Former NFL cornerback: ‘I’m all in’ on Chiefs in ‘21 despite offensive line changes
A year ago, the Chiefs’ rallying cry was “Run It Back” as nearly everyone was expected to return for the 2020 season.
It’ll be a different story in 2021, particularly on the offensive line, which will undergo a massive change from the previous season. The Chiefs released tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz but signed free-agent guards Joe Thuney and Kyle Long, along with former Rams center Austin Blythe.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will be back after sitting out the 2020 season to help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucas Niang also skipped last season after being picked in the third round of the NFL Draft.
The Chiefs are expected to select a tackle in this year’s draft, too, which means they potentially could have a completely different starting offensive line from Super Bowl LV. In that 31-9 loss, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes constantly was on the run from the Buccaneers’ pass rush.
Was that a sign of things to come in the future?
Former Washington/Falcons cornerback De’Angelo Hall doesn’t think so. Hall believes the Chiefs will again contend for a Super Bowl championship and took note of dropped passes, including two potential touchdowns against Tampa Bay.
“I mean if you saw Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl without his two starting tackles still going out there and making plays, I feel like if they would have caught some of those balls that he was miraculously just throwing around, you know, it’s a different ballgame,” Hall said Wednesday on “Good Morning Football’ on the NFL Network.
“So when you see this Chiefs roster, oh my goodness, you know when that man Patrick Mahomes is throwing the football and there is so much speed on the outside, as a defender who’s had to cover that live, I mean it is tough. Because a lot of these DBs in the league, they’re playing games; they really can’t run. So in this draft there is a lot of speed and that’s what I think is so intriguing because a lot of these DBs are 4.6 or 4.5 guys and so when the Chiefs line up out there, they put you in a predicament because you can’t play man against all of that speed.
“And so for me, they just needed to kind of shore up up front. You’ve got to protect Patrick Mahomes. You feel like if you can protect him, you’ll always have a chance, and I think they did a good enough job. I’m still interested to see kind of what happens in the draft, figure out where they move, guys, across the offensive line. ... Some guys (are) coming back. So I’m just really interested to see where guys plug and play, but I’m all in on the Chiefs, man. Yes, with Andy Reid out there calling plays and Patrick Mahomes throwing that football.”
Peter Schrager, who has been an unabashed Mahomes fan since the 2018 season, is not so sure the Chiefs will be fine.
Here is the clip:
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 11:57 AM.
