Eyes of the Guru IDP Info, Part 6: Kansas City

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The Chiefs’ defense forced a lot of turnovers in 2021. Their 15 interceptions were middle of the pack, but no one recovered more opponent's fumbles than Kansas City’s 14. It is good that they were so opportunistic since they were not very good otherwise. The pass rush struggled, ranking 29^th with 31 sacks, the pass defense was leaky, finishing among the bottom third in both completions and yards per attempt, and only the Steelers allowed more yards per rush.

After such a performance, it is no surprise to see a lot of change. The defensive line got reinforcements, the linebacker position evolved, and the secondary was blown up completely in the offseason. The team moved on from a long list of veterans, including starters and key contributors at every level. Among those shown the door were tackle Jarran Reed, defensive end Alex Okafor, linebackers Anthony Hitchens, Ben Niemann, Melvin Ingram III, and Dorian ODaniel, and defensive backs Tyrann Mathieu, Chavarius Ward, Mike Hughes, Daniel Sorensen, and Armani Watts.

Defensive Linemen

The plan heading into last season was to move Pro-Bowl tackle, Chris Jones, outside and plug-in free agent Jarran Reed as the 3-technique tackle. The expectation was that Jones would step up the pass rush and keep opponents from focusing on Frank Clark, without losing much on the interior. The plan seemed sound on paper but failed miserably on the field.

Jones trimmed down so he would be quicker off the edge. He got off to a strong start with a pair of sacks in the opener, but the next time he got to a quarterback we week eight. Jones finished the season with nine sacks which, at a glance, looks solid. However, six of those sacks came after the Chiefs added Melvin Ingram III and moved Jones back inside, with three and a half of them coming in one game against Dallas.

With a final stat line of 16-10-9, 2 turnovers, and 5 batted passes, Jones was all but useless to IDP managers in 2021, especially when you consider that 69 of his 104 fantasy points came in three games. Jones has put the weight back on and will hopefully return to the dominating interior lineman he was in the past. That said, other than his one big season in 2018, Jones has never produced strong tackle totals. He went 34-8-15 in 2018 with an average of 21-11-7 over his other five years as a pro.

When it comes to Frank Clark, both the Chiefs and IDP managers are going to have to realize who he is. When the team signed him in 2019, they thought they were getting the guy that had 33 sacks over his last three seasons in Seattle. What they got was the guy that has 18.5 in three seasons as a Chief and has declined in tackles, assists, and sacks each year since joining the team.

The organization attempted a salvage operation with the midseason addition of Ingram but that did not work out either. In twelve games with the team, he recorded a pair of half sacks and was a non-factor. This year the Chiefs brought in reinforcements, expending serious draft capital to fill the hole at the defensive end position long-term. They used the second of their round-one picks, number 30 overall, on Purdue’s George Karlaftis. In Karlaftis the Chiefs believe they have a premier, three-down player. He looked the part in college, earning a starting job as a freshman and compiling solid numbers of 97 combined tackles, 14 sacks, and 7 turnovers over 26 career games. Karlaftis is not a dominating run defender but has the determination and enough sand in his pants to get the job done. His official weight was listed as 266 pounds ahead of the draft but he played at about 275 last year.

What could be a little concerning for IDP managers, is that Karlaftis put up better numbers as a freshman at 30-24-7.5 than as a junior last year when he finished 28-11-4.5. Some of this could be attributed to his return from an injury that ended his sophomore season early. There is also the point that opponents likely paid more attention to him last year. Karlaftis has been coming off the board as the third or fourth defensive end in rookie drafts. In re-draft leagues, keep in mind that edge guys often take a year to get going and consider him a DL3 at best.

Derrick Nnadi fills out the starting lineup at nose tackle. He is a bit undersized for the one-technique by today’s NFL standards but does a good job of plugging the middle. Nnadi has little to offer in fantasy terms. He averages around 44 combined tackles and has 4 career sacks in four NFL seasons.

With the exit of Alex Okafor and Joe Jackson, Kansas City is thin on experienced depth at defensive end. Third-year pro, Mike Danna, has been the top backup over the last two seasons and will continue in that role for now. There is still hope within the organization that the former third-round pick will eventually develop into a starter. Danna has five and a half sacks over his first two seasons. Beyond Danna, the Chiefs have veteran Shalique Calhoun who always seems to land a roster spot somewhere in the league but rarely contributes outside of special teams, last year’s fourth-round pick Joshua Kaindoh who didn’t get on the field as a rookie, and a handful rookie free agents trying to find a way onto a roster. The team has more depth inside with 2019 third-round pick Khalen Saunders, third-year pro Tershawn Wharton, and free-agent addition Taylor Stallworth who spent the last four years with the Colts. All three players have seen a fair amount of action.

• DE Frank Clark – Bye-week flier at best
• DE George Karlaftis – Dynasty prospect with probable DL3 value this year
• DE Mike Danna – Injury sleeper with limited upside
• DE Joshua Kaindoh – No impact
• DE Austin Edwards – Developmental rookie
• DE Malik Herring – Developmental rookie
• DT Chris Jones – DT1 potential
• DT Derrick Nnadi – No impact
• DT Khalen Saunders – No impact
• DT Tershawn Wharton – No impact
• DT Taylor Stallworth – no impact

Linebackers

The evolution of Kansas City’s linebackers began when they drafted Willie Gay Jr in the second round two years ago. It continued with the selection of Nick Bolton in the second round last spring. It has culminated with the addition by subtraction of all the players in the way of these two young players. Many coaches at all levels and across all sports believe the team is stronger when everyone on the roster contributes. This is true much of the time but sometimes you just have to let your best players play. The Chiefs have arrived at that point.