The Kansas City Chiefs hope to become the first team in NFL history to three-peat, and their biggest weakness is depth. The team has a solid core group of star players, and the front office will be looking to make cuts along the margins and bring in high-floor players who can step in and fill a supporting role if necessary.
The Chiefs have decent depth at the receiver position, but one of their lower-tier players is likely to find himself off the roster. Kadarius Toney has struggled in the NFL, and Justyn Ross hasn’t lived up to his promising first two seasons in college after a brutal string of injuries.
With four quarterbacks currently on the roster, one player will likely find himself looking for other opportunities as well. Let's take a closer look.
Justyn Ross or Kadarius Toney might be on the chopping block
One of the Chiefs’ receivers at the lower end of the totem pole is going to be gone before the season begins. The two most likely candidates are former Clemson star Justyn Ross and former Florida Gators and New York Giants receiver Kadarius Toney.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s very easy to see why the Chiefs added Toney to their roster. The team has done fine without Tyreek Hill, but it’s obvious that there is an explosive element to their offense that has been missing ever since Hill took his talents to South Beach.
Hill is one of the fastest players in the league, and he was one of the premier deep threats in the game. That made him a favorite of Mahomes and gave the Chiefs a unique dynamic. Hill’s ability to take the top off the defense with ease opened things up for Travis Kelce and other players to run routes in the middle of the field and within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage. The opposing team's defense was so preoccupied with making sure that Hill couldn’t beat them deep that they would give up just about anything else to ensure that didn’t happen.
This logic makes plenty of sense, but he put defenses in a no-win position and allowed Mahomes and company to nickel and dime their way down the field. This element has been missing in recent years, and the Chiefs have still been winning in spite of it. Kelce has still been putting up his numbers, but that’s just a testament to his pure talent. He’s working harder for his production, which makes things harder on him and the team.
The team’s front office attempted to fix this problem by buying low on another speedster in former Giants receiver Kadarius Toney.
Toney is a speedster in the same mold as Hill, but he’s nowhere near as effective and he has too many fatal flaws to be a consistently good player. Toney seems to struggle with the mental aspect of the game in a way that Hill never did.
The former Giants receiver has issues catching routine passes, and it appears as if he’s sometimes running the wrong route. Regardless of whether he doesn’t know the plays or wants to do his own thing, it doesn’t make the situation any better either way.
Chris Oladokun might be the odd man out at quarterback
Patrick Mahomes is the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, and that is something there’s no doubt about.
It’s typically a smart idea for an NFL team to carry three quarterbacks on the roster due to the risk of injury and the importance of the position. That being said, Mahomes will have a spot on Kansas City‘s roster as long as he wants it and nobody has a realistic chance of dethroning him as the starter.
The team brought in Carson Wentz as an insurance policy in case of an injury to Mahomes. Due to his Pro Bowl pedigree and the possibility of untapped potential that could be unlocked learning under the tutelage of Mahomes, Wentz has the backup spot all but secured.
With two quarterback spots locked up, it only leaves room on the roster for one more player. Oladokun will have to compete with Ian Book for this final spot.
Oladokun isn’t a bad player, but he’s not an NFL-caliber starting quarterback. He doesn’t have any elite skills or do anything that stands out on the football field. Oladokun will need to demonstrate a mix of competency and aggressiveness during camp. He must differentiate himself as the backup option in order to win that spot.
One area in which Oladokun can define himself is the mental aspect of the game. The challenge for backup quarterbacks largely becomes about how to balance different approaches to the game. They must find the sweet spot between staying aggressive and making things happen without playing recklessly and costing their team the game.
Backup quarterbacks aren’t expected to necessarily go out and win the game for their team. However, what they are expected to do is make sure they don't lose the game. Just as easily as you can throw your team into a game, you can also throw your team out of a game.
Oladokun must prove that he has the mental capacity to understand when it’s the right time to take a slight gamble to keep the defense honest and when the time calls for taking the safe play and not risking the game.
If he can do that, he’ll have a chance to make the roster. Otherwise, the team may roll with Ian Book as the final QB on the roster, or they may bring in an outside player.
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