Roster Depth
 

How do you think this year's roster depth compares to the last several years?

It's possibly worse in a couple of areas that show up more in these sort of games. OL for example, we don't have anyone at Allegretti's level, and CB seems like there's a lot of depth but not good depth.

But, overall we're better at WR, TE etc than recent years. DL is exactly as bad as it's always been.

We need more depth on the OL.

That is the one position I've grown worried about. If we can make a trade with a mid-low round pick for swing tackle or G depth I'd do it. Just to be solid we can weather the storm this season...

Yep. OL and CB are concerning for the reasons u mentioned. OL depth is unproven, except for Naing, and he's proven he's terrible. Plus, if Morris is hurt, it makes the depth worse. IMO, they need to bring a vet in.

Regarding the CB's, we're really going to miss Sneed, especially early in the season. None of the other CB's look ready. The saving grace here is that Spags seems to be able to get the most out of young CB talent, and some of the guys could turn into something by the middle or the end of the year.

Completely agree about OL depth. Niang is awful. Nourzad and Hanson are rookies and unproven. Caliendo is below average. We need to sign a guy or two off the street as back ups.

Roster looks a little weaker and not as deep.

I would say it’s shaping up similar to last year, just different major weak spots. For example, I don’t foresee WR being a problem this year, but CB might be. My concern level for DL is the same as last year, but it might be a little more magnified due to the potential weakness at CB. I think our LB and S play is going to be better.

OL is never as deep as you want it to be in the modern league. You’re in great shape if you just really like your starters. I bet our tackle play on both sides is better this year.

Yeah - the secondary is my concern.

Not because I don't think there are some quality players there - but because they sure as shit didn't PLAY like it in the pre-season. These 2nd and 3rd string defensive backs were just god-awful.

Blown coverages, penalties; just mental mistakes left and right. It was pretty damn ugly.

And really, the DL didn't look much better.

Offensively I think they're fine. Oladokun was pretty much garbage yesterday and Book has been a tire fire every time he's taken the field. You just can't learn anything about the offensive depth when the spare QBs are playing that poorly.

But on defense, the DL and DB groups were pretty ragged.

That's my take as well. I expect this team to be better than last year's, but I also expect it to be quite different as well.

I’d like to go ahead and get one of these vets in the building before we have to force something at the trade deadline. At the current trajectory, I would bet about anything we trade for a pass rusher if not a CB by the deadline.

Just address it now with roster cutdowns and maybe they get ahead of the problem. Can you flip a WR for a CB? Surely there’s something out there.

I'm not too worried about Niang because I'm pretty sure he's played his way off the roster.

I kinda wonder if Ethan Driskell won't make the squad. He looked green but he looked talented. That last OT on the roster is going to be a gameday inactive most of the time anyway so if you're going to carry a 4th OT, why not have it be a developmental guy with 4 years of team control who has size and athleticism vs. Niang who's a pending FA and seemingly has...nothing?

I probably try to sneak CJ Hanson through on waivers (if we lose him, we'll find someone just like him next year) and get him to the PS. Driskell is someone I'd keep though - not a lot of dudes his size that can move like he can. I'd take that sort of raw clay over a known non-factor like Niang.

I find this post by Teicher HILARIOUS!


"Chiefs: After major roster changes at wide receiver during the offseason, when the Chiefs added speed in veteran free agent Marquise Brown and rookie Xavier Worthy, a first-round draft pick, the additions echoed throughout the depth chart. On top of that, former Super Bowl stars such as Mecole Hardman and Kadarius Toney are fighting for roster spots. Toney made a strong case Thursday against the Bears with his best preseason game, catching two passes for 26 yards and returning a punt for 16 yards." -- Adam Teicher

I wish they'd just kept Sneed.

Just off the top of my head I would say the offensive line isn't as deep as it was last year, because I don't think Caliendo is as good as Allegretti, and while I think Kingsley is going to be a stud, as I have stated I would have taken him in the 1st if no receiver was there, and we couldn't trade down, Smith is a steady veteran, and had a proven baseline of performance.


I would also say the secondary is kinda a mystery, too, because Spags has said no one has really stepped up to be that clear number two, plus Cook is coming off of an injury. I feel like Hicks is going to be very good, but he is a rookie and we really don't know how Spags is going to use him yet.

But, as a team, I feel like the roster is deeper. The WR is obviously much better, and although I wish McKinnon was back, I think the RB group might actually be better this year with the addition of Steele.

And, I also think the backup QB got a pretty sizeable upgrade as well.

He’d be great to have of course but I find it very hard to believe that he’s going to maintain that level of play moving forward. He doesn’t practice anymore and I don’t care what he says, that’s not confidence inducing about the knee. Eventually it’s gonna go.

I am somewhat concerned about the corner position, I think Josh Williams will be decent as the #2, but nobody else has seemed to step up. Haven't heard much about Nazeeh Johnson which is a little surprising. I'm not sure what the hell happened to Jaylen Watson, but I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't even make the team after what we saw yesterday. Dude looks like he forgot how to play football. Hopefully, it's just rust.

We seem to have found an absolute stud in Hicks at safety, maybe they can work him in as an extra DB instead of a corner in their sub packages. He needs to be on the field as much as possible. I'm not overly concerned about interior o-line, simply because you're looking at them as a group during these games, and that would never be the case during the regular season. You're not going to have to play more than 1 of the backups at a time (hopefully), and they'll be surrounded by studs. It will look much different in the real games.

What we just paid Creed could have gone to Sneed. We'll find out pretty quickly just how valuable LJ was. Hate to say it, but I think we're going to feel it more than people wanted to admit. He was an absolute freaking badass stud, you simply can't replace what he brought to the table.

Here's where I am.

Would I rather have Sneed at $18 million or Creed at $18 million?

Gimme Sneed. Buuuuuuut - I have zero concerns about Creed's availability or how he'll age. In fact, I'm bummed out that all we got was 4 years on the Creed deal (my god, if you're giving him that much money, how do you not get a 5th year out of it?).

Creed's gonna age really nicely and he's always available. Sneed is...not. He's not always available and he's not gonna age well.

So if I thought I'd get 2023 Sneed again in 2024, I'd rather have kept him than extend Creed. Ultimately I just don't know that I am.

What I really wish we had was Joey Porter Jr. playing CB2 for us instead of FAU at DE5.

If you're keeping 4 tackles, one has to be Driskell. Niang is utterly worthless and in the last year of his deal. Zero point in keeping him.

Yeah - Niang is one of my first and easiest cuts.

That dude just never developed a bit and never seemed to give much of a shit about it.

Some dudes get drafted and think they've 'arrived' - Niang appears to be one of those guys. He simply hasn't ever treated this like a job, IMO.

He acts as though making the NFL was the task in front of him. And when you have a guy like Travis Kelce who openly and loudly says "Making the NFL is easier than STAYING in the NFL" I just don't know how you have that attitude. There are maybe 5 guys in the NFL with a safer roster spot than that dude and he shows up acting like he still needs to earn his spot now in his 12th season in the league.

How do you work alongside a guy like that and not rise to his level? By being a bum that doesn't belong in the league, that's how.

This one is an easy call. Niang isn't on my roster even if we DON'T keep Driskell. He's just gone.

And let Jones and Kelce not get paid. Creed money was needed. Hell no.

I think we’d all agree there in hindsight but man one thing that I can’t understand is how bent outta shape some — especially on socials — get about a missed pick like FAU.

If we’re using the same criteria to eval other picks — whether they flash special talent or not — hell, it’s looking like we picked up a long term LT, a game changing WR, and a star in the making at S in this draft class alone.

Can’t win ‘em all, but KC is drafting as good as anybody in the league right now especially when you weight it against draft position.

Thats just the overall organizational synergy coming out. Everything is clicking from scouts to coaches to players, and it’s allowing a lot of guys to reach their ceilings IMO.

When your qb is making what ours does along with what else we pay, missing on a first round pick is pretty tough.

This regime is good enough to make up for it so it won’t be a huge deal to be honest as they’ll hit on someone else

Spot on, even if FAU busts, it doesn't change how amazing Veach has been. People need to try and remember how things used to be, where pretty much anyone picked beyond the 3rd round was basically camp fodder for this organization.

Teicher is just clueless

Sneed getting paid less than Creed Humphrey. I don't get why you would pay Creed and not Sneed. I would let both of them walk but if you choose one its Sneed.

I don't really think there is a ton of reasons to be concerned.

On the offensive line, I think you get Donavan Smith back and you suddenly feel pretty good about things. Does it help you at guard? No, but I think we have enough depth. The problem is there is no depth at the LT position.

Corner, I'm not going to freak out. We have depth, we just don't have two studs. Its an adjustment in expectations more than anything.

Running Back, this is the area of concern for me. Would love to bring is someone and we need to just be done with CEH. Steele needs to be RB3.

Yeah, we are going for a 3peat. There is a reason its not been done, not by the legendary teams like the 70's Steelers, Montana's 49'rs, Cowboys of the 90's.They couldn't get it done. Has anyone done the research as to why those teams couldn't pull off the 3peat?

We paid several key people but cant keep them all. If it wasn't for Veach's drafting we'd be in worse shape. We are going to be thin as shit at some positions. One of our key players gets hurt, it will lower our chances. But, as long as Mahomes gets the ball last, no matter the situation, he'll bring the win home.

Yeah so about Sneed. People here would be bitching about the guy not doing anything in camp again bc his knee is a problem. Chiefs may have gotten out at the right time. These things don’t get better with age.

What does L'Jarius Sneed do, actually? Update on Tennessee Titans CB who doesn't practice

https://www.aol.com/does-ljarius-sne...183512331.html

We make up for a relatively mundane hit rate in the 1st round by pretty pretty damn outstanding in the middle and late rounds. So that's something.

But boy, you'd like to see those 1sts be a little more impactful. McDuffie and GK cure a lot of ills. And Worthy can as well. About a 50% hit rate is...fine.

But it does seem strange that a team that does so well in the middle/back of the draft seems to be pretty ordinary (not bad, just ordinary) with its earliest picks.

It makes me wonder if they don't focus more on need with that first pick than they do everywhere else. And if that doesn't give them a bit of a handicap making those picks.

Watson and Williams are passable boundary corners. Watson specifically has always reminded me of Bashaud Breeland. A solid outside corner who isn’t gonna be William Bartee level bad. I would actually extend the kid to a fair deal assuming he wants to stay and his market doesn’t explode (why would it?).

The problem is Watson had labrum surgery this off-season. Yes he looked bad last night, but he’s rusty. That’s a tough injury to come back from. And Nazeeh is coming back from a knee injury.

I think what scares me the most is RB3. If Pacheco gets hurt then that offense changes. Love Steele, but he’s not a starting back, and that’s okay. I want a shifty RB at RB3 who can catch passes out go the backfield.

Even though the backup OL wasn’t good, I think we’re okay with Wanya being OL6 as a G/swing T and Caliendo is okay as OL7 to me while the 2 rookies with promise (Driskell/Nourzad) hit the weight room to prepare for 2025.

And yeah FAU has not looked good, but bringing Danna back really does help. And Omenihu will be back roughly mid season, so I’m not sure I’d go for a DE. If you do Ngakoue is out there.

Oh sure.

But it's like saying "Man, Mahomes really needs to get more loft on his deep passes" early in his career.

Because Mahomes left some meat on the bones with the deep ball early in his career. It wasn't an indictment - merely a curiosity. And he's gotten better with those throws as he's gotten more experience (though his weapons have fallen off a fair bit in the interim prior to this year).

You just wanna figure out the why of it in the hopes you can get that weakness covered off a bit.

Teams concerned over the knee might explain not getting a 2nd rounder but settling for a 3rd.

Yeah.

It may be one of those things like we used to do at QB.

"Well just get a franchise quarterback!!!" as though there's a supermarket where you can just pick them up . Sometimes reality simply doesn't make the option we want available to us.

I think we would've all loved to have '23 Sneed back for another 3 years. But the reality is that he almost certainly peaked last year and that version of him is going to be intermittent at best going forward.

What we wanted, we just couldn't have. The knee will intervene.

Sucks - because that dude is a success story through and through. And a FANTASTIC player and teammate when healthy. I just don't know what you can reasonably expect from him going forward.

The pass rush should help the secondary a lot. This team had high sack totals in 2022 and 2023. Plus, I don't think the secondary is a big concern. It's not like 2018 or 2019 level, where it was mostly substandard players. The main group of CBs has been together several years now. Last year the secondary was as good as you're getting in today's NFL. You can't expect that to last long. So it won't be 2023 level but shouldn't be bad either.

The DT, and OL depth is a bigger worry if anyone gets hurt.

How was Niang supposed to develop after he skipped his rookie season? That wasn't going to end well.

Hm.

You're not wrong.

Chiefs were 2nd in the league in sacks both years. I would've lost a bar bet on that one.

Just didn't feel like they had a real nasty pass rush apart from blitzing guys and then the occasional games where Jones would simply take over.

Fair point. Though I do wonder how much the secondary (and coverage sacks) assisted with that. We shall see.

I mean, Kelce effectively skipped his rookie season as well. It delayed his development but didn't stop it.

And by most accounts, Niang was always expected to effectively take the season off anyway due to the hip injury.

He's had 3 seasons since to get better and just hasn't.

When Niang skipped the first year and then came back in 2021 fat as ****, it wasn’t looking good.

He just doesn’t got it. I’d say he’s been 10 mins early to team meal more often than he’s been early to the team meetings.

Was it the hip, COVID, or both?

For Kelce, it was injury that caused him to miss his rookie season. Also, Kelce is an outlier. Missing the rookie season and not playing an actual game for a year doesn't sound like a great way to adapt to the NFL.

I'm over Niang. He was a 3rd round pick that hasn't improved. That's not unusual in the NFL. Just got off on the wrong foot.

It's fine. No different than ANY NFL team

Rumor was a little from Column A, a little from Column B. The hip was going to make it extremely unlikely that he was able to contribute before mid-season anyway and so the Chiefs were happy to have him use the COVID exemption to retain his rights for the extra year since the contract effectively tolled for those that used the COVID pass.

Had he not done so, he probably opens the season on IR anyway and they consider activating him over the last few weeks.

Just like Speaks.

When you have a shot and you come in out of shape, I just don't have much use for you. Veterans typically learn how to 'play their way into shape' but these young guys don't.

When Niang had a clear path to the RT job and came in having clearly spent the off-seeason eating instead of rehabbing, that was a real bad look. Speaks did the same thing the year we got a new DC and he had a chance to finally play a position that fit his skill-set. Instead he took the spring/summer off and came into camp looking like a dude who didn't treat his job like a job.

A guy on a rookie deal showing up to camp out of shape is almost invariably a really bad sign.

It’s gonna be like 2018 again — PM15 just letting it ****ing fly.

There it is. The freak out and bring Donovan smith back.

You guys are hilarious.

A lot of that came from blitzing

Which with this secondary could be more of an issue

Also why is Steele not a rb2? Seems pretty good to me?

This defense is much better than 2018. Shouldn't hopefully need 35+ to win every game.

I think what folks want is a pass-catching back at RB3 more than they want some massive improvement at RB2.

Because yeah, Steele can be an RB2 as a short-term Pacheco replacement. He's obviously not as good, but that's the nature of backups. He's a physical runner that will pick up what's blocked and punish dudes for not coming correct into the hole. Pacheco-Light. That's fine.

People want a replacement McKinnon and we don't have one. Honestly, I don't see one in FA at all. That said, the team hasn't really been trying to get their hands on one either. The draft was loaded with guys like that (is every year) and they didn't so much as look to bring one in as a UDFA.

They just don't seem to really give a shit. Though honestly, Steele's hands have looked pretty decent. The biggest issue is pass pro. Damien Harris seemed to be the best option out there but claims to have retired. And if we didn't bring one in for camp, we clearly aren't that concerned.

I’d love to have a cmc or Kamara or a speed guy or whatever at rb but anymore….just give me a guy with good vision and balance.

I don’t care about flash. Give me 4-5 yards a pop with the occasional burst.

Backups seem to be the same year to year... bad angles, arm tackles, limited DL pressure, OL poor blocking, CBs never look back and look lost, etc. I suppose this is just the price of success.

I don't think its strange at all. Part of it is simply where we are drafting paired with what our team needs are. When you are drafting late, like last in the first round and your needs are DE, you are going to assume some risk in drafting one at that spot. There is just no way around it.

But this 50% hit rate stuff is bull shit.

Since 2017 when we traded up to draft Mahomes, we have only had 5 picks. We hit on McDuffie and Karlaftis, and feel great about Worthey. FDU is a giant question mark, but again, we took a shot at filling our greatest need at a Primier position. Would you feel better if we had drafted a guard, linebacker, or WR? Maybe, but we would have an epic hole at DE. FDU gets this season to show us wether or not he was a bad pick.

The CEH pick is the one that was just straight up awful. That is the pick, that still hurts us today, especially due to the position he plays. Giant ****ing waste of a pick and I still can't believe we brought him back. Honestly if we just took any of the dudes who went in round 2 we would be miles ahead. Its easy to say, can you imagine Tee Higgins, Pittman on this roster, but really anyone in round two would have been a massive improvement.

I think our years with no first round pick, 2018, 2019, and 2021 really messes with peoples perception of the Chiefs 1st round success. The second round is a crap shoot, just because Hardman was our top draft pick doesn't mean he should be a can't miss prospect.

I love him on the roster, but I just think if you end up in a situation where he is the starting running back you are in trouble. We absolutely need a change of pace back, but especially so if POP were to be unavailable.



And wanting to bring in Donavan Smith to provide insurance is not a freak out...

Shrug. Don’t know what to tell ya, man. Veach is going to have some first round misses.

If that’s “pretty tough” for you you’re going to have to deal with it.

No hitter in baseball bats 1.000 and neither does any GM in sports

I'd be interested to see how many of those sacks came from rushing four only. You could make the case that is was much easier to blitz last year because you could leave Sneed out there on an island with the best WR.

Darrell Taylor would have been a good trade. Only a 6th and he has production.

Would have done that for sure