George Karlaftis vs the Cardinals; Some good, some "needs improvement," and a lot of promise
The rookie got a lot of buzz this week for collecting multiple pressures on Kyler Murray after being thrown right into the fire. How did he hold up on a snap by snap basis?
The Chiefs didn’t wait long to get George Karlaftis into the mix.
The Chiefs’ first-round rookie defensive end was second on the defense in snaps in his very first NFL game. That was partly a function of some of the starters resting late in the game after Kansas City put it out of reach, but it’s also worth noting that Karlaftis was on the field as a starter as well. While there was talk during training camp of easing him in, and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a history of letting rookies come along slowly, Karlaftis was an exception (as were a few other players, but I digress).
And at least based on the conversation following the game, he didn’t disappoint.
(Shield your eyes, Chiefs fans who are mad at PFF, there’s a stat from them incoming!)
We could have a good discussion right now on the difference between quantitative stats (like hits/pressures on the QB) vs qualitative snaps (like “grades” of a player’s overall performance), but I’ll just say as a preview of where we’re about to go that the “6 pressures” stat backs up my own charting (I had 5 pressures and 1 hit on the QB). He also provided some help as a complementary pass rusher, which started early.
We’ll talk more about this snap (the second of his pro career) in a moment, but it was fun to see someone helping Jones crush the pocket.
However, while pressures are definitely a more telling stat than sacks, they’re not the end-all-be-all. How those pressures came to be matter (were they schemed? Were they the results of 1x1 wins? Were they the results of a broken play?), as well as how a player performs on a snap by snap basis.
So with that in mind, with the Chargers looming (checks watch) TONIGHT I thought I’d roll through Karlaftis’s snaps against the Cardinals, charting every play for wins/losses/neutral snaps against the pass and the run, as well as charting pressures/hits/sacks, run game stuffs, and effective double teams drawn. Let’s talk those numbers, then talk about where Karlaftis showed out as well as where he needs some improvement moving forward.