George Karlaftis has had ebb and flow rookie season for KC Chiefs

Rookie edge defender George Karlaftis came into the NFL under the microscope for the Kansas City Chiefs, not just because he was a first-round pick, but because the Chiefs desperately needed pass rush help on the outside

Coming out of Purdue, Karlaftis was seen as a high-floor prospect that could generate pressure as a rookie, a player with the strength to immediately contribute in the NFL. After seeing Melvin Ingram depart in the offseason and no other significant moves made outside of bringing back Frank Clark and the Carlos Dunlap signing, the Chiefs badly needed those pre-draft evaluations to be true.

Through 11 games, Karlaftis has been a mixed bag thus far. To preface, Karlaftis has not been bad and this is by no means saying that, but his performance is worth an open discussion. To be fair, it was always going to be irresponsible of the Chiefs to rely on Karlaftis to fix their pass-rush woes of the past in year one. Typically, you’re not finding a guy at the end of the first round who is going to step in and get you 7 or 8 sacks in year one.

As far as run defense goes Karlaftis has made some splash plays here and there but hasn’t been consistent in helping to stop the run.

So far, Karlaftis has been a little underwhelming as far as actual production goes—even if he is a rookie. At this point in the season, Karlaftis has only 1 sack, on a play he was left unblocked for the record, and 1 TFL. Sure, Karlaftis has provided a little bit of pressure, which we’ll get to in a minute, but you would have hoped that he’d be making more plays in the backfield.

Karlaftis’ pass rush has been a little frustrating only because he tends to get stonewalled easily and came into the league with one primary move, which is his bull rush. We knew Karlaftis won his reps with power but that’s a lot harder to do against NFL competition as opposed to the Big Ten. The hope is Karlaftis will develop more of a pass-rush arsenal as his career progresses but as of right now he’s a little limited.

On the other hand, Karlaftis is tied with Detroit Lions rookie Aidan Hutchinson for most pressures by a rookie this season (28). While this is at least a positive sign, it’s worth noting that this year’s rookie edge class hasn’t been the strongest and Karlaftis’ pass-rush win rate is towards the bottom of the league among starters. For a rookie who isn’t a terrible spot to be, but for Karlaftis who has played 72% of the team’s defensive snaps this season (more than any other Chiefs edge) a bit more production shouldn’t be asking too much. The pressures are cool, but sack production would be even better. Karlaftis has come close quite often, so the hope is he starts turning those pressures into sacks.

Karlaftis is at least performing well when compared to his class peers which is somewhat of a good sign his effectiveness on key downs is notable. You need to be able to take advantage of favorable down and distance situations and Karlaftis has according to the chart below.

Pass-rush win rate on the other hand, is a little discouraging. Especially when you’re rarely double-teamed, you need to be winning at least at an average rate. It’s not asking too much for a rookie to do that.

Sometimes, you do need that first sack to break through and there are a lot of pass-rushers in the league whose sacks came in bunches, so maybe Karlaftis’ first full career sack against the Los Angeles Rams can snowball into more production regardless of how it came.

On a really positive note, Karlaftis leads the NFL in passes batted (5) which is very impressive considering he is not the lengthiest guy in the world. It takes great instincts and skill to be able to bat down so many passes and the ability is valuable because any time you can stop a pass from being attempted it is essentially a loss of a down for the offense. That’s a part of Karlaftis’ game that fans should be very appreciative of.

Karlaftis has made some splash plays here and there in the run game, he but hasn’t been consistent in helping to stop the run. The effort is there from Karlaftis and run defense is 50% effort, but he’s struggling at gaining proper leverage against his blockers. It’s another thing you expect to improve over time with coaching and experience.

For what it’s worth as well, PFF also has Karlaftis graded as the second-worst defensive end in all of the NFL. I’m not going to pretend to know everything that goes into PFF’s grades, but the areas of growth are clear for everyone to see. None of this is to say Karlaftis is a bad player, but he has been a little quiet for a defender who plays the number of snaps that he does. The important part is he hasn’t stuck out like a sore thumb in any bad way.

All in all, Karlaftis will improve as time goes and he’s certainly put in some good reps for the Chiefs. He’s also made some timely plays that give you a reason to be optimistic for the future. He’ll just need to reinforce that idea down the stretch to make everyone feel good about where the position group is at from a long-term perspective.