*****The Leo Chenal Thread*****

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Veach is great but this is the first year him and Andy have truly without question been bailed out by Mahomes.

No idea what those guys were thinking relying on Toney and Skyy. To Veach's credit though, Rice is awesome and made the difference.

I don't see any of these other QB's being able to do what Mahomes did. Hardman and Watson were our leading WR's in the SB

It's a little dubious to say they were 'bailed out' by Mahomes.

Look at their draft strategy over the last 2-3 seasons. They clearly planned on building up the defense and relying on Mahomes to be a force multiplier for the offense.

If Mahomes can make Hardman and Watson the top WRs in a Super Bowl (while the defense balls out), isn't that in many ways a vindication of the strategy rather than 'being bailed out'?

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It's a little dubious to say they were 'bailed out' by Mahomes.

Look at their draft strategy over the last 2-3 seasons. They clearly planned on building up the defense and relying on Mahomes to be a force multiplier for the offense.

If Mahomes can make Hardman and Watson the top WRs in a Super Bowl (while the defense balls out), isn't that in many ways a vindication of the strategy rather than 'being bailed out'?

That's my point. Mahomes is incredible and fixes a whole lot of shit.

WR's already cost us the 1 and 2 seed. Do you think this team wins the SB this year if Joe Burrow, Alex Smith or Josh Allen was the QB? I don't in any way see them doing that. No ****ing way.

It's okay to point out that our top guys made a huge mistake with Toney/Skyy and Mahomes made that shit work.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RunKC

That's my point. Mahomes is incredible and fixes a whole lot of shit.

WR's already cost us the 1 and 2 seed. Do you think this team wins the SB this year if Joe Burrow, Alex Smith or Josh Allen was the QB? I don't in any way see them doing that. No ****ing way.

It's okay to point out that our top guys made a huge mistake with Toney/Skyy and Mahomes made that shit work.

But to say 'bailed out' suggests they got lucky. They didn't.

It was part of a concerted effort to lean into Mahomes ability to make lemonade on the side of the ball he has some control over.

Those sorts of players just don't exist very often on defense so you have to take a very holistic and expensive approach (in terms of draft and/or cap capital). So they aggressively attacked an overarching defensive rebuild while relying on Mahomes to make the offense work just well enough.

It worked to their script, IMO. Were Toney and Moore mistakes - yup. But every team makes mistakes and honestly I think a lot of those mistakes are built into the plan. They give themselves a 'fudge factor' even if they don't know exactly where some of those mistakes will come from.

Maybe it would be Jones and/or Smith. Maybe Kelce's decline would be swift and sudden. I believe they absolutely built a margin for error into their thought process and the failures of Toney/Moore were part of that.

Now to that extent, with both of them, AND with MVS? No, I don't think they counted on that. And had MVS not eventually un****ed himself, it would've been the teams undoing. But as the post-season proved, they built a team that could win without any contributions from Moore and Toney. And it did. So that tells you almost exactly where there margin for error was.

[JPH83]

Originally Posted by RunKC

That's my point. Mahomes is incredible and fixes a whole lot of shit.

WR's already cost us the 1 and 2 seed. Do you think this team wins the SB this year if Joe Burrow, Alex Smith or Josh Allen was the QB? I don't in any way see them doing that. No ****ing way.

It's okay to point out that our top guys made a huge mistake with Toney/Skyy and Mahomes made that shit work.

This has kinda been my position. Having Mahomes is going to make a lot of things bad look OK and a lot of OK look great. But at some point I've got to agree with DJ. If the strategy is fix D and let Mahomes sort the O, it only sounds risky or lucky in a world where Mahomes isn't, well, Mahomes. Apparently he IS going to fix it, with Reid and Kelce. Kudos Veach for believing in the plan, because I sure as s*** didn't at times!

Plus, the defense is pretty damn good. McDuffie, Sneed, Williams, Watson, Chenal, Bolton, Tranquil...it aint perfect coughNnadicough but there's a LOT there he's really done well to acquire.

The next step in greatness for Veach will be winning a SB without Kelce and Jones. He does that and he's maybe the best ever.