David Carr " Chiefs have higher upside with Mahomes"

[Deberg_1990]

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yet, here we are looking at the same Kansas City Chiefs offense we've seen year after year.



The Chiefs have made three playoff appearances since Reid took over as head coach in 2013, losing once in the wild-card game (2013) and twice in the divisional round (2015, 2016). I'm a fan of Reid and quarterback Alex Smith, but with the way things are right now, they'll be sitting at home while Pittsburgh and New England duke it out on Championship Sunday.

I was Smith's teammate in San Francisco for one year (2010) and I got to know him well. When the weather starts playing a bigger factor in games late in the season, he's not a guy who can make tough throws in tough conditions. He's particular and wants the football a certain way. The colder the weather the firmer the ball and other conditions make the ball slippery. It's really hard to play in inclement weather as a quarterback, yet there are some guys -- like Brett Favre -- who could grab a ball out of a bucket of water or pile of mud and hurl it downfield. But everybody's not like that, including Smith. The conditions have to be right and the running game has to be there. As we've witnessed throughout his career, Smith isn't often going to transcend an offense and win a game on huge throws -- a frequent critique. He's just not that type of quarterback.

Early in the season, we saw Smith make those big plays and the Chiefs were rolling. We've seen downfield shots slowly digress as the season's gone on, a trend that goes back to at least the past two seasons. Since 2015, Smith has been far more effective throwing the ball down field (20-pus air yards) through the Chiefs' first eight games than he has in their final eight, completing more passes (42.1 percent vs. 36.7 percent) with a better TD-to-INT ratio (8:0 vs. 2:4) and a significantly higher passer rating (124.3 vs. 63.1).

Furthermore, since Smith's first year with the Chiefs in 2013, his passer rating on pass attempts of more than 20 yards has fallen off in the second half of the season.

September: 92.0
October: 111.1
November: 63.5
Dec.-Jan.: 68.8

The Chiefs' high-flying offense started to stall after the Steelers exposed a weakness in Week 6. Pittsburgh played more zone coverage and allowed them to throw the ball underneath by respecting the ability of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce to make things happen downfield. In addition, the run game hasn't been as effective the last five games (the Chiefs are 1-4 in that stretch), averaging 81 rush yards per game. That's 70 yards per game fewer than Kansas City put up in its first five games (all wins). In my opinion, Smith needs the run game to improve or we'll likely see him continue to struggle throwing the ball downfield as this season progresses.

I know this sounds crazy, but there's a case for Patrick Mahomes, who played well in the preseason, to start in place of Smith as the playoffs near. The Chiefs gave up a third-rounder and next year's first to draft Mahomes, viewing him as their franchise quarterback of the future. He's a gunslinger who adds another dimension in the pass game when a) the weather worsens, and b) they're trying to go head to head with the AFC's best offenses.

It's definitely possible the Chiefs could find themselves in a Nathan Peterman situation, especially if they don't handle the timing of the switch well. We don't know. What I do know, though, is we can expect the same ending to the Chiefs' story if they don't change up their cast of characters.


http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...-limits-chiefs

[TLO]

MAHOMES MAHOMES MAHOMES!

[TLO]

MUH-HOMES

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Go ahead and answer the question

Doesn't matter what I think. I said before I trust Reid to make those decisions. Unlike you guys I don't think I am know more about QBs than a HOF HC who used to be a QB coach.

So I am not worried about the QBs. Reid will do what is right for the team. There are other areas of the team I am much more concerned about.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy

Doesn't matter what I think. I said before I trust Reid to make those decisions. Unlike you guys I don't think I am know more about QBs than a HOF HC who used to be a QB coach.

So I am not worried about the QBs. Reid will do what is right for the team. There are other areas of the team I am much more concerned about.

So will you follow Smith to his next team?

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Russell wilson has played in 12 playoff games. Only once has he scored less than 20 points. Get out of here with this shit about that performance being anything like Russell Wilsons playoff experience. Alex Smith has played in half the playoff games and has twice as many games under 20 (if not for the new england garbage td at the end, it would be half). If your qb can't put up 20 at home in the playoffs, that is not a good performance.
https://www.pro-football-reference.c.../gamelog/post/

Reread my post. I said he had a horrible playoff gm when the Seahawks won the SB and it was worse than the game Smitty had against the Steelers. It is the truth.

Here are Russel Wilsons stats against the Saints in the divisional rd when the Seahawks won 23-15

9/18, 103 yds, 50 compl %, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, 47.9 QB Rating, 3 rush, 16 yds

Luckily Marshawn Lynch played great and Seahawks #1 D held the Saints to 15-pts so they won. The point I was trying to make is you can win playoff games in a variety of ways. If Smitty is struggling in a playoff gm the ability to run the football/stop the run is huge. We are going to need that cause everyone knows I like Smitty but he's more than likely not going to go out and light it up all the time..

So while I agree with you that Smitty deserves a lot of the blame for that Steelers loss lets not act like he can't win the SB or that one playoff game means he sucks. Now if he was always playing like that in the playoffs you would have a point but we both know that is not the case.

Originally Posted by Pestilence

So will you follow Smith to his next team?

No more than I would any other Chiefs QB that leaves.

I was a Chiefs fan long before Smitty came here. If I was a Alex Only fan I'd tell you. Don't care what anyone here thinks about me.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy

i disagree. Our run defense was horrible and I'd say at least just as much of a reason for the loss as Smith was.. Tell me how many playoff teams have won when the opposing team has an RB that runs for 170 yds? I can't tell you the exact answer but I know it is not many. Not to mention we had a ton of dropped balls

Smittys stats were pretty much just as good as Big Bens and Smiths INT wasn't even his fault. It was a caused by pressure. He still had a bad game but it wasn't as bad as many on here are making it out to be. The year the Seahawks won the SB Russel Wilson had a game much worse than Smith's Steelers game.

LeVeon Bell: 0 TD's
Big Ben: 0 TD's
Antonio Brown: 0 TD's
Steelers offense:0 TD's

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by RunKC

LeVeon Bell: 0 TD's
Big Ben: 0 TD's
Antonio Brown: 0 TD's
Steelers offense:0 TD's

It doesn't matter, man. The narrative will always be about how the defense allowed 170 rushing yards and 18 points. They will never back off of that stance.

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by RunKC

LeVeon Bell: 0 TD's
Big Ben: 0 TD's
Antonio Brown: 0 TD's
Steelers offense:0 TD's

Our D did a fantastic job in the red zone but other than that they got dominated by the run game. I'm not saying they were bad overall but they certainly did not do a good job stopping the run.

If you are going to criticize Smitty for his playoff performance cool but don't throw a hissy fit when someone criticizes another part of the team because you hate Alex Smith.

[Best22]

Originally Posted by RunKC

LeVeon Bell: 0 TD's
Big Ben: 0 TD's
Antonio Brown: 0 TD's
Steelers offense:0 TD's

Both sides of the ball were garbage

Proof that we needed not only a quarterback but also defensive talent

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by TLO

MAHOMES MAHOMES MAHOMES!

This.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by TLO

MUH-HOMES

More of this!

[RippedmyFlesh]

Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy

Our D did a fantastic job in the red zone but other than that they got dominated by the run game. I'm not saying they were bad overall but they certainly did not do a good job stopping the run.

If you are going to criticize Smitty for his playoff performance cool but don't throw a hissy fit when someone criticizes another part of the team because you hate Alex Smith.

When a playoff opponent is held to 18 points you have to win. The defense kept them under 20 so they did their job regardless of "stats".

[bigjosh]

Originally Posted by RippedmyFlesh

When a playoff opponent is held to 18 points you have to win. The defense kept them under 20 so they did their job regardless of "stats".

Kind of like when your defense holds the bottom feeder giants to 9 points.

[Chief3188]

Originally Posted by bigjosh

Kind of like when your defense holds the bottom feeder giants to 9 points.

With your offense giving up 2 turnovers inside their own 50 that resulted in 6 of those points.

Bottom damn line is Smith didn’t do his job during the Steelers, Cowboys and Giants game. While he did do enough in the Oakland game he also came up short in the clutch when all we needed was one first down.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Does PA Reidbot ever think for himself?

Or does he just mosey over to KCC.com and get his marching orders from that dumb whore Suzi Kolber?