Chiefs’ Charcandrick West impresses Lions’ nose tackle

Detroit Lions nose tackle Haloti Ngata barely heard the beginning of the question, which began with — “You’ve seen Jamaal Charles before…” — before he couldn’t help but pipe up.

“Yeah, that guy is amazing,” Ngata said.

Ngata, a 10-year veteran who spent his first nine seasons with Baltimore, has faced Charles three times in his career, all Ravens wins. In those games, Charles rushed 47 times for 230 yards, an average of 4.9 yards per carry.

Needless to say, Ngata isn’t upset the Lions won’t be facing Charles — who is out for the year with a torn ACL — this week.

“It’s really different, it’s really different,” Ngata said of the Chiefs’ offense. “You could put Jamaal out as a receiver and use him out there. Put him in the backfield and he can do so many different things. But he’s just so fast, so elusive.

“I’m not mad that he’s not playing.”

But Ngata also noted that Charles’ replacement ― second-year pro Charcandrick West ― was pretty impressive in his own right last week, when he rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown in 22 carries in the Chiefs’ 23-13 win over the Steelers.

“He’s actually really good, too,” Ngata said. “I don’t think people were expecting that out of him. He’s a great player and did a good job. Hopefully we don’t let him do that.”

Ngata credited the Chiefs’ rebuilt offensive line for some of West’s success.

“They did a great job last week against Pittsburgh,” Ngata said. “They were able to be physical enough to run the ball, and West did a great job at running the ball. He had over a hundred yards and a lot of that was because of their I-line ― they did a great job of putting the right guys in the right places.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Charcandrick West impresses Lions’ nose tackle."