Mellinger Minutes: So much Chiefs, plus playoff stuff and KC’s best football players
The Chiefs have a spacious locker room at their practice facility, and they call it a locker room, but in reality it’s become more like a carpeted pickup basketball court surrounded by lockers.
If you’ve heard interviews from that room on the radio, or watched them on our website or television, chances are you’ve heard lots of loud voices in the background, and chances are those loud voices were litigating the particulars of a two-on-two game.
It’s all in good fun, though there was the time a ball shot up to the ceiling and knocked out a tile, which crashed to the ground directly in front of Mecole Hardman’s locker. There was also the time a defensive player we’ll keep anonymous fouled a receiver a little hard, sending the smaller man crashing into a wall.
Khalen Saunders said a college coached called him Fat Kyrie after watching him play. Tyrann Mathieu has a smooth and almost rhythmic game. Hardman would be a tough cover.
But we’re not here to go through those details. We’re here to mention that as much basketball is played, and as seriously as they take it at times* we can’t let this go without mentioning that the best player in the Chiefs gym — shoot, I mean locker room — hasn’t touched a ball all year.
* Mike Pennel, looking at you, even if you weren’t the defensive player we referenced above.
“I know I am,” safety Juan Thornhill said when asked if he was the best player in the room. “I know I am. Tyrann’s OK, but he’s not as good as me. Maybe Tyreek, or Kelce, because he’s big. But nobody else has a chance.”
This is more than just talk. Thornhill was a star point guard in high school, leading Altavista to three Virginia Class 1A state championships. Division I schools wanted him to play basketball. His high school highlights are nice.
NFL locker rooms are full of elite athletes, obviously, and Chiefs linebacker Reggie Ragland was ranked as the No. 1 seventh-grade basketball player in the country. He was also a standout baseball player. He was also listed as being taller in those seventh-grade rankings than he is on the Chiefs’ official roster. There’s a reason he chose football.
Thornhill maintains the look of a basketball player, and he says his skills have remained sharp. He often turns his locker room seat toward the games, watching, smiling, but never playing.
“I ain’t got time for that,” he said. “They take it too serious right there. And it’s not even a real court.”
He’s being smart, of course. An injury in a locker-room pickup basketball game — and don’t think that thought hasn’t crossed some minds — would be unforgivable, especially for a rookie starter.
“After the season, I’ll mess with it,” Thornhill said. “We’ll go play basketball somewhere. They’ll see.”
Also, we can’t get out of this without mentioning that Patrick Mahomes has never played in these games. Once, in nothing but flip flops and a towel, he casually swished from 25 feet or so in the corner, the shot having to navigate what looked like an impossible ceiling overhang.
So maybe Thornhill would have competition, if Brett Veach would allow it.
This week’s eating recommendation is the prime rib at Jess and Jim’s, which may or may not be the best in the city (I’ve only had it once), but I’m including it here because prime rib is Christmas. The reading recommendation is the New York Times’ project on smart phone tracking. Whatever it’s worth, I’m a big worrier about this type of thing, but the scope is pretty remarkable.
Please give me a follow on Twitter and Facebook and, as always, thanks for your help and thanks for reading.
This horn won’t toot itself, so I’ll just mention I spent all of last season talking about how terrible the safeties were, and the scheme, and that the combination of the two made the corners look worse than they were, and that the signing of Tyrann Mathieu and drafting of Juan Thornhill had the chance to turn one of the NFL’s worst position groups into an honest-to-goodness strength.
That remains the biggest change. The Chiefs haven’t had a playmaking safety like Mathieu since a year or two before Eric Berry was day-to-day, and they haven’t had a centerfield safety with range and ball skills like Thornhill in, well, I’m not sure. But it’s been a while.
One of Steve Spagnuolo’s greatest tricks this year has been to maximize that specific talent improvement. Charvarius Ward is much better on his own, I think we can see that every week, and on Sunday night especially on this play:
But he’s also benefited from much better support behind him.
Honestly, that’s been the biggest thing, at least from what I see. Frank Clark is better than Justin Houston or Dee Ford, but particularly with the injuries, you can make a case that the Chiefs had more overall talent rushing the passer last year.
The Chiefs pressured the quarterback on 27 percent of snaps last year while blitzing 21 percent of the time. Those numbers have basically flipped this year, but it is worth noting that Clark and Chris Jones have each been slowed by injuries.
But those safeties change everything. They’re more of a factor on intermediate routes, forcing quarterbacks to account for them and perhaps hesitate much more than a year ago. They’re covering better, smarter about where to be, and more athletic to get there.
All of that has an effect on how the corners play, and when the receivers are better covered it makes it easier for everyone else.
As much as anything else, though, the defense needed a new voice. For whatever reason, Bob Sutton’s had grown stale and cracks had begun to form in the cohesion of the defense, especially in the secondary.
In that way, Spagnuolo walked into a great situation. He got new players who expected to win, and the holdovers were desperate to make good on what everyone understands is a real Super Bowl chance with the MVP quarterback.
I’m not sure you can break it down this way, because one complements the other, and I feel strongly that we wouldn’t be seeing this kind of improvement without both, but I’m saying it’s 40 percent the new safeties and 60 percent the new coordinator.
Well, sure, there are tangible reasons that beating the Chargers next week is important.
- On the (very) small chance the Patriots lose to the (very) bad Dolphins, a win would give the Chiefs the No. 2 seed and first-round bye.
- A loss combined with a Texans win over the Titans would drop the Chiefs to the No. 4 seed.
- The Chiefs are playing their best of the season, and this would be a rotten time to lose that.
But, if we’re being honest, the Patriots aren’t losing to the Dolphins and I’m not sure the difference between the No. 3 and No. 4 seed is major.
The biggest difference would be that the Chiefs could play at Baltimore in the division round, instead of the AFC Championship Game. That’s a real thing, but if the standard is the Super Bowl you have to figure you’d need to beat the Ravens anyway.
Other than that, we’re just talking about matchups and, if anything, the first-round matchup might be more favorable as the No. 4 seed than No. 3.
As the No. 4 seed, the Chiefs would host the Bills. As the No. 3, they could face the Steelers, Titans or, believe it or not, even the Raiders.
To me, the Titans are the Chiefs’ worst matchup. We’ll get into that more soon, but for now I want to talk about the Bills.
They’re good! Really, they are. They’re 10-5 with a defense that ranks in the top three in both points and yards. Their quarterback is capable of big plays. That’s a dangerous opponent.
But I also think it’s at least possible the defense is overrated. They’ve played the league’s easiest schedule defensively, according to Football Outsiders and they’re 2-4 against teams with winning records.
Basically, it comes down to this: I don’t think the Bills can score enough against the Chiefs to compensate for what I’d expect the Chiefs to do to their defense.
Maybe I’m completely wrong about that. Would not be the first time.
But I do think it would be better for the Chiefs to play the Bills than the Titans.
If I’m looking at this through the Chiefs’ eyes, I agree with your overall point, but would not dismiss the Patriots and especially the Ravens like that. Lets do those in order.
The Patriots may be cooked. Their offense appears pedestrian, and their defense has been vulnerable against better teams. They’ve lost to the Ravens, Texas and Chiefs (at home).
But they’re still the Patriots, and their coach is still the same guy who pantsed the Rams in last season’s Super Bowl, and has eight rings as a head coach or coordinator.
The Ravens are the best team in the AFC. I know the Chiefs beat them at Arrowhead, but if we’re looking at body of work over a full regular season, the difference is real.
That’s a different thing than saying the Chiefs would have no chance. Nationally, the talk is (understandably) about how well the Ravens have played through an 11-game win streak that includes the Steelers, Seahawks, Patriots, Texans, 49ers and Bills.
But the Chiefs are a lot better than they were in September, too. They beat the Ravens without Tyreek Hill and Eric Fisher, who are each healthy and playing well. The offense appears to have regained its mojo, and the defense is transformed.
I would expect the Ravens to be about a four or five point favorite against the Chiefs, and for good reason. As much as the Chiefs have improved defensively they’re still vulnerable against the run. Opponents have, somewhat inexplicably, not exploited this over the last month. But no team runs the ball better than the Ravens, and no team would be slower to abandon the run.
You’re not going to like this answer but I think the Chiefs are, basically, what they are.
You can’t prioritize everything, and acquiring more traditional bangers on the line would mean sacrificing some of the athleticism that Andy Reid has always sought in his linemen for the passing (screen) game.
Pro Football Focus rates them 21st in run blocking, and Football Outsiders has them 30th. To me, at least, they’re much closer to 21st, especially if you account for the injuries they’ve had. But those same websites rank the Chiefs eighth and fourth, respectively, in pass blocking.
You’d love to be first in both, but for what the Chiefs are, it’s much better to block well for Patrick Mahomes than for Damien Williams.
The real answer to your question, then, is probably to draft someone like Kareem Hunt. This isn’t about going over why he was cut. I get it. The Chiefs felt like they couldn’t trust him any longer.
But if we’re talking only about football, the do miss his playmaking, particularly between the tackles.
Hell yes they should. Here they are in order:
Browns.
Bears.
49ers.
Jaguars.
Titans.
Jets.
Chargers.
Panthers.
Bengals.
The Panthers took Christian McCaffrey, who is an absolute star, but wouldn’t all nine of those teams trade quarterbacks right now?
Interestingly, the Chargers were among the teams I’d heard were particularly high on Mahomes in the draft. How much different would the AFC West be right now if they’d taken him instead of receiver Mike Williams?
True story: The Star passed me up.
It was for an internship, in high school, but I remember my mom showing me the ad and telling me I should try. I did, and made it a round or two. I remember being nervous as hell for the phone interview, and I remember failing miserably to hide my disappointment when I didn’t get it.
At that point in my life I didn’t have the confidence to think of it as a Screw You moment. I took it as a You Suck moment, and honestly, it rocked me a bit.
Weirdly, what gave me more confidence is getting rejected more: college internships, jobs after graduating, the more I got rejected the more I realized it happened to everyone.
If you’re never rejected, it means you’re not aiming high enough.
Hell yes. Let’s do it.
5. Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta. Terez pointed this out once and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. The people who work at the Atlanta airport could not care less about your flight, whether you get there on time, or even whether a line takes 20 minutes when it probably should take five. But it’s only No. 5 here because the train system is pretty good.
4. DFW. Driving in and out of there is like the drive in and out of Disney World. The only way I can think to make it more cumbersome is to put actual moats between gates.
3. Laguardia. They say it’s way better now, and I haven’t been since the renovations, but that heap of crap earned its way on this list for at least two decades.
2. Sky Harbor, Phoenix. Have you ever rented a car there? First of all, they price gouge you because they know they can, but they make up for it by ALWAYS having long lines, which is actually just fine because the bus ride to and from the airport is only like 20 minutes with no traffic but thankfully there is always bumper-to-bumper traffic. They do have some good restaurants, though, I’ll give them that.
1. Denver. Basically it’s like Sky Harbor, except with worse food, light years from downtown, and you need a tram ride to get basically anywhere. It also holds the honor of being the last airport in the country that can’t figure out how to get a security line moving. And their conspiracy theories are obnoxious.
Thank you, Will!
My dad makes this drink that starts with bourbon but also includes ice cream and I believe whole milk and I have to tell you it’s a lot. I do not recommend it, especially after a big dinner. Or, for that matter, before a big dinner.
I normally keep Tank 7 out of the house. Not because I don’t love it, but precisely because I love it. I don’t need to be getting drunk off three heavy beers on a Tuesday night.
But what if that Tuesday night happens to be Christmas Eve? Now we’re talking.
The problem is intake management. A Tank 7 will take more of your stomach than a Miller Lite, so you have know how to play the game.
One plan you can execute is to start with a Tank 7, jump start before dinner with a bourbon or Moscow Mule or something, downshift to a lighter beer during dinner and then go where your heart leads after that.
But you asked about a specific drink, and I’m torn: Bloody Mary or Old Fashioned.
Might as well do this one after the one about drinking?
The words will be the biggest thing. If he’s almost 2, he’s just started or is almost talking, and you’re pumped if he can say mama or daddy. But at some point — and it’ll feel like you just woke up one morning and this happened — he’ll legitimately talk. Like, you’ll have conversations.
You might feel like you’re interrogating him at times, and you’ll definitely feel like he’ll never shut up at other times. But the talking. The talking, man. Starting to see and hear the world through your kid’s eyes will change how you think about basically everything.
School, too. That one hit me. They’re gone, living their own life, doing their own things, and then you’ll start to see them do new stuff you didn’t know they could.
I am nothing if not a cliche, so our kids have been to so much barbecue and so much Peanut. Maybe you’re more into Mexican food, or Chinese, or burgers, or sushi, or whatever.
But around 3 or so you can start to have these shared experiences with things that mean a lot to you and you want to pass down. Playing catch. Going to a baseball game. Some TV show you like, or a road trip.
You can do most of everything I’ve mentioned already, obviously, but in the next few years your son will be more and more aware of it, and more and more with you in the experience.
Enjoy it, man. Once they get through a certain stage they’re never going back.
Let’s set some ground rules first. My ideal temperature is in the 60s, not the 20s, but I prefer the 50s to the 80s and the 30s to anything above 90.
I feel this way for a few reasons, starting with logic, because you can always put a jacket or a hoodie on but you can’t always stop sweating when it’s 96 and humid and the back of your legs are sizzling on your steaming car seat.
I hate sweating when I’m not working out, and the heat makes me sweat, therefore I hate the heat.
The fall gives me energy. I start to remember what it’s like to be comfortable again, and when I’m freed up from stewing about how much our energy bill is going to be I’m a much happier person.
Other than the pool, or being on a boat, nearly everything I love has at least something to do with cooler weather. September and October are the best months in Kansas City. The air is crisp, the trees are turning colors, you can drive with the windows down and steal a night or two with a fire pit. Football starts. Baseball is still going. You can run outside without feeling like you’re breathing through a wool sweater.
I get that the snow can cause some inconvenience, but it’s also a pretty great excuse to not do something you don’t want to do. If you have to get out, you’ll be fine if you slow down.
Plus, it’s fun. It’s different. Kids love sledding. It’s memories. And if you live in Kansas City, how many of your days are truly washed away because of snow? Maybe one a year? Two?
Meanwhile, most of July and August revolves around 24-7 AC, keeping the doors shut as much as possible, and sweating for taking the trash out.
I would proudly die on this hill, except I don’t have to, because I’m right.
OK, I’m just going to say up front here that I’m taking this as the best football careers, not who was the best in high school, and also that I’m almost certainly forgetting someone. Please don’t yell.
5. Ryan Lilja, SM Northwest. Won a Super Bowl as a rookie and started in another while blocking for Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. Started more than 100 games, including 45 for the Chiefs.
4. Roy Foster, SM West. I have to be honest with you guys. I’d never heard Foster’s name until a Twitter thread a few days ago. He split high schools between Kansas City and California. Made two Pro Bowls, was named first-team All-Pro three times, played in two Super Bowls, and blocked for Joe Montana, Steve Young and Dan Marino
3. John Hadl, Lawrence. Yes, I count Lawrence as part of Kansas City. They play in the Sunflower League and, more importantly, Chesty Lions should be celebrated. Hadl’s career crossed the merger, but he led his league in passing yards three times, touchdowns twice, made six Pro Bowls, was first-team All-Pro once, and the 1971 NFL Man of the Year.
This is completely irrelevant, but he also owned a body shop in Lawrence and lets just say when I was in high school I could’ve used a frequent shopper card.
2. Russ Washington, Southeast. Washington was the fourth overall pick out of Mizzou in the 1968 draft and until Sproles had a case for the best player from Kansas City. He played 15 years, starting 196 times for the Chargers, making five Pro Bowls and four first-team All-Pro teams.
This is completely irrelevant, but last I knew Washington owned a car wash in San Diego. I’ve had reason to call him a few times for various stories, and he’s always been gracious.
1. Darren Sproles, Olathe North. Spent 15 seasons in the NFL, finishing fifth all-time with 19,696 return yards. The four men above him: Jerry Rice, Brian Mitchell, Walter Payton, and Emmitt Smith. Sproles was a force of nature in high school, with legions of men now in their mid-to-late 30s with stories of being pantsed by the kid they called Tank.
He became K-State’s all-time leading rusher, including a school-record 1,986 yards in the 2003 Big 12 championship season. He finished fifth in Heisman voting that year. He has an interesting Hall of Fame case, and I’m not a voter, but I’m guessing Mitchell would have to go in before him.
So, honestly, guys? That list is not as awesome as it should be for a city our size. I trust you’ll let me know who I’ve forgotten, because maybe Aaron Donald went to Park Hill South or something when I wasn’t watching.
Also: this is a silly thing to say about someone who has four career starts but Drew Lock has a chance to crash this list.
Also also: this is even sillier to say about someone who hasn’t even been drafted yet, but I wonder if Isaiah Simmons is going to do the same.
These are ranked only by likelihood:
5. The NBA will overtake MLB in annual revenue, and MLS will pick up ground. In many measurables, the NBA is already ahead of MLB but in part because of baseball’s 162-game schedule it has a revenue lead of about $2 billion, or 25 percent.
I love baseball, and I want my kids to love baseball, but it’s swimming upstream in a lot of ways in the modern world. Games are long, lack the constant action of basketball and soccer, and the long schedule means only the hardest-core fans can keep up day-to-day.
The NBA and soccer have demographic trends in their favor, and those trends don’t figure to reverse. Those other sports are also more popular in affluent countries, particularly western Europe. I’m not predicting the demise of baseball, by any stretch, but the hierarchies are changing.
4. Officiating mistakes will lessen, but the complaints won’t. The first part of this might be more hopeful than anything else, but it makes logical sense that as revenues continue to rise and technology continues to improve that leagues will be even more motivated to improve officiating and the process can be further streamlined.
Major League Baseball will almost certainly go to robot umpires, at least for balls and strikes. Other sports will have different paths, but you can’t tell me the NFL wouldn’t benefit by hiring full-time officials and providing better pay in both salary and accuracy bonuses.
Some of this, though, is societal and that’s where the complaining comes in. This season has pushed me across the breach on NFL officiating, but it’s also true that every single year people say officiating has never been worse.
At some point, you have to wonder who would want the job? Especially at lower levels, which is of course where they all start. The pay is terrible, and the only certainty is that you’ll be yelled at by some entitled brat of a kid or worse yet some entitled brat of a parent.
In that way, it makes logical sense that the people complaining the loudest about officiating are in fact at least an indirect part of the problem.
I’m not optimistic that will change.
3. More a la carte TV deals. This is cheating a bit, because it’s already happening, but it makes too much sense not to continue. Cord-cutting means people can be more surgical about where they spend their subscription money, and ESPN+ and NBC Sports’ Gold are interesting models. Don’t you think the Royals could sell season passes for a couple hundred? College sports are deeply personal, so what’s to stop a big school with a loyal following from charging for special content? Or, perhaps better yet, including it as incentive for donations?
2. Smaller stadiums. This is another one of those following-societal-trends kind of things. I hate that families without a certain level of means will start to feel more and more priced out, but entertainment in America has largely turned into delivering a more personal or VIP experience. In sports, part of that means fewer chair backs and more suites. As a bonus, smaller stadiums increase ticket demand, and are easier to fill, which looks and sounds better on TV.
1. College sports are going to be rocked. This one might be too obvious, too, because it’s already happening. But that whole business model is ripe for disruption, to butcher the jargon of the day. We can talk about how NIL will improve the model and the public’s acceptance of amateurism’s grand lie, but at the very least it will take sponsorship money away from universities, which will have an effect on administration and facilities.
Maybe that effect will be minimal, and maybe it wouldn’t be felt for some time. But even if that’s true college sports will also face increased competition, most notably from the XFL in football and G-League and internationally in basketball.
College sports are already a virtual farm system for the NFL and NBA. Seems likely that over the next decade that relationship will continue to show up in ways that will diminish the profile and revenue of college sports.
This week I’m particularly grateful for what I’m thinking are the prime years of kid Christmas. Our 3-year-old is starting to get it, a little, and the 5-year-old could not be more all-in. I’d become a little jaded about Christmas over the years, with how aggressive people are about it and all that, but seeing it though a kid’s eyes is something close to magical.
This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 5:00 AM.