The Kansas City Chiefs just signed wide receiver Josh Gordon, but they still have things they need to address.
The Kansas City Chiefs made noise late Monday afternoon signing recently reinstated wide receiver Josh Gordon. The former All-pro receiver has demonstrated the ability to be an explosive weapon when available. He doesn’t even have to come close to the player he once was to add to this explosive Kansas City offense.
While the prospect of his near peak talent in this offense concerns other teams, the Kansas City Chiefs still have their own concerns to address even after this signing.
3 things Chiefs still need to fix
1. Pass Rush
Through three games, Kansas City only has four team sacks, putting them last in the league, excluding the teams who play tonight on Monday Night Football. While sacks isn’t the only measure of a quality pass rush, a look at a Chiefs game will show you they’ve been pretty ineffective in rushing the passer.
This struggle was really highlighted against the Baltimore Ravens, a game where Kansas City only recorded one sack. Prior to facing the Chiefs, the Ravens allowed three sacks to the Las Vegas Raiders and four sacks to the Detroit Lions a week after facing Kansas City.
With a vulnerable offensive line in front of them, they were only able to get home once. With big contract players like Chris Jones and Frank Clark on the defensive line, the Chiefs will need them available and productive.
2. Rushing Defense
Majority of the other contending teams in the AFC are built around a strong run game. In the first three weeks of the season, Kansas City has already faced two of them and struggled greatly. In Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns, the Chiefs gave up 153 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns, allowing 5.9 yards a carry. In Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens they allowed 251 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 6.1 yards a carry.
Allowing teams to run wild like that is not a sustainable formula for success. It forces the offense to be perfect in the limited time that they have the ball. While that may seem fine since they have Mahomes and a loaded offense, they shouldn’t want to always bank on that as the season goes on. The results in the first two weeks against the Browns and Ravens showed how risky of a method that is.
