KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sitting atop the AFC with a 7-2 mark midway through the season is an ideal perch for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid but at the same time, it’s not a performance with which he’s completely satisfied.
“There’s plenty of things we can work on,” Reid said Monday as his team regrouped following the bye week in preparing to host the Philadelphia Eagles next Monday night. And, you know it’s all great what the record is and that, but the main thing that we focus – we don’t care about that — we care about improving on all three phases. And there’s room to do that.”
Eight days ago the Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins 21-14 in Frankfurt, Germany, a game that kicked off at 8:30 a.m. central time. Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy met in Reid’s office after the game for 17 minutes, then the team’s coaching staff broke down film from the game during the nine-hour flight back to Kansas City. Another meeting meant the coaching staff didn’t get home until after 2 a.m.
“Coming out of that game we met right after we landed here,” Reid said. “There were things that we could work on, we were all able to look at the tape as coaches on the on the plane, right. So, you know, there are things there that we’ve got to get better at and yet at the same time continue to play with that aggressiveness and that attitude.”
Where can the Chiefs improve in the second half of the campaign? Reid has some ideas.
Eliminate Penalties
The Chiefs aren’t the most penalized team in the league — the club ranks tied for 19th in the league for the fewest penalties assessed with 6.7 infractions per game. That doesn’t include the 16 penalties that have been declined. Last year the Chiefs committed the fifth-fewest penalties in the league with 4.9 per game. They’re picking up flags at a 37% higher rate this season than a year ago.
“I would tell you the penalties are probably the biggest thing right now, we just got to take care of business with that,” Reid said.
While the flurry of false start and illegal formation flags against right tackle Jawaan Taylor drew most of the attention early in the season, Taylor has gone three games without drawing a penalty. But he’s no longer the most flagged Chiefs player on the season — that distinction belongs to cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who has drawn 12 flags (four declined). Taylor has 11 flags (one decline).
Sneed has drawn five penalties for defensive pass interference, and the Chiefs’ total of nine flags ranks 28th in the league. It’s the penalty type in which the Chiefs rank the worst, followed by offensive holding. Kansas City has drawn 19 flags for holding, ranking 27th.
Aside from Sneed, the three most penalties Chiefs are offensive linemen: Taylor (11) and right guard Trey Smith and left tackle Donovan Smith with seven each. Cleaning up the offensive line play in the second half will focus on penalties.
“I think we’re doing a pretty good job with the run game, and for the most part with the pass game,” Reid said. “We’ve got to eliminate the penalties. I mean, that’s the main thing. So we take care of that we’ll be fine.
Young Receivers Rolling
The Chiefs do lead the league in one infamous category — dropped passes. The team’s pass catchers have dropped 25 passes on the season, followed by the Los Angeles Rams with 21. Chiefs players have dropped a pass on 7.4% of all targets, also the worst in the league.
But Reid sees improvement in his young receiver corps.
“These young guys are getting better every week, which is a plus,” Reid said. “And we’ve got to keep that keep that rolling. You know, we’ve had a couple of drops, we got to keep working through that and making sure that we we stay strong through the ball. But other than that we’re third in the National Football League in throwing, that’s pretty good.”
Indeed recent trends show a changing of the guard at the receiver position. Rookie Rashee Rice, despite leading the team with five drops on the season led the team’s receivers against Miami with 41 snaps, his career-best. Rice also has posted the highest passer rating (127.4) when targeted among the team’s receiver group on the season. Marquez Valdes-Scantling (90.5) ranks second followed by Justin Watson (78.1).
The Chiefs have also carefully managed the snap count for Kadarius Toney in the first half of the season. He played a season-high 30 snaps in Week 6 against Denver and averaged 15.7 snaps per game through the first nine contests. He played just seven snaps in the win over the Dolphins.
Reid pointed to Toney’s knee surgery in training camp as one reason for his diminished workload. The 24-year-old has also nursed toe and ankle ailments through the first half of the season.
We can play him more than that and still be okay,” Reid said. “We just keep a keep an eye on his leg and make sure that we’re repping that out the right way and let him keep progressing as we go here throughout the year. That’s the important part.”
