Takeaways from the 2021 season.

[Wallcrawler]

After taking some time to decompress, and come to grips with the Chiefs season ending, these are my takeaways after a great season that came up just short of another Superbowl trip.

1. The Chiefs need a true running back.

RB by committee is terrible. Clyde unfortunately isn't the guy. The last time Patrick and Andy had a stud rb, Patrick Mahomes was the league mvp. Dropping 8, shell coverage, none of that works if you have a rb to punish it. We have the line to run behind. We just need the runner.


2. The O line rebuild was a phenomenal success. Holy shit can you name a team that rebuilt an entire unit in one off-season and it worked this well? This was absolutely a championship o line.

3. The 25% of the cap D Line was a major failure. We brought Frank in on a ludicrous deal and followed it up with a massive overpay on Chris Jones. 28th in the league in sacks and pretty leaky against the run, sure as hell didn't get what we paid for. Oh, and Chris Jones? It's been 10 postseason games. Still no sacks big guy.

4. Mahomes has spoiled Chiefs fans. The man set the bar so high that anything less than absolute elite perfection sees him absolutely shredded by fans and media alike. Even with all he's done, the kid is still human. He's not gonna win every superbowl every year. When he doesn't, it doesn't make him any less awesome. In a so called down year, where he was referred to as a "Broken" qb, he still put up numbers most of the leagues starters would cut their left nut off for and went to OT in his fourth straight AFC title game. The kid has never finished a season without getting this far.


5. Andy is still gonna Andy on the biggest stage. He's too old and set in his ways to change now. Whatever improvements are made to the roster, we have to try to get players to play well enough that these situations either do not manifest at all, or become irrelevant when they do. At the very least, we need to hope that in the next big game, Andy doesn't do his best Brandon Staley impersonation and give his kicker the double bird on the way to 0 points. If we could void Andy's authority to use timeouts as well, we could only improve and be better for it.

6. The 17th game and expanded playoffs are shit. Punishing the 2 seed by taking away a week off and making them play a team that likely doesn't deserve to even be there is terrible. We've seen the sack record tied in the first 17 game season. All records now will have less meaning. Dumb cash grab by the NFL.

7. The future is BRIGHT. I can't wait to see the dead weight cut off this roster, and to see Brett Veach get back to work building this team. The guy operates like me when I'm playing Madden. Huge trades, major roster changes, things you don't usually see. What he did with the o line in one off-season, I'm really excited to see what he can do with this defense, and what new weapons for Patrick he will bring in. I really believe that fixing the run game has to be high on his list, and while rb is never popular, I bet a deal gets made for a true rb to elevate this offense back to when smack a bitch up was running the ball for us. Much as I hate to say it, if we had Kareem Hunt against the Bengals, or any rb like him, we run their asses right out of Arrowhead with a 50 burger to nibble on for the trip home. The Chiefs offense will always be the priority with Mahomes, and with what we've seen from Veach so far, I'm expecting a huge swing at it from him.

I felt after this loss, similar to 2018. Like it's not that bad because I KNOW change is coming and we're going to be back.


We got 2 first year head coaches with their new teams in the AFC West, and that idiot Brandin Staley. So barring injury, the division is as good as ours again. Best time to be a Chiefs fan.

[Rain Man]

8. If you're trying to catch a ball, don't miss and tip it into the air.

[cabletech94]

This entire post makes me feel better. Man I’m low right now. Thanks wallcrawler.

[The Franchise]

You do realize that Watt only played in 15 games to tie the sack record, right?

[Rain Man]

9. Good linebackers make the defense far better.

[FloridaMan88]

RB talent or productivity wasn’t the issue vs Cincy.

McKinnon 5.4 yards per carry, CEH 6.0 yards per carry in the game… unfortunately they can’t hand the ball off to themselves and force Andy to actually run it.

[Dante84]

Great ****ing post.

Right there with you about RB, and also about being excited for this next phase.

Full trust in Veach to make the hard decisions (Fish, Schwartz) and be aggressive as hell (Mahomes - **** Dorsey), Draft well (Creed, Bolton, Smith) and kick the tires on every big name free agent or trade candidate (OBJ, Ingram, Gordon, Bell).

I do think the AFC is harder now, which ratchets up the pressure to win, but I’d pick no one else above Mahomes.

More great years to come!

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

You do realize that Watt only played in 15 games to tie the sack record, right?

I realize he tied it in the 17th game of the season. An opportunity he would not have had last year.

[Fishels]

On Reddit all I see is people saying they prefer the expanded playoffs. Maybe I’m a spoiled brat but to me it made second seed the first loser. Which is technically true, but 2 seed feels like a glorified wild card spot. And we saw two football games that should have never been played. Steelers and chiefs and Bucs and eagles. Just terrible football.


I really like McKinnon. I continue to be a hardman truther because of his speed. Dirty Dan didn’t even get his one playoff moment. And he ALWAYS DOES LOL. Sad but that’s the nail for him. Frank proved he was all talk which I didn’t want. Mahomes is more mature and better than ever before in some ways yet in other ways he simply gets down and will regress for a game/half etc. And I don’t know what to make of it.

Really liked the resolve some of our guys showed out there this season. The way it ended sucked but battling back was certainly not play from a team that wanted to skip a SB. Those early season turnovers were literally a curse man.

Really weird season in both good and bad ways. Weird beginning, weird middle and weird end. So atleast it was consistent LOL!

Go chiefs

[Cosmos]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

RB talent or productivity wasn’t the issue vs Cincy.

McKinnon 5.4 yards per carry, CEH 6.0 yards per carry in the game… unfortunately they can’t hand the ball off to themselves and force Andy to actually run it.

They addressed the issue with the OL in the off-season..

They figured out how to attack 2 high safety’s.

They got McKinnon in the games and he was Uber effective in both running and passing game.

They came out and blew the doors off of Cincy in the first half.

Cincy went to a 3 man rush and drop 8 …….And Andy/Bienemy/ could not adjust…

A LOT of things got figured out in both strategy and personel (Ingram, McKinnon, Playing Thornton, Bolton, OL)

The most accomplished aspect of out team couldn’t make adjustments…..

Damn shame it came down to coaching/play calling adjustments in the second half of the game…

Still love this team..

[smithandrew051]

The story of the season is missed opportunities.

Dropping winnable games cost us the 1 seed and ultimately a trip to the Super Bowl.

The bad news is that these opportunities aren’t always there. Seasons get lost to injury and other bad luck.

The good news is that our talent is absolutely good enough to make it to the Super Bowl and win it in any given year. We don’t need it to necessarily be “our year”. Just need to stay healthy and close out winnable games.

TL;DR Version: WBF!!!!

[smithandrew051]

The story of the season is missed opportunities.

Dropping winnable games cost us the 1 seed and ultimately a trip to the Super Bowl.

The bad news is that these opportunities aren’t always there. Seasons get lost to injury and other bad luck.

The good news is that our talent is absolutely good enough to make it to the Super Bowl and win it in any given year. We don’t need it to necessarily be “our year”. Just need to stay healthy and close out winnable games.

TL;DR Version: WBF!!!!

[eDave]

CEH would be a good running back somewhere else. We don't give RB's a chance to get it rolling.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by eDave

CEH would be a good running back somewhere else. We don't give RB's a chance to get it rolling.

No he would not. Dude is injury prone, slow and average at best. There is a large enough sample size in. It's OK to say it was a bad pick. The best thing to do is acknowledge it and move on, rather than to double down on the decision. Virch strikes me as the type to do just that.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

RB talent or productivity wasn’t the issue vs Cincy.

McKinnon 5.4 yards per carry, CEH 6.0 yards per carry in the game… unfortunately they can’t hand the ball off to themselves and force Andy to actually run it.

True to a point. Yet, one can easily argue that RB was an issue all year by the lack of runs over 20 yards and the lack of a RB on the roster that was a threat to take it the distance on any given play.

[Wallcrawler]

Look at what Clyde has.

Punishing o line? Check.

Receivers that must be accounted for? Check.

Qb that can punish 8 man front? Check.

Virtually every look Clyde has see, has been a defense BEGGING to be beaten by the run instead of by Mahomes. But this guy goes 2 yards into the centers ass and falls down on most plays.

A true running back, and God knows I hate bringing up Kareem Hunt, but he's the easiest comparison, because everyone here watched Kareem run. Kareem Hunt isn't the best back in football. He doesn't even start for his team, but he knows how to be an NFL running back.

ANY back that has vision, and is a strong runner, like Kareem Hunt, would absolutely have the rushing title against these looks this season.

Imagine Jonathan Taylor, Nick Chubb, any of these 25-30 carry a game capable running backs against these shell coverages.

You get the 2018 Chiefs offense. You play back, we run it down your throat. You come up, Patrick goes for 400 and 3+ td.

The run game is the most important fix for us right now. Gotta believe Veach has seen the failed experiment with Clyde. Against these looks and you're still mediocre?

Clyde wouldn't even start on another team.

We found Kareem Hunt in the third round. It doesn't have to be a high pick. We just need a tough, stud bell cow running back that Patrick will not feel is a wasted play to go ahead and hand off on those RPO's.

Lot of these RPO's turn into passes because Pat sees what we see. 2 yards and fall down, or keep, scramble, make a play.

Getting a rb that Mahomes trusts to run is going to be huge.