Orlando Brown: ‘I’m not even close to playing my best football’

If you liked what you saw offensively from the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon against the Philadelphia Eagles, that’s a good thing. Orlando Brown Jr. says there’s more where that came from.

While the defense continued to concern the fan base, Chiefs Kingdom had to feel great about an offensive unit that scored touchdowns on six of seven drives in the game, each of which went for 75 yards or more. Patrick Mahomes threw five touchdown passes on the day, and Tyreek Hill went for nearly 200 yards receiving by himself.

In addition to the potent air attack, the Chiefs also generated serious yardage on the ground. In fact, Mahomes threw only 30 passes while the Chiefs ran the ball 32 times—the sort of ratio rarely seen since Mahomes took over the starting role in 2018. The Chiefs averaged a healthy 6.3 yards/carry and gained 200 yards rushing during the game, including a second straight game of 100+ for Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

Orlando Brown Jr. spoke with the media this week about the growth of the offensive line.

Beyond that, even the team stats look great. The Chiefs completed 90 percent of their third down conversion attempts and generated 31 first downs. Those marks are incredible, again especially because there were only seven real drives (the Chiefs knelt the ball on the 8th drive to finish the game and run out the clock).

Earlier this week, Orlando Brown Jr. spoke with reporters at Arrowhead Stadium and commented on the growth of the front line, one that is taking care of Mahomes in the passing game and generating a serious push in the ground game.

“It’s a combination of coach’s schemes and a combination of all of us being on the same page and executing our fundamentals at a high level,” said Brown about their growth as a unit. It’s a week-to-week progression since the Chiefs have five new starters including three rookies lining up from center to right tackle to go with vets like Brown and Joe Thuney out left.

“I think Sunday was just a taste, a little bit, of what we could do. We still weren’t spot-on completely with a few different things, but we were able to make some good things happen in the run game. Hopefully we can continue to build on that and become a better team running the ball as time goes.

As for Brown, he’s glad to be in Kansas City and firmly entrenched in a left tackle role he’s wanted to play for a long time, in order to follow in his father’s footsteps who suited up at left tackle for the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. As solid as he’s looked for the Chiefs outside, he knows he can improve and he’s working hard to get there. At stake is a long-term extension during or after the season, although he also admits he’s not worried about that.

“I know what I definitely want to get to, and I’ve spoken with you guys before about getting to the point of being a top tackle in this league. I’m getting there, man. I’m working each and every day, each and every week. I feel like I’ve gotten better each and every game. I’m not even close to playing my best football.”