The Kansas City Chiefs offensive line looks dominant

The Kansas City Chiefs enjoyed an offensive performance for the ages in Week 1 and they have their offensive line to thank for it.

The Kansas City Chiefs went into Foxboro on Thursday and dismantled the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. While the defense performed well it was the offensive explosion of 42 points that really left people impressed with the Chiefs. Alex Smith was as good as he has ever been in a Chiefs uniform. Running back Kareem Hunt had the most impressive debut of any rookie in NFL history. Tyreek Hill showed he was definitely worthy of being considered a number one wide receiver. It was an impressive showing and the highlights have been fun to see on a national stage.

While the Chiefs stars definitely stepped up, the group that made it all possible was the offensive line. It may not be as flashy or make as good of highlights but the big guys up front were just as good as the skill position guys and their ability to maintain that success may just be the key to the Chiefs continued success on offense.

The Chiefs offensive line was fine last season. When I say they were “fine,” I mean that they weren’t bad but they also weren’t a huge strength either. They were average. Now, given the state of offensive line play in the NFL right now there are certainly plenty of teams that would love to have “fine”. However, if the Chiefs want their offensive production to improve from last season, they need a line that can help establish the run game and give Alex Smith the time and security he needs to stand in the pocket and find his weapons. That is exactly what happened on Thursday night against the Patriots, and if they can play like that all season this offense could take the NFL by storm.

There wasn’t a lot of buzz around the offensive line this offseason. I would attribute that to both the fact that they were just “fine” last season and because the Chiefs didn’t make any exciting additions to their starting five. The best thing you could say about the K.C. offensive line headed into the 2017 season is that they would have a lot of continuity and familiarity because of all the guys they returned. Therefore, if any significant improvement was going to happen it was going to have to come from that continuity as well as individual player development. So far it looks like that may in fact have happened.

Thanks to modern technology all you have to do is know who to follow on Twitter and you can see examples of this offensive line play. Let’s start by looking at the pass protection as a whole.

While Alex Smith deserves all the credit for playing as well as he did against the Patriots, his offensive line definitely helped him out. Smith has been known to get happy feet in the pocket if a team is consistently getting pressure on him. Against the Patriots that was not the case. Smith had clean pockets and plenty of time all night long. The one sack he took was because he fell down. The chart tweeted out below by Pro Football Focus shows just how good their pass blocking was.

As you can see, all five offensive linemen had a pass blocking efficiency of 94% or higher. Overall, Alex Smith was completely un-pressured on 80% of his pass attempts. That’s insanely good, I don’t care if New England doesn’t have an especially strong pass rush. You can see that Eric Fisher was technically credited with allowing a sack, but if Smith doesn’t fall down I firmly believe it doesn’t happen.

The other impressive thing here is that Laurent Duvernay-Tardif didn’t allow a single pressure all game long. When LDT signed his big contract extension, many (myself included) questioned if he had earned that kind of money. In hind-sight it looks like that may have been a great business decision as LDT seems to quickly becoming one of the better guards in all the NFL.

If you want to see this great pass protection in action look at this tweet from Nick Jacobs (a must follow for Chiefs fans). This is the long touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt. Did Smith make a perfect throw? Yes. Did Hunt make a great catch and run afterwards? Yes. However, it takes some time for this play to develop. Look at the time and space that Smith has to wait for Hunt to  come open.

If the offensive line wasn’t dominating the line of scrimmage that throw is never attempted. Smith would have quickly checked down or tucked the ball and scrambled. It’s the fantastic pass protection that makes that great play possible. Smith won’t always be perfect, but I believe that he’ll consistently get the ball down field to his play makers if his offensive line gives him that kind of time and security.

Now let’s look at the run blocking in action.

The Chiefs offensive line had shown promise in pass protection last season. If they had a weakness, it was that they weren’t terribly physical up front in the run game. The Chiefs offensive line is very athletic but you need a little muscle up front to open up run lanes against a good defense. That’s exactly what they did on Thursday.

I already mentioned that LDT was quickly becoming one of the better guards in the NFL. The guy snapping the ball next to him is also quickly becoming one of the best at his position. I am, of course, talking about Mitch Morse. Morse has always been great on the move but he was physical up front against the Pats as well. Here is Brian Baldinger (another good follow) breaking down how the offensive line (lead by Morse) opened up a great hole for Hunt.

The strength Morse shows to knock LDT’s man off balance so he can pancake him is impressive but so is his ability to quickly move to the second level and seal off the linebacker. Mitchell Schwartz doubles the edge man with the tight end and drive him out of the play, and you can even see Bryan Witzmann do a nice job of making sure Fisher has his man contained before moving to the second level to pick someone up as well. While Morse may be the star of this play, you can see how the entire offensive line is working together to make life easy for Hunt who took full advantage of what the line was giving him.

Let’s look at one more play where the blocking really opened up things for Hunt. This is another tweet from Nick Jacobs that shows Hunt’s long run down the sideline in the fourth quarter. The guys to watch in this one are Eric Fisher and Travis Kelce.

Eric Fisher pulls out and absolutely flattens the edge defender, which gives Hunt space to turn the corner. Just beyond that Travis Kelce puts a textbook cut block on the defensive back that clears the way for Hunt who just has to beat the inside linebacker to make this a huge gain. If the Chiefs are going to run block this well all season, then Kareem Hunt may very well put up some eye popping numbers.

Overall the Chiefs offensive line was GREAT against the Patriots. While the skill players did their part and deserve credit, the line really did allow them to succeed. It will be interesting to see if the Chiefs offensive line can continue this level of play in both pass protection and run blocking as the season goes on. Right now, I am incredibly pleased and optimistic about this offensive line. I’d love to hear what you think about the line’s play and potential this season in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!