-0. The reason being that Tyreek Hill will not have any defensive coordinators aiming to double team him if he is not a perceived threat. Good luck with that one.
2. Chris Conley has been exactly what the Chiefs wanted Chris Conley to be. He’s a reliable option among the wideouts used when given a chance. If anything, the Chiefs haven’t been what Conley wanted them to be—an offense that allows his vertical speed to really take over.
3. Seriously how do you not say anything about Tyreek Hill.

Okay, so maybe there’s some merit to bringing up the youth and saying it’s “kind of a question mark.” It is and most fans know it as well. Demarcus Robinson showcased well in the preseason, but so did players like Jon Baldwin or even Snoop Minnis. Enough said there..

But the Chiefs have Hill and Travis Kelce as their top two targets and both should be able to creep over the 1,000 yard receiving mark in 2017 and thereafter. No other offense in the NFL would catch flack for only having two targets reach 1,000 yards, but the conservativism of Alex Smith brings such criticism to the Chiefs.

The bottom line is that the Chiefs have other concerns besides wide receiver. It’s a rookie and roster fringe at running back, top to bottom. Cornerback is a confusing mess with a high ceiling, but also a very low floor. Other positions should have someone concerned more than wide receiver, but maybe if you don’t think Tyreek is anything special, then wideout would be a serious issue.