ESPN: NFL's best and worst offensive arsenals: 32-1 weapons ranking

[jaa1025]

ESPN

1. Kansas City Chiefs
This has been building one year at a time for the Chiefs, who were relying on players such as Charcandrick West and Jason Avant as meaningful weapons during their playoff run in 2015. It starts with Travis Kelce, who is the consensus second-best tight end in the league behind Gronkowski. In 2016, the Chiefs added Tyreek Hill, who graduated from his gadget return man role as a rookie into a real-deal wideout last season by posting a 75-1,183-7 line. Andy Reid & Co. drafted Kareem Hunt last season, and the running back produced 1,782 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, which was the 10th-best mark for a debuting runner in league history. The Chiefs likely will give him snaps off more frequently with the return of Spencer Ware, but Hunt already is one of the league's best backs.


It's hard to find a team that can say it's paying its fourth-best weapon $16 million per year, and, in part, that's because the Chiefs probably overpaid Sammy Watkins. If we ignore the money and the hype surrounding Watkins coming out of Clemson, it's accurate enough to say that Patrick Mahomes' fourth-best weapon is a 25-year-old guy who averaged just over 80 receiving yards per game in 2015 and turned nine red zone targets into seven touchdowns last season. The upside for Watkins is still as a legitimate No. 1 receiver in an offense that already has two of them.

While we can never truly know whether a young quarterback would develop into a star in any situation, it's hard to imagine what else Patrick Mahomes could ask for than Reid as a coach and this bevy of talent as targets. Every team is susceptible to injuries, and Mahomes will have growing pains, but no offense has as much upside across the board at the skill-position spots as these Chiefs.

[ToxSocks]

Everyone be patient. If Mahomes is what we think he is, these ****as gonna be lip locked on the Chiefs cock for the next 15+ years.

[Kiimo]

Cowherd does like...zero research. See: Baker Mayfield interview

[big nasty kcnut]

Originally Posted by Pawnmower

Me when i see hunt and ware in the backfield this year!

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

So basically every move Veech made is a reach at best- we are doomed to suck on defense?

Didn't say that. I said that on defense we subtracted our best player and the personnel adds we've made are speculative.

Saying the defense has the potential to take a step forward after lying dead on the bottom of the sea for about 3 years now would be reasonable. Saying it's definitely better and only an idiot doesn't think it's a top unit now is not reasonable.

We did not LOSE Peters- we shipped him out of here. Your assessment of Peters being our MVP is complete hyperbole and does not even come close to what Andy, Sutton, and the front office thought about this locker room cancer.

Peters was on the team and now he's not. The defense's best player is gone. That's what a loss is.

Your idea that he wasn't the defense's MVP is homeristic nonsense. Peters is one the league's best cover corners. Peters accounted for 11 of the team's 26 takeaways last year - he had 5 interceptions, 4 forced fumbles, and 2 fumble recoveries. No one else was even close in production, and that's just on turnovers. It doesn't even count what Peters brought by causing QBs not to throw his way or by dictating to the offense in ways Fuller is not going to be able to do right away, if ever.

No argument can be made for anyone else being the defensive MVP last year.

Peters had more turnovers than Houston had sacks. Jones had fewer sacks than Houston, and had exactly one multi-sack game.

You can call him a locker room cancer and he definitely was one, but no one can argue that he wasn't the highest performer on the defense last year or that we have done anything that will replace that production.

Most of what you said- could also apply to Every team in the NFL. Vets are a year older with no guarantee they will play the same or stay healthy. Defenses are loaded with "unproven players" - (It is called the NFL draft) that they hope will step in. You are right about the Chiefs defense being terrible and needing a complete overhaul.

To completely assume it will suck again is just looking at it with a jaded point of view. We got younger, faster and more aggressive on defense and dumped our non-tackling CB and replaced him one that is a Team Player. All great moves in the right direction.

I'm not making any assumptions. What I said is true of every team. The odds are against ALL rookies. They are also against all veteran players who are over 30 maintaining their form, against those who are recovering from major injuries later in their career, against journeyman players suddenly becoming difference makers, or rookies in the secondary becoming impact players immediately.

All those things apply to every team. The hopes and dreams of Chiefs fans that this is a great unit are all hung on 6 or 7 guys who are coin flips at best all coming up heads.

And even then, this was a bottom of the league defense last year. Even if Veach can see the future and had a perfect draft and a perfect score in free agency, it's going to take more than one year to overhaul this mess.

I am optimistic on the whole, but expressing any reservation that this team became an instant contender by shipping Peters out and adding some rookies causes your head to be bitten off by the more ardent homers.

It's still Reid, Sutton, and most of the same personnel, minus their MVP. They are going to have to go out there and prove it if they are going to be some kind of worst to first unit as the homers suggest.