Rough Offseason IN KC

 

            Putting aside my personal biases as a diehard Denver Broncos fan, the two-time Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs, currently find themselves in a prime position to possibly achieve something that has never happened before in the history of the Super Bowl era (GB won three straight titles between 1966-1968, SB era began in 1967).  It’s been 104 years since the NFL has been around, though it was two years after the APFA was established that the NFL adopted its current name.  That being said, the Chiefs are hopeful they can be the first team in league history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.  Last season we saw an omen out of KC in the form of Patrick Mahomes having the most losses he's ever had in a season.  They had issues with their O-line, defensive struggles early in the season, and even a descending Travis Kelce who didn't look up to par early on.  Mahomes receiving core was by far the worst he’s had in his career, leading the league in drops (44 drops, 6.9 drop %).  To better depict just how bad the Chiefs’ WRs were in drops last year let’s look at a couple of other teams with somewhat sub-par wideouts.  One team I think you could consider here is the Pittsburgh Steelers (16), the other is, New England Patriots (23).  Both teams had significantly fewer drops than the Chiefs.  However, you can certainly argue the NFL has become more of a passing league, meaning there will be more opportunities for a higher number of drops with teams passing more and more.

                                Kansas City has won back-to-back Super Bowl titles; however, they have been making a lot of noise around the league since they stepped off the field last season.  The noise has derived from all the unprecedented, troubling things that have been going on around the entire organization, from player incidents to violence, and systematic issues.  Somehow, someway people have even started saying absurd things about HC Andy Ried, comparing him to once Jacksonville Jaguars HC, Urban Myer; longtime college HC (17 seasons for 4 teams).  Though I am sure by now every football fan has heard of Rashee Rice’s incident after the end of last season.  The NFL ruled and announced on Thursday that Rashee Rice will be allowed to play while he awaits the ruling of his legal case.  The NFL would normally place a player on the Commissioner’s Exempt List for instances like this, amongst other reasons.  The C.E.L. is used for players who have had off-field issues, placing this tag on them would keep them off the field while they face those criminal charges.

                                 Rashee Rice had a few incidents since last year’s Super Bowl win.  The first was obviously the car accident that took place on the freeway in Dallas, Texas when Rice caused a six-car crash while recklessly racing, for which he received one count for collision & serious bodily injury, plus six counts of collision that involved more injuries during said six-car crash.  His next incident came when Rice allegedly assaulted a photographer back in the spring at a youth football camp.  These incidents had multiple people scoping into the receiver’s past to see if anything else loomed over him.  They came back with an alleged incident that claims several if not all NFL teams supposedly knew about from Rice’s days at SMU.  It is believed that Rashee apparently believed his girlfriend was seeing another athlete in SMU basketball player Kendric Davis, which led to him firing gunshots into Davis’s empty car.  This is obviously a lot of issues for the Chiefs for just one player and the hope for this gifted young man is that he will mature and walk the right path from here on out, but we will wait to see what happens here with the legal process.

                                Others had issues this offseason as well for the Champs.  Backup Defensive Tackle Isaiah Buggs is facing charges in Tuscaloosa after being arrested in Alabama for both domestic violence & burglary.  Buggs has more than those charges as he also allegedly broke into the mother of his child’s home with a tire iron and then dragged her down a flight of stairs.  Isaiah was arrested twice in three weeks for these two incidents.  Then, come to find out he was being accused of apparent animal cruelty when there were two dogs found locked in his home without food or water.  Someone close to the situation said Buggs had already moved out of that house and never owned dogs.  It is a wild situation, but even if the latter isn’t true, it obviously doesn’t help his situation because of the other crimes he has already committed.  This isn’t all though, as KC’s two offensive tackles were arrested on marijuana charges after reportedly being on the wrong side of state lines.  If you didn’t know, Kansas City is split between both Missouri & Kansas and while weed has been legalized in the state of Missouri, it is still illegal in the state of Kansas. 

                                Over the years Chiefs’ HC Andy Ried has been largely known for giving second chances to many players in the NFL when others would not.  This became the narrative when Andy brought Michael Vick to the Eagles to help him revamp his life and NFL career.  With all this being said, KC went out and signed the accused problematic punter who was alleged of rape against a 17-year-old girl in 2021, though was dismissed last December on such charges.  Another weird move was having ex-Raiders & Buccaneers HC John Gruden at Kansas City’s practice earlier in August when Gruden was seen in all Chiefs apparel.  Coach Ried later told the media that John would not be a part of the coaching staff.  From this article you can see how many odd things have been going on with the team in the past seven months or so and although it doesn’t shed a positive light on the outlook of the organization it is still the Chiefs.  The team that just won two consecutive rings and is probably an early favorite in the eyes of a lot of people to become the only team to possibly win three in a row.