It is my opinion that Reid had every intention of keeping Kareem Hunt on the bench his rookie year as well

Have to say injuries have never really derailed this team so not worried.

That is the Reid effect imo.

The one issue I've always had with Andy Reid's RB philosophy is the lack of a true power game, a big "Gruden's Grinder" type back for short-yardage situations.

I'm not saying that this is an Achilles' heel of his offense, or that the lack of such will be the Chiefs' undoing in this game, it's just something I noticed when he was still coaching in Philly that seemed to cost him on occasion.

Would Hyde have successfully filled that role? I don't know; he didn't seem to be very effective for us in his 2nd to last preseason game with us.

Can D. Williams provide the hammer for this offense this weekend? Again, I don't know. He's got the physical size for the job certainly. Not sure if his talent is there though. Too small a sample size, IMO.

And then there's Andy. Will he recognize when to insert Williams, or even Sherm when a dose of bulldozer is required?

I watched the Cards game twice and noticed that near the goal-line the Cards tried a lot of passing game trickery to get into the end-zone, most of which didn't work. Now, Kingsbury isn't Andy, and Murray isn't Mahomes, but what I saw was that the Ravens played pretty good red-zone D. Though the first pass to Fitzy in the end-zone was well off-target; if it had been within his reach, that was a TD.

I remember thinking, "why don't they at least try a run up the middle?"

It's an even bigger deal for us these days. Mahomes is still young and occasionally frightens me when he says shit like, "I want to get hit. It gets me amped up."

Now, that's not to say I don't trust Mahomes to complete short yardage or 4th down plays with his arm. I totally do. He's the best in the game at it. But I've also seen him sacrifice his body far too many times for an extra yard. At least he's only doing it in critical situations these days, but I'd prefer he didn't have to do it at all unless it's what's considered a "safe" carry like a QB sneak (even Trent Green and his chronically gimpy knee used to do those).

If we had a reliable short yardage back, that'd cut down on the number of times Mahomes thinks he has to be a hero.

I'm not sure how big a deal traditional red zone offense really is for this team, although it might be more pertinent tomorrow because of the conditions. But our "red zone" is basically the 50-yard line at this point.

I honestly don't know if there's anything in Andy's playbook that could be called 'traditional,' unless we qualify it as West Coast offense traditional.

However, there are times when a simple run up the gut, so to say, is really the best option. What that looks like in Andy's mind is up for debate. We've seen him use defensive tackles at times in those situations, though I can't remember one used just to get a first down; I've only seen him do that sort of thing near the end-zone.

What I really don't like is when he tries some kind of short pass play with a lot of motion pre-snap, that ends up not working, and then Mahomes decides (possibly planned?) to try to run for it himself. Sooner or later he's going to take a big hit doing that, and if he gets hurt in the process, that's the end of our season. I'd much rather have some big Tom Rathman type back do that.

Don't fret friends

The sausage will carry the load to get first downs or have a needed catch out of the back field.

Pretty sure this team could roll with zero RBs and be just fine.

Now is the time for Sherman to step up with the injury to Damien and McCoy not at 100 percent and the rain factor. I always thought he was underutilized in this offense and I wondered at times why they keep him on the roster.

Its not like they are teaching them physics and Thompson played football in college so one wouldn't think it would be very difficult to teach them how to block.

I remember when it was year two of Dee Ford's contract the Chiefs announcer were saying he's still learning the position, I'm like WTF?

I watched almost every play of their first 2 games and I agree with all your points.

And if Darrell gets to play, he's going to surprise some people in here.

Chiefs 38
Ravens 27

RBs in college are rarely asked to learn to pass protect, certainly not at a pro level. And pass blocking isn't necessarily the simple skill that some seem to think it is.

For instance, Adrian Peterson, wasn't considered a "3-down" back until his third year, based entirely on his pass protection skills, which were non-existent when he came into the league. Further, he was never considered a skilled pass protector, in fact after seven years with the Vikings he was ranked in the lower half of RBs in pass protection metrics; 29th out of 54 RBs that took at least 25 snaps. Since then he hasn't improved much, in spite of several off-season's worth of work on it since leaving the Vikes.

Sometimes it comes easier for some backs. Take our own Shady McCoy. Just 5 years ago he was also rated in the bottom third among backs in pass pro. But by 2017 he'd transformed himself as a pass blocker, rising to the rank of fifth overall, tied with one Ezekiel Elliot.

The bottom line, in the NFL it's pass protection by the RB that makes him a 3rd down back, not pass-catching.

Andy Reid just doesn't want to use power backs. I don't understand his hang-up about it. Guys like Ware are about as close as he comes. It's in his head that his running backs must be able to run wheel routes like a WR or they won't work for him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> RB LeSean McCoy, who tweaked his ankle last week, is considered a game-time decision, but there is optimism that he starts today, sources say. He should have a big role.</p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1175684406008307713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seems like a perfect day for Andy Reid to unleash his Sausage