Trent McDuffie, Orlando Brown, and a lot Moore (get it?); The 10 most interesting Chiefs against the Bears

Counting down the players I'll be keeping the closest eye on Saturday, and what I'll be looking for from them.

Just a few more days, and we get to watch Chiefs football again.

I’m excited, you’re excited, we’re all excited. The 2022 season finally feels like it’s arrived (it never quite feels real to me until I’m talking about an upcoming game, even a preseason one). While we all know that preseason games are glorified scrimmages, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to take away from them. I wrote earlier this week how to find meaning in meaningless games. The short story is this; Look at players, not plays. View the process/traits, not results.

With that in mind, it makes sense to talk about what players I’m the most interested in watching/reviewing Saturday against the Bears. I settled for 10 as a healthy number to make me seem more like a rational human being, even though the real number of players I’m excited to watch is closer to 60. The goal here is to lay out what players may have an outsized impact on the 2022 season (who are also more unknowns) and what specifically I’ll be looking for from them.

First, though, let’s look at a few honorable mentions with some brief blurbs (because seriously, people, 10 isn’t enough. Who chose that number anyways?) as to why I’m especially intrigued by them.

Ronald Jones - The forgotten man in the running back room was, not too long ago, looked at as a guy who brought a different skillset to the Chiefs. I’m curious if he gets looks behind the 1st team line and what he does with them paving the way.

Joshua Williams / Jaylen Watson - The rookie cornerbacks both share good size/length as a trait that appears well-suited for Spagnuolo’s defense, and Watson’s college film was significantly better than one would expect for a 7th rounder. Williams has turned some heads at training camp and is a great athlete for his size, but is facing a HUGE jump from his college competition. Seeing either perform at a competent level even against backups would be intriguing.

Leo Chenal - Another rookie (there will be a few of those guys here, obviously) who will need to answer a very specific question. In his case, it’s specifically “can he show change of direction skills to play in coverage and force Spagnuolo to get him on the field early.” He’s fighting for snaps as the SAM ‘backer, and if he can get on the field it should help the run defense given what he’s shown as a physical player who can close on the ball well.

All right, enough with the other guys. Let’s look at the top 10, starting with a right tackle who, from all appearances, at least has a shot at taking a starting job.