Chiefs training camp (over)reactions: the deep ball is back
Chiefs training camp (over)reactions: the deep ball is back
There's a clear intention for this year's offense, and it's down the field.
As NFL training camps move forward, everyone is hanging on every single rep in camp to try and figure out what it will all mean when the season starts. With that spirit of (over)reaction in mind, I thought it’d be fun to write a few times (or more) during camp about things that catch my eye and give us all a chance to dive into the fray of training camp takes. So welcome to training camp (over)reactions, where we break down in absurd detail reps that may mean nothing… but have just enough “meat” to them to possibly mean SOMETHING.
It’s no secret that the Kansas City Chiefs want to revive the deep ball in 2024.
It’s easily the most obvious area that needs improvement in an offense that took a large step backwards in 2023 (despite the team managing to once again hoist the Lombardi Trophy). While the offense as a whole wasn’t TERRIBLE by any stretch of the imagination, it was only “above average” statistically (a far cry from what Chiefs fans have grown accustomed to in the Mahomes era) and was prone to long stretches of… what’s the word? grossness? Let’s go with grossness.
While there were multiple issues that caused the step backwards for the Chiefs’ offense, the largest one was the disappearance of the deep ball as even a realistic threat in their arsenal. I wrote at length back in May about how Kansas City’s lack of ability to effectively stretch the field had consequences that reverberated throughout the entire offense. It’s worth revisiting (or reading for the first time if you haven’t seen it yet), as I walked through exactly how “dink and dunk” the offense became, and how much it affected every facet of that side of the ball when teams realized there was no one who could hurt them consistently down the field. As I wrote then, it’s about more than just one or two big plays a game.
Even worse, as defenses slowly caught on that things had changed in Kansas City, they felt more comfortable utilizing aggressive man coverage looks without as much deep safety help OR zone looks that crept closer to the line of scrimmage without the “shells” deep that Mahomes had seen since 2019 (in other words, being less fearful of a WR finding the gap down the field and crowding shallow/intermediate zones). Which in turn made those short throws that the Chiefs lived on in 2022 significantly harder to complete. The lever effect, remember? A lack of a deep ball makes everything else harder on offense.
Running the ball is harder without a legitimate deep ball threat. Passing the ball anywhere else gets tougher, too, as teams can hammer those shallow and intermediate routes. We all saw it happen last season.
Which makes what we’re seeing in Andy Reid’s training camp this year completely, totally unsurprising as they look to emphasize bringing back the deep ball. Let’s (over)react to what we’re seeing in training camp, shall we? Because of all the things we’re seeing so far, this might be the part that will actually matter the most once the games start getting real.