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.

[RunKC]

I think 2021 was a rebuilding year. And quite honestly heading into it this time last year I thought we would be a 3 or 4 seed at best.

OL in shambles, LB corps not up to par, pass rush in disarray (thanks for the boost Ingram!) and no real threat outside of Kelce/Tyreek.

Usually SB losers struggle the next year. We were an OT flop from being back in the SB.

Next year the team will be much better. There were so many new pieces and it sounds like 2022 won’t have near as many.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Next year the team will be much better. There were so many new pieces and it sounds like 2022 won’t have near as many.

Oh, I don't know about that.

But I'm optimistic Veach is going to do a great job.

I think a defensive rebuild is going to happen, and that's going to be pretty significant.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by Chiefshrink

No doubt !! But Andy has to win "his way" and that will usually cost you a few games when you do not put your ego aside and adjust to what your opposition is doing to you successfully.

This is who Reid is, and has always been. I've seen us lose games where Jamaal Charles had 6 touches the entire game. By far the best player on the offense. Nope, let's throw fades to Junior ****ing Hemingway.

Andy is quite often the best defender on the other team. He stops the player himself.

Mahomes is good enough to overcome it. He just wasn't on Sunday. It sucks but anyone expecting Andy Reids sideline gaffes to just go away is in for some serious frustration.

[Talisman]

Although it sucks for the 2 seed not to have the bye, I think this year the Chiefs needed the Steelers game to get rolling and start feeling on top of their game again. Week 17 against Denver was not inspiring and the first quarter or so against the Steelers was pitiful. I think if they sat at home for a week while watching the Bills just obliterate the Patriots, they come into that Bills game and have the same shaky start they did against the Steelers. And it most likely doesn't end the same way.

But, yeah, putting a 2 seed that used to get a bye because they are one of the top two teams against a 7 seed that used to not be good enough to get in, you get the results you saw. And it's not good football.

[rabblerouser]

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.

This.

X100000

Doesn't matter if we had Walter Payton in his prime, Andy wasn't going to call any run plays.