Chiefs see Sammy Watkins as another building block toward offensive juggernaut
In an increasingly pass-happy league, the Chiefs are pinning their hopes for the future on building an offensive juggernaut reminiscent of some of the all-time great NFL offenses: the early 2000s Colts or Chiefs, late '90s Rams or even the early-'90s Cowboys.
Dead serious.
How else can you explain their decision to pay a receiver, Sammy Watkins, $18 million per season for the next three years when they had one of the league’s worst defenses last season and just traded away one of the league’s best young corners in Marcus Peters?
Indeed, while the Chiefs’ defense will continue to get younger and faster, coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach figured their best bet to keep winning, at least for the near future, was to double-down on offense.
It' a fun proposition, one that not only sells tickets but also has the practical purpose of ensuring that second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the man Reid and Veach have essentially staked their jobs on, has all the tools he needs to realize his vast potential.
Neither man, Reid nor Veach, could stop smiling during news conferences on Thursday as they introduced Watkins to the media. The enthusiasm was particularly notable from Reid, who has seen and heard it all in his 20 years as an NFL head coach but smiled and joked more with reporters on Thursday than he has in a good, long while.
Fact is, Reid couldn’t be more excited about handing the keys of his offense to Mahomes, who served as an apprentice under five-year starter Alex Smith last season and shined so regularly that reports of his prowess were constantly leaking out of the Chiefs’ typically info-stingy building.
During the week of the Super Bowl, when the Chiefs moved quickly to trade Smith to clear salary-cap space, it was hardly a surprise.
“If (Alex) had to leave here, we wanted him in the best possible situation that he could be in,” Reid said. “(Washington coach) Jay Gruden is one of the top offensive minds in the National Football League. I’m close to that family. I know he’s in good hands.”
The trade would not have been possible, however, if Reid didn’t believe his offense was in equally good hands with Mahomes.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt demands a competitive team, and the decision to hand the offense to Mahomes is an indication that leadership believe he at least gives them a shot to defend their AFC West crown.
The way the Chiefs go about scoring points under Mahomes figures to be a little different, though.
“We will try to utilize his strengths,” Reid said. “One of the things as a coach, that is what you do. You exploit their strengths and you work on things they need to get better at. Will the offense change a little bit? Yeah, it will. It will change a little bit, but that is fitting around his talents.”
Mahomes came from a Texas Tech offense that featured four wideouts on practically every play and was accustomed to chucking the ball 50 times a game or more. In the Chiefs’ win over Denver in their regular-season finale —Mahomes’ only appearances of the season as a rookie — they used a ton of shotgun and three- and four-wide sets, along with plenty of route combinations he was comfortable with from his college days.
“For that game, we molded that game plan around him,” Reid said. “(New quarterbacks coach) Mike Kafka spent a lot of time with him when everybody else was kind of working on the playoff game. We were able to get in there kind of mold it with what we had in the package at that time, mold it around him."
Mahomes’ final stat line of 22 of 35 for 284 yards and an interception in the Denver game was not fully indicative of his performance, as he repeatedly made difficult throws from various platforms — the kind of throws that caused defenders to literally throw their hands in the air.
The hope now is that when the Chiefs throw the ball next season, whoever's in single coverage, be it Watkins, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce or someone else, will be faster than the man covering him.
“We feel like our short and intermediate game, we feel like we aren’t going to decline in that area,” Reid said. “We have guys that can go down the field.”
This will also have a tangible effect on the Chiefs’ downfield passing game. A big reason for the Chiefs’ five-game losing streak during the middle of last season was their inability to complete the deep ball against combinations of zone and press corners.
Defenses might be foolish to defend them that way this year. While Hill’s 4.24 speed discourages teams from pressing him, Watkins’ combination of size (6 feet 1, 214 pounds) and speed (4.34) should, too.
Not that Reid would mind if teams want to give it a go.
“We’d invite that,” Reid said with a laugh.
Reid said Watkins will play the “X” receiver position in his West Coast offense, the spot previously manned by Chris Conley, whose 2017 season ended prematurely because of a torn Achilles. Receivers at that spot often align right on the line of scrimmage, as opposed to a yard off (like Hill at the “Z” position).
With a quarterback who relishes opportunities to throw deep, the Chiefs believe their new-look offense will pose problems for opposing defenses.
Hence the radiant mood of Reid and Veach on Thursday.
“This is a great thing for the Kansas City Chiefs, most of all, and it’s exciting,”Reid said. “The energy in this building is unbelievable right now.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Chiefs see Sammy Watkins as another building block toward offensive juggernaut."