By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

October 11, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Following a nightmarish 43-14 Week 4 loss to Pittsburgh, the Kansas City Chiefs were on bye during Week 5. This Sunday in Oakland, we’ll find out whether the week off allowed the Chiefs to clear their heads, or more cynically, if it forced them to agonize over their many inadequacies.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is 15-2 during his career in the week directly following a bye, but if he wants to parlay his bye week magic into a successful 2016 campaign, he’ll need the Chiefs to accomplish the following five tasks over the remainder of the season:

1. Find a #2 receiver:

It’s no surprise that Jeremy Maclin currently leads the Chiefs with 37 targets and 244 total receiving yards. It is somewhat surprising, though, that tight end Travis Kelce paces the team with 22 catches and two touchdowns. What’s more, running back Spencer Ware leads all pass-catchers with four receptions of greater than 20 yards, while ranking third on the team in receiving yards.

Part of the problem is that Chris Conley is averaging just 43 receiving yards per game, has hauled in just one pass of more than 20 yards, and has yet to reach the end zone in 2016. If the Chiefs are to rebound and reach the postseason, this trend cannot continue. Kansas City invested a 3rd-round pick in Conley during the 2015 draft with the expectation that the University of Georgia product could bolster the team’s underwhelming receiving corps. While many are still excited about Conley’s talent, the numbers haven’t yet caught up to the hype.

The result is that the Chiefs are, once again, woefully inadequate when it comes to throwing the ball downfield. In four games, Kansas City receivers have recorded just three receptions of 20 yards or more. In order to keep defenses honest – and to open up more space for Maclin – the Chiefs will need Conley, third-year wideout Albert Wilson, or rookie speedster Tyreek Hill to take a great leap forward.

2. Get more production from rookies

While Tyreek Hill was most well-known at the time of the NFL Draft for his troubling legal history, on the football field he has been the lone rookie to make his mark so far. Aside from displaying a talent for returning kicks (although some of his best efforts have been negated by penalties), Hill has proven to be a weapon at wide receiver, as evidenced by his pair of early touchdown catches.

Touted second-round pick Chris Jones hasn’t recorded a single solo tackle all season, and has just five assisted tackles thus far. Third-round pick KeiVarae Russell was mysteriously cut before the preseason, as was former Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan, a fifth-round selection. Fourth-round picks Eric Murray and Demarcus Robinson have played primarily on special teams, while fourth-round guard Parker Ehinger has played sparingly since suffering a concussion ahead of Kansas City’s Week 2 matchup with the Houston Texans.

Sixth-round cornerback D.J. White did record an interception against the Jets, which is practically cause for a ticker tape parade when compared to the performances of his contemporaries. Still, much more is needed from the 2016 class if the Chiefs are to turn around their fortunes.

3. Bide more time for Alex Smith to improvise

One of the great joys of Kansas City’s late-season resurgence in 2015 was seeing quarterback Alex Smith evade defenders on his way to racking up 498 total rushing yards. During the team’s 10-game win streak to close the season, Smith averaged 37.9 rushing yards per game, only twice being held below 20 yards on the ground. In the four games to start 2016, however, Smith has been held to just 16 total rush yards.

Sure, some of the drop-off can be attributed to chance, or a desire to keep Smith healthy, but it can also be attributed to failures in pass protection. The Chiefs have already allowed 13 sacks, and Smith has completed just nine passes of 20 yards or more. For the sake of comparison, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan completed fives passes longer than 20 yards to star wide receiver Julio Jones alone during Atlanta’s Week 4 win over Carolina. The Chiefs need to do better in pass protection, and Smith’s receivers need to do their part to lessen his burden.

4. Start rushing the passer

Here’s a novel concept. Ben Roethlisberger just eviscerated the Chiefs defense for 300 yards passing and five touchdowns in Week 4, so a focus on creating more pressure seems like a worthwhile endeavor. If you’re desperately hunting for positives following that troubling road performance, you might find a silver lining in the fact that the Chiefs did sack Big Ben twice. While two sacks is traditionally little to brag about, it was only one fewer sack than Kansas City registered during the first three weeks of 2016 combined. So there’s that.

During his historic 2014 campaign, notably absent pass rusher Justin Houston matched the Chiefs’ 2016 production by himself – recording five sacks through the first four weeks. That statistic isn’t an anomaly, either: four players have already eclipsed five sacks during the 2016 season. Word on the street is that Houston will be back sometime in November, and it can’t happen soon enough. The pass rush has looked lost in his stead, and there’s little reason to believe it will improve dramatically without his presence.

5. Let Jamaal Charles loose

Perhaps the easiest solution to erasing (or at least softening) the memory of the 43-14 loss to Pittsburgh will be to fully unleash Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles against the Raiders. Charles racked up a scant seven yards of offense against the Steelers, and only carried the ball twice. Moving forward, that’s not going to cut it. Thankfully, all indications are that the Chiefs agree, and that Charles is set for a major bump in workload.

While football fans who follow the Chiefs primarily through their preferred fantasy football apps might not have noticed, Spencer Ware has been somewhat problematic in the early going. Sure, he’s been a pleasant surprise as a pass-catcher, and yes, his 5.3 yards per carry are impressive, but there’s a catch: Ware has also lost three fumbles in four games, including in three straight contests since his breakout Week 1 performance against the Chargers. That’s unacceptable for a starting running back in the NFL.

This week’s game against Oakland should be especially tantalizing for Charles, as the Raiders are one of the worst teams in the league against the run. They rank 30th in the NFL with 4.9 yards allowed per attempt, and 28th with 610 total rush yards allowed. If Charles and the rest of the Chiefs can’t take advantage of that matchup, then perhaps it really is time to start agonizing over those inadequacies.