KC Chiefs rookie report: George Karlaftis records first sack

Skyy Moore, Wide Receiver (Round, Pick 54)

For the third time this season, Skyy Moore muffed and lost a punt. After injuries to Mecole Hardman and Kadarius Toney, Dave Toub put Moore back there again and it immediately came back to bite him. Unless the coaches feel like the third time’s the charm, I imagine that Moore has fielded his last punt of the season.

On offense, Moore played very well on Sunday. On six targets, he recorded five catches for 36 yards and Patrick Mahomes had a 91.7 passer rating when targeting the rookie. One area where he was highly effective was in the screen game. Per Pro Football Focus ($), Moore had 3 catches for 8 yards but had 22 yards after the catch, and an elite receiving grade of 92.5 on screen passes.

The botched punt return will skew a lot of fans’ view of his performance on Sunday, but Skyy Moore did play well overall. He’s starting to emerge as a legitimate receiving option and has the potential to be the Chiefs’ third receiving option behind only Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster by the time the playoffs roll around.

George Karlaftis, Defensive End (Round 1, Pick 30)

For the third consecutive week, George Karlaftis has played his best game of the season. He finally recorded the first full sack of his NFL career on the first play following the muffed punt. That sack was critical for Kansas City’s defense as that helped prevent the Rams from scoring and putting the Chiefs in an early deficit. He also played well against the run and had a QB hurry in addition to the sack.

Karlaftis seems to finally be putting it together as he’s played very well for the third straight game and is seeing a lot more quality wins in the passing game. Kansas City’s biggest weakness heading into the season was arguably their pass rush. We know Chris Jones is elite, but if someone else can step up, then the Chiefs will be a problem come January. It appears that Karlaftis is living up to the challenge and becoming that second option on the defensive line.

Isiah Pacheco, Running Back (Round 7, Pick 251)

It’s now crystal clear that Isiah Pacheco is the starting running back for the Chiefs. He’s not quite good enough as a pass blocker to play on obvious passing downs, but he did record a 17-yard reception in the victory, the longest of his season to date. In total, he rushed 22 times for 69 yards and had his first touchdown since Week 1.

Analytics, film, and the eye test all tell us that Pacheco deserves to be the starting running back for this team. He’s not a complete back, but he has the best combination of speed and power out of every player on the depth chart. If he can continue to develop his receiving and pass protection skills then he has a real chance to be an every down for the Chiefs.