Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs Review | PFF Grade Release Show

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Tight end Aronda Gasson with a 90.7. Edge rusher Ti Palotu with an 89.5. Safety Derwan James Jr. a 793 and safety Tony Jefferson with a 77.2. Justin Herbert in this game a 67.0. On Kansas City side of things centered Humphrey with an 82.8. Edge rusher Ashton Gelotti a 783. Quarterback Jaylen Watson an 822. Uh tight end Travis Kelce with a 73.9. And then edge rusher Charles Amen with a 73.7. Patrick Mahomes in this game a 65.2. Most disappointing for me just overall just to touch on Mahomes there to an ACL for Patch Mahomes which is uh obviously devastating for them. Not only are they eliminated from the postseason but now you’re in a situation where best case scenario Mahomes is back for the beginning of the regular season. But that’s that’s best case scenario. I think there’s a world where you could start next season without Mahomes. And at that point, we know how good the Chargers are going to be when they’re fully healthy. We know how good the Denver Broncos are are clearly. I think that you’ll probably face one of, if not both of those teams to start the season next year with the divisional teams. Raiders I I think are a little bit away from competing certainly depending on a lot of changes that they have to make going in the right direction this offseason. But all that to say like some like I think the Bengals are going to have a better year next year than they had this year. You know, I think that the the Baltimore Ravens certainly could given Lamar Jackson being hurt and them uh not playing as well as they have in years past. We know that the Patriots are good. We know that the Bills are good, right? Like AFC is going to be tough again and if Mahomes is out for any of it, uh this is going to be devastating for the Chiefs. So, not just this loss, but overall most disappointing is that Mahomes is now in jeopardy to miss some time next season as well. I think yeah, going into next year for the Chiefs, there have been several moments throughout Andy Reid’s tenure where they have they’ve had to ask themselves in a given off seasonason, big organizational questions. You even think about when they traded up to draft Mahomes when Alex Smith was taking him to the playoffs every year. That was a huge decision after they lost the Super Bowl to Tampa Bay in the 2020 season, having to rebuild their entire offensive line, knowing that if we don’t do this, we won’t contend, right? Trading Tyreek Hill and eventually getting Trent McDuffy out of it and making it more of a defensive team. And now they’re entering another crossroads here, Trev, where it’s they’re entering this off seasonason with more questions than we’ve ever had in the Patrick Mahomes era, right? Between his injury, the offensive line being inconsistent, the receiving core, and what that’s going to look like possibly without Travis Kelce in the future, and then, you know, having to fix even this pass rush on defense right around Chris Jones still. There’s a lot of problems on this team. It’s why they’re what, six and eight now. It’s why they’re out of postseason contention. and you just look at a team that doesn’t look anything like we’re used to seeing in the Patrick Mahomes era, right? And you mentioned it next year if he’s going to miss any amount of time. How do you go about it? How do you go about, you know, balancing trying to go all in and contending while you have Patrick Mahomes as your quarterback for another decade with, hey, we really need to retool this roster? I I mean, there’s a lot of pieces, especially on offense. They’re basically completely barren at running back, right? Receiver, they need some guys, some young guys to improve, but they need some help out there. Maybe a true ex receiver would help them. There’s going to be questions at tight end here eventually, possibly very soon this off seasonason. So, I think the Chiefs really need to just take a step back and breathe even after not making the postseason and go, “All right, what do we want this to look like? Not just next year, but really for the next five years.” Yeah, I agree. I agree. It’s a this year, no matter what was going to be a big, okay, it’s time to look in the mirror and wonder if okay, is this next season, are we going to try to continue to run it back as much as possible? Are we hitting the gas once again next season or are we getting a little bit into rebuild retooling mode and uh with Pat Mahomes injury now it’s obviously even more important that you answer those questions appropriately in this game stat that told the story the yards per play here for the Kansas City Chiefs 4.0 I mean it just that that’s a stat that okay if the other team is is close to where you are in that 4.0 average you can win a football game but it just that’s normally not what we’re used to for the Chiefs. It’s not their offensive output that we’re used to. It’s I think a representation of how much this offense has struggled over the last uh I would say well I I guess we could say over the better part of two years now how much this offense has really struggled. And I think that that number just sticks out to me just how much lower and lower and lower the yards per play has gotten on average for the Kansas City Chiefs. And again it was not enough in this game and you lose by a field goal there. My most impressive though is Jesse Menter and what he was able to do with this defense. This defense looked ready to play. They look extremely motivated. Uh they didn’t they didn’t look like they care. I you know what I was a little bit worried. Team from Los Angeles weather’s nice playing a dome. You know, now you’re going to Arrowhead. Not only is it a tough place to play anyways, but what was it like -5 degrees windchill in Arrowhead as well? Like everything on the line for the Kansas City Chiefs. And from the moment that ball was snapped for the first time, the the the Chargers looked like the aggressors. They looked like the ones that were ready. They looked like the ones who were fearless and ready to play in basically every single way. And whether it was Diane Henley or I was so impressed with Derwin James as well in this game. Just so many players 22 below two like they were absolutely ready for this game and they looked like the better team. They looked like the more prepared team and they looked like the team honestly that wanted it more. I I hate necessarily saying that because when people hear me say that they may go, “Oh, so the Chiefs didn’t want it.” That’s not necessarily what I’m saying, but like the the fire and the passion that it felt like the the Chargers were able to come out with on the defensive side of the football. I was just so impressed with with how they were able to play and how they got ready for this one. No, their defense is carrying them right now with the offensive line injuries they have, the struggles to run the ball between the tackles, Justin Herbert struggles over the last month or so. You look at what this defense has done, they’ve played like an elite unit. That’s my stat that tells the story. An 83.5 team defense grade for the Chargers. their second best of the season. The only game that was better week two against the Las Vegas Raiders, I believe they had several interceptions of Gino Smith in that game. And you look at the this Chargers team, despite all those obstacles and despite whatever doubts we may have about about their offense moving forward, they’ve won six of their last seven games and they’ve given up 20 points or less in all six of those wins. So, you look at the floor that they’re giving, you know, this this offense to work with. They don’t have to do a ton of work. They have to do just enough. They have to score just enough to just overcome what isn’t a huge hurdle right now. Right in this game, they gave up a touchdown on the very first drive, only six points the rest of the way. Two interceptions in the fourth quarter. Chiefs running backs once again did not have an explosive run in this game. 19 carries for 34 yards. The Chargers after the first drive, they figured it out. This team is not better than us. They’re not faster than us. They’re not more physical than us. We just have to hold the fort down long enough for Justin Herbert to score enough points and we can finish this game off. the away. Anything else in this one? Four. You mentioned Tui Palotu and a question that you kind of have sometimes with this Chargers team is do they have enough with a fourman rush to get to the quarterback to disturb the quarterback. Tui Palotu has to be a big part of that. He was in this game and keep in mind the Chargers only blitz Patrick Mahomes twice the entire game and then they blitz Gardenner Mchu a couple of times when he came in at the very end but twice the entire game they blitz Patrick Mahomes to Palotu 85.4 four pass rush grade, eight pressures, two sacks, monster performance that they needed. That is a big question for this Charger team. How much ammo do they have to not blitz? Because Jesse Mter actually is not a high blitzing type of defensive coordinator. He wants to rotate zone coverages. He wants to prevent explosives, but if you can get a four-man rush to go along with that, you can be an elite defense. That’s what happened. And Tuli Touille Palu was a big part of that in this game. Everyone’s got takes. Numbers have truth. And the truth is, most people are betting with emotion. Sports books feed on it. Tik Tok grew sell it. The hype machine runs on it. That’s how you lose. PF is different. You’re betting with winning data. The same data trusted by all 32 NFL teams and the sharpest minds in the game. PFF betting tools take every prop, every matchup, every angle, and run them through our custom models. Built on the best football data in the world. What comes back is your edge. Simple, sharp, and built to win. Want to go deeper? PF puts a prolevel analytics department in your hands, giving you the same insights teams use to find every advantage. Build your game plan with matchup analysis. 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PFF’s Trevor Sikkema and Dalton Wasserman review the matchup between The Los Angeles Chargers and The Kansas City Chiefs.

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