The Chiefs reveal some GOOD NEWS but questions still remain…

The Chiefs reveal some GOOD NEWS but questions still remain…

So Andy Reid spoke to the media today and gave some good news about a key position group in particular, especially considering who the Chiefs are about to play. He also tried to address questions about a position group that’s remained a bit of a mystery and how they’ve handled things so far, but it’s still a pretty confusing situation to me. So, I’ll do my best to break that down, talk about some findings on the weakest link along the roster that shed some light on Chris Jones and his lack of quote unquote effort. Another move Casey tried to make prior to the trade deadline, and more. But first, how about those? All right, so the Chiefs are fresh off their byee with Andy Reid speaking to the media today and he told them the coaches are back in the building today after a few days off, so that’s cool. And then players are going to be back tomorrow, including Josh Simmons. More on him in a minute, but players got some workouts in during their off time and we’ll be back ready to go, per the words of Big Red himself. Now, regarding Simmons, he was asked several follow-up questions about Josh because he told the media that Simmons would be back. And honestly, rightfully so for the media and just asking some questions given how interesting the whole ordeal has been over the last month or so. He didn’t give much, but when asked about the reintegration plan with Josh, Andy just wants to see where things are at with him first. They have a good player in there now. That’s his words, Jaylen Moore. But they know what Josh is capable of. So, they’ll evaluate him this week and go from there. And that was an interesting statement to me, the way he worded it. We have a good player there now, i.e. Jaylen Moore. Some have then wondered, well, does that mean the left tackle spot is Jaylen Moors to lose and Simmons needs to earn it back over time, or what’s going on with that? Well, I would assume if the coaching staff feels Josh Simmons is healthy and appears to be in decent shape from a conditioning standpoint, he’s probably going to play against the Denver Broncos given the magnitude of this game and how important a win would be for this team regarding the state of the AFC West and their pursuit of still trying to win the division. I’ll dive more into that here in a bit, but even though Simmons has been away from the team for roughly a month, it seems like he’s been working out at least in some capacity. Simmons returned last week with Ian Rapaort reporting on Monday, November 3rd, so 7 days ago exactly, saying Josh Simmons has returned to the team and ended his tweet with Casey has a buy this week, serving as a time of reaclamation. So in theory, he’s been at the facility and ramping back up. However, Andy wouldn’t confirm either way whether or not he’s been working out in the building with any of the training staff or not. And he was asked specifically about it, but this is what he said. I’m not going to get into all that. I’m not telling you yes or no that he did, but I know he’s been working out for sure. So, I am at least glad to hear that Simmons has been working out because that was the fear of some fans that Simmons might take more than the by-week plus this week to be ready for Denver and might not even be ready to go at all. I mean, he still might not be ready. We’ll just kind of have to wait and see if he’s on the injury report. If he’s on there, was he limited? Was he a full go? I don’t even know if he’s going to be on the injury report at all, but I guess we’ll find out either way on Wednesday. If Simmons can’t go, we might see Jaylen Moore in again at left tackle. Though I will say if we thought the Bills Dline gave Jaylen Moore trouble, the Dline of the Broncos is on another level entirely. Andy did say though that Jaylen Moore has done a nice job in the absence of Simmons. Asking him to jump in there like they did after the season was already up and going for a couple of months was a pretty tough ask, especially against the Dines they’ve been going up against. But quote, he’s done a respectable job. And coming up next, I got to dive in to some more Simmons stuff, the importance of this game, some interesting findings about the defensive line, and you read weighing in about C playing over Elijah Mitchell, and more. But first, it’s time to give you guys another awesome update on my 2-year-old pup, Casey. You know, the mascot of the channel, famous for sleeping all around my studio when I film. She’s right there, kind of hiding in the darkness like Batman. But the sponsor of today’s video, the farmer’s dog, has seriously changed her life for the better. She used to pick at her kibble every day, sometimes never finishing it. in a single sitting, even going up to two days to finish just one bowl. Well, she was obviously undereating, and I knew something needed to change ASAP. I then found incredible reviews for The Farmer’s Dog online. And ever since we made the switch in July, she now devours every single meal and often looks at me wanting more, which remains true to this day 4 months later. You see, The Farmer’s Dog is a service that delivers gently cooked human-grade meat and veggies and simple recipes made for dogs. And the fact that the food is sent directly to our door means the farmer’s dog can invest in better ingredients and fresher food that can’t be found in a store. They made the entire process super easy to follow as well. Taking their personalization quiz via their website only took a couple of minutes. 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All right, so one player to be watching for the Chiefs is Isaiah Pacheco. Will he be able to play in this game against the Broncos? After all, love it or hate it, he’s your running back one. Well, he was out for Buffalo with the MCL, and there was a bit of belief that he might be able to play after the buy. But Andy Reed didn’t seem as confident about Pacheco as he was about another player that got banged up in the Bills game. More on him in a second. But regarding Pacheco, he said, “Yeah, I’ll have to see.” Which says to me he’s honestly not sure or at the very least not yet confident Pacheco plays. If Pacheco is out again, the question then is what is the running back room going to look like? It’ll probably be Kareem Hunt again as the primary workhorse with Bashard Smith getting sprinkled in. All that makes sense. But one of the most confusing things to me about the running back room is Elijah Mitchell, the most quote unquote expensive running back in the room. Okay, $1.75 million cap hit. They just don’t invest much in the room. But he’s the most expensive running back in the room right now and has been a healthy scratch all season long. And even when Isaiah Pacheco was injured, Mitchell still did not dress out. Instead, the team elevated former first round pick Clyde Edwards Z Lair from the practice squad and dressed him out instead of Elijah Mitchell. And C played a whole two snaps in the Bills game. Things got so out of hand during this time that somebody claiming to be Mitchell’s significant other even took to Twitter and said, “Hey, Elijah’s healthy.” So, the team’s reason or reasons plural for not dressing Elijah Mitchell out seems to be something else entirely. As a reminder, the only reason why some people were speculating about Mitchell’s health is because he missed all last season with a serious hamstring injury. So, some surmised, hey, he might not yet be 100%, which played a role in him not yet seeing the field. Well, I don’t believe that to be true. Because if that was the case, why wouldn’t the team just place Mitchell on injured reserve until he’s healthy rather than just sitting there wasting a roster spot with him for no real reason? Well, your guess is as good as mine about the whole Mitchell situation right now and why he’s not seeing the field. The most logical conclusion is they just aren’t as impressed with him as they hoped that they would be. But Andy was asked about why they played C over Mitchell in that Buffalo matchup. And Andy said that they really like Elijah or he wouldn’t be here. But Clyde knows all the protections. And not only does he know it, but he’s done it. So there was comfort there given the history. Not that Elijah doesn’t know the protections. He’s a very sharp kid, but they’ve seen our guy do it. That was quote unquote verbatim. Quote, “Our guy do it, and that was the only reason why.” So C was their guy. Okay. I don’t know what to make of that. But he was basically there in case of emergency. And if Kareem Hunt got hurt in that game, C would have played a lot more snaps. I’m still confused though as to why the heck Elijah Mitchell is even on the roster. But oh well. Can’t change that. You can’t change the fact that the Chiefs did try to make a trade for Brie Hall from the Jets. Yet felt a third was a bit too rich for a half-year rental, which I do understand to an extent. So, all we can do for the running back room is hope that Isaiah Pacheco comes back soon and looks as healthy as he can out there because the running back room just is what it is this year, a bottom five room in the NFL. Now, that hasn’t stopped Casey’s offense from putting up 28 points or more four weeks in a row heading into the Bills game. So, it’s not massively concerning. The bigger concern to me is the offensive line holding up for Patrick Mahomes because if you do that, his confidence will allow him to play his game and do basically whatever he wants out there and they will put up points. Josh Simmons being out there followed by Kingsley Creed a healthy Trey Smith with no back issues and Jawan Taylor would be the best case scenario against the sack hungry Broncos Dline. Now, I will say this, Jawan Taylor hurt his ankle at the end of the third quarter in the Bills game. And if his ankle is still banged up after the buy, that’s why the return of Josh Simmons came at such a crucial time if he’s ready to go. Because if needs be, that would allow Jaylen Moore to kick over to the right side in Jawan’s place. Well, some good news is that Andy Reid said today that Jawan was feeling pretty good ankle-wise by the time the team got back to KC. So, after their flight from Buffalo and left for the by-week. So, quote, I think we’ll probably be okay there. That would be ideal because again, the Broncos defensive line is full of a bunch of savages. They lead the league with 46 sacks and got to Gino Smith six times just last week on Thursday Night Football. From there, it’s a two-way tie for second in sacks between the Steelers and Seahawks who each have 32. That means the Broncos lead the NFL by 14 sacks. Bonito, Cooper, and Allen. They all have more than five. Couple of them have almost 10 each. Meanwhile, not one defender for the Chiefs has more than five. The Chiefs have 26 less sacks than the Broncos on the year. 20 total so far with Caroftus leading the room at five than Amina Hugh Jones and Tranquil each have two. I think we all know the Dline is a bit of a concern as far as their inability to bring down opposing quarterbacks. If the running back room is the bigger concern on offense, the Dline would be that for the defense, but that’s probably the greatest concern on the entire roster. It does help that the secondary is super sticky in coverage. Jaylen Watson is playing out of his mind and is probably going to earn himself a pretty big contract in free agency by somebody. Trent McDuffy is playing at an even higher level than that. And believe it or not, they have the second highest coverage grade in the NFL per PFF, only behind the Green Bay Packers. It’s just been the Dline that’s lacked getting home to the quarterbacks when just rushing four. And their run defense has struggled a bit at times as well. Well, that’s why on top of the Chiefs looking into trading for Bree Hall, they did try to make a trade for Seahawks pass rusher Boyet Maf. Adam Shfter shared on Sunday that KC made a late strong push to acquire Maf and some even thought the deal would get done. However, right before the deadline, Seattle, for whatever reason, changed their minds and kept him. Maf is only 26 years old, tied for second on the team with pressures. He’s got 26 and like Bree Hall was on the last year of his rookie deal. So either of these guys would have been a half-year rental, but he would have definitely provided some juice along that Dline because sadly that entire room, including Chris Jones, has taken a bit of a step back this year. And for the record, Adam Sheper didn’t get into any other details on the trade for Maf, what was offered or anything like that. So that’s all we really have to go on. Now, regarding Chris Jones, he is still one of the best defensive tackles in the league, but he went from the second highest pass rush grade, first impressions, and first in win percentage among all interior Dlinemen in 2024, to the fifth highest pass rush grade, tied for fifth in pressures, and 13th in win percentage among all interior Dlinemen this season, 2025. Well, part of that is he’s 31 years old, no longer at the peak of his prime. But the other part is his supporting cast outside of George Caroftus got worse and might honestly be the worst supporting cast that he’s had in years. Both George Caroftus and Turk Wharton were winning 10ish% of the time in 2024. So a factor into this equation is Turk Wharton being missed over there with the Carolina Panthers for sure. But get this, a player a lot of fans have been pretty down on is Felix Anudkama, who’s on IR for the year with a hamstring injury. But his 9.9% win rate last year would be higher than any D lineman on the roster right now aside from George Caroftus and Chris Jones. Amina Hughes at 6.5%, Tillery 5.4%, Dana and Gelotty are both just under 4%. So not great and part of the reason why Boyet was attempted to be added, but for whatever reason that did not work out. So while the opinions about Chris Jones are kind of all over the place, some think he’s washed, needs to get benched. I don’t think that’s the truth. But I think there is three main factors at hand leading us to the problem and the truth. His supporting cast is clearly worse this year. He’s taken a bit of a step back himself. And then on top of all that, he went from playing 71% of the snaps last year to 80% of them so far in 2025. That’s obviously way more than he should be playing and leads to some viral moments of him being flatout exhausted out there and appearing to give no effort. It’s unfortunate to say the least, but some hope there along the line is Ashton Gelotti. I think he’s coming on slowly and should hopefully see the field a bit more as the weeks go by. As far as the interior of the Dline is concerned, you have Omar Norman Law on IR for the year and they did get Mike Panel just prior to the trade deadline. But that’s all you got. And regardless of who’s out there on Sunday, the Chiefs have to win this game in Denver if they want any chance of winning the AFC West this year. The odds may have changed slightly with the Chargers beating the Steelershandedly last night on Sunday Night Football, it wasn’t even close to be honest with you. But after the Broncos beat the Raiders, their chances of winning the West were at 58%. But here’s why the game on Sunday, Chiefs, Broncos, Chiefs are favored by four in Denver for what it’s worth. But this is why the game matters so much for KC. If the Broncos win, the Chiefs only have a 9% chance of winning the AFC West. They’ve won it every year since 2016, nine in a row. So that’s why this is a must-win game and why I believe if Simmons can play, he will. After beating the Raiders, the Broncos moved to 8-2. LAC after their dominant win over the Steelers last night are 7-3 and they also have a tiebreaker over KC. So you got the Chiefs at 5-4, two and a half games behind the Chargers who were in second. This is way less than ideal, but the destiny of the division is still in the Chiefs hands. They have the Broncos this week as well as on Christmas, then still have the Chargers and Raiders one more time as well. So that’s four divisional games remaining. They just have to win them. There’s no excuses here. If they don’t, it’s essentially hoping they can do enough to lock in a wild card spot this year. They need the Jags to keep losing. Thankfully, the Texans did beat them on Sunday. But the problem is the Jags sadly have a tiebreaker, the tiebreaker over the Chiefs since they decided to blow that game against Jacksonville weeks back on Monday Night Football. The Bills, they might not win their division either since the Patriots keep winning. They’re 8 and2 with a tiebreaker over Buffalo who’s now 6 and3 after getting curb stomped by the Miami Dolphins. Crazy game. However, the Bills also have a tiebreaker over KC. Then the Ravens are also rising after winning three in a row and will most likely, if I had to put money on it, win the AFC North. The Steelers aren’t a big threat to me, but regardless, you got to watch out for the Bills, the Jags, and start stacking up some of these W’s. I hate playing the weekly wildcard whatif game to be honest with you, and would rather the Chiefs just lock up the West for the 10th season in a row. The Broncos and the Chargers got better. I thought they would. I just thought the Chiefs would have won a game or two more than they have right now. So, it’s got their backs up against the wall for the first time in years, at least in the regular season. Andy Reid said that they’ve scouted the team’s progress over the buy. They looked back at a bunch of tape and they do have some good things going for them in this league. Every game is important, so you got to stay focused on that rather than what’s happened in the past. So, they are all in on Denver. Sure, there is a sense of urgency there, but that’s every single week for them regardless of record. That’s how this league is. there’s too much parody to not have urgency week in and week out. Those are the words of Andy Reid. He was even asked if all the prior success they’d had in recent years have caused a lack of overall urgency to dip a bit or the urgency overall to dip a little bit. And Andy tried hard to keep a straight face when asked that. I think he thought it was a stupid question and he said, “No, that’s not how he feels. The guys have a lot of energy. They just need to clean up a couple things and they’ll be okay there.” Well, I certainly hope so because as bad as the Broncos offense appears to be at times, the Chiefs offense didn’t look great against a lesser defensive opponent in the Buffalo Bills. So, it’s time to kick things into high gear now because that Broncos defense is top three in the NFL for good reason. Anyway, let me know your thoughts on how you are feeling about this upcoming game in the comments down below. Also, what did you think about the Chiefs trying to trade for Boyet Maf? Do you wish they would have been able to make the move or nah, he wouldn’t have been a needle mover anyway? I don’t know. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Either way, and until next time, let’s go. Let’s freaking go. How about those

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My name is Cole DeRuse, a life long Chiefs fan born, raised and still live in the Kansas City area. I made this channel never expecting the growth, but here we are so LFG! I cover all things Kansas City Chiefs on this channel: Breaking news, short form content, livestreams, play by play live reactions during games, previews, injury reports, along with my analysis and thoughts.

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