3. Jawaan Taylor is the worst starter on the Chiefs offense.
These are overreactions, right? The Chiefs' investment in Jawaan Taylor this offseason is not paying off two weeks into the season. After an abysmal showing against his former team, saying that Taylor is the worst offensive starter does not feel like much of a stretch.
National media honed in on Taylor after Week 1, where his borderline false starts and initial alignment became the talking point of any Chiefs rival. The NFL cracked down on "tackles who are too far back" ahead of Week 2, according to rules analyst Dean Blandino. That training tape also exposed the minute jump before the snap Taylor has been getting away with for years. Officials in Jacksonville were not very forgiving to the former Jaguar.
Taylor totaled five penalties against the Jaguars Sunday, by far the most in a single game during his career. He had two false starts, one for lining up in the backfield and two holding penalties. Five penalties as an offense is palatable at the NFL level. But for one player? That is certainly not.
"He's naturally quick without having to cheat on that thing or get caught on it, and he's strong, so he doesn't need to do that,'' Reid said. "He's a smart kid. We can fix it. He's been doing this for a number of years, and he works extremely hard at it, but once you've had three of them in a row or so and they don't get called and you have a ... new crew coming in, they're going to have an eye on you and so you've got to back up. He's got to back up and start over on this and just slow it down."
The penalties negate any good Taylor has provided on the field. The whole picture shows that Taylor holds his own in pass protection, despite the knee-jerk reaction to his snaps against Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson. But what are fans going to talk about more? The penalty yards that Taylor provides or how well he blocks?
In the grand scheme of things, Mahomes and the Chiefs' offense can get by with two traffic cones for tackles. They did it last year, right? But, the penalty yards are much harder to overcome. Taylor's impact this week makes him the worst Chiefs offensive starter.