Five seriously underrated KC Chiefs from the Andy Reid era

There are two ways in which a player in the National Football League is often overlooked. Sometimes a very good player's contributions go unnoticed because the team upon which he plays is miserable. Bad teams rarely play in primetime, so it makes sense why a lot of people fail to recognize their contributions—fair or not.

But one other way a player is often glossed over is when the light is too bright. There's only so much of a spotlight to go around at any given time, so when a team has some of the single biggest talents in the game, it can be hard to earn any real share of the platform.

Over the last 10 years, the case has been the latter for the Kansas City Chiefs. Andy Reid is a living legend and creative genius at head coach. Patrick Mahomes is the game's biggest star. Travis Kelce is a future Hall of Famer. You get the idea. For the last decade, it's been tough sledding for some players to earn the credit they deserve with so many stars in the night sky of the Chiefs.

In order to at least give them partial credit after the fact, we thought we'd list a few of the seriously underrated Chiefs players of the last decade. For one reason or another it feels like they should have earned more praise and acclaim for their body of work than they did, but at least we can make up for it in hindsight by at least giving them a shout now.

Damien Williams, RB

If things continue on this path, we should likely put Jerick McKinnon's name on this list as well since he will likely be pushed aside soon enough for the next third-down back the Chiefs want to bring in. For now, however, McKinnon is still generating yards and headlines while Williams could be forgotten in the string of the Chiefs' success.

DamienIn his eight-year NFL career, Damein Williams' career yards from scrimmage are barely more than what Chris Johnson once earned in a single season (2,606 to 2,509). He's always been part of an RB committee, at best, and last year looked like his final salvo with the Atlanta Falcons. But for a hot minute, Damien Williams was the man in Kansas City.

In two successive postseason runs in 2019-20, Williams had an incredible 540 yards from scrimmage in only 5 games with an eye-popping 10 touchdowns to go with it. Words like "heroic" came to mind when watching him play during those playoff runs and we're glad Williams has at least one ring to show for it when all is said and done.

That said, it didn't take long for McKinnon to generate similar production under the brightest lights following Williams' departure from the team and it's likely that another back will do the same to McKinnon one day. If a player can rise to the occasion, there are opportunities there when opponents are keying in on stars like Tyreek Hill and/or Travis Kelce.

Even as we're appreciating McKinnon, however, nothing he's done equals what Williams did in that short span of time. And he should never have to buy a drink again if he's remotely near Chiefs Kingdom.