Kelvin Benjamin should be a strong end zone target for Kansas City Chiefs

Kelvin Benjamin comes with a lot of questions to the Chiefs, so we asked Bills writer Matt Warren for perspective on the newest import.

Kelvin Benjamin isn’t your typical free agent signing. Typically a new addition to a team comes with all plenty of positive spin as fans project how that player is well-suited for the franchise and hopes are displayed like holiday decorations in winter.

For Benjamin, however, the opposite has been true in Kansas City. While some fans wondered about the fit, others wondered about his fitness. Concerns were expressed on social media that Benjamin is divisive and selfish, and more fans are wondering why the team is avoiding any defensive additions.

The bottom line is that Benjamin comes with a lot of negative headlines and perceived drama, which made us want to get to the bottom of it all. What’s true? What’s been stretched? We asked Matt Warren, editor for Buffalo Rumblings, to tell us a bit more about the wideout’s tenure with the team and what he expects of him with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The out of shape jokes were made even by Chiefs fans when news hit that he was visiting. How true are those jokes? Is Benjamin really that lazy?

I don’t think he’s as out of shape as folks are saying, but he has been slow. I think it’s more to do with the torn meniscus he suffered last year and the knee injuries he’s dealt with over his career than being out of shape. I think he legit may have just lost the speed he had, and even before injuries, it wasn’t a lot. He had poor body language, which is one of the reasons Bills and Panthers fans turned on him so quickly.

Benjamin blamed his coaching situation in Carolina for a lack of production. Do you think there’s any truth to Benjamin being a bad fit for the schemes he’s played in?

Benjamin is supposed to be this long-armed, jump ball guy but he hasn’t caught many contested balls in Buffalo. He doesn’t have the speed to get open so he needs to rely on his physical stature instead of separation. That means contested catches.

Benjamin has never played without being looked to as a top option for the team he’s playing. Any thoughts on how freedom from being a No. 1 target might affect him?

As he was phased out of the Bills offense, none of the things I said above changed. For a couple weeks he was below that 50% of the team’s snaps. He has been blocking better since the Bills coaches went out of their way to ask him to do that. He was pressing a bit this year, but with only four games left before he hits free agency, he’s probably going to keep doing that.

Given the short window with a brand new team, what would you even expect from Benjamin during his tenure with the Chiefs in 2018?

I’d expect the Chiefs to make him a big target in the red zone, which he should theoretically be good at. But that hasn’t been very successful in Buffalo—or Carolina for that matter).