Four Chiefs who need to step up in Week 2

Frank Clark

Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark missed the Browns game with injury, but he has practiced all week and will be ready to play when the plane lands in Baltimore. Fellow defensive end Chris Jones was unfettered by the loss of Clark in Week 1 because he is elite, but one thing that will be interesting to follow is how the Chiefs utilize their ends with both Jones and Clark in the lineup. Do they settle in on one side of the line or will defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive line coach Brendan Daly move their ends around as incalculably as they did in Week 1?

The Ravens famously gifted the Chiefs with a left tackle in the spring when they traded Orlando Brown Jr. to Kansas City, and now they find themselves plugging holes in their offensive line due to injury. Starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley will miss Sunday’s game with an injury, and underwhelming right tackle Hector Villanueva will slide over to left tackle to face the Chiefs.

Like Hardman, Clark has also been a talking point around Chiefs Kingdom due to his 2020 productivity. He’ll have a golden opportunity to start the season with a bang against an offense that is missing some key parts. If he can get involved in the pass rush, Clark should silence some of his critics. But even if he doesn’t get a sack against a depleted Ravens’ offensive line, Clark must come out on all cylinders in his run defense – his supposed strength – against a team that will be looking to take the air out of the Chiefs offense by controlling the game clock. Mike Danna, Alex Okafor, and rookie Joshua Kaindoh (a surprising 12 snaps!) filled in sufficiently at defensive end with the veteran end inactive, but a productive Frank Clark will put opposing offenses in a lot more second-and-long and third-and-long situations.