5 questions with Arrowhead Pride
Week 13 for the Las Vegas Raiders features round two against the Kansas City Chiefs in a special Black Friday edition of Thursday Night Football. To preview the game, Silver and Black Pride reached out to our friends at Arrowhead Pride and Jared Sapp was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Chiefs.
Q: Last time we talked the Chiefs had just traded for DeAndre Hopkins. Over the last five games, what has he brought or how has he impacted the offense?
A: Hopkins is still clearly learning the offense. His usage seems to be largely matchup-dependent on Andy Reid’s confidence in plays Nuk has heavily repped. After the first Chiefs-Raiders game, Hopkins saw heavy action against the Buccaneers and Broncos before playing less than half of the snaps the last two weeks against the Bills and Panthers. I also suspect that the Chiefs plan to somewhat limit his role for the playoffs because the only thing that should matter in evaluating the trade is what he does in January.
When he and Mahomes connect, it can be a beautiful thing as evidenced by an amazing downfield catch against Tampa Bay with the entire secondary seemingly around him. He and Mahomes have quickly shown the ability to improvise as they did on his touchdown against Carolina Sunday.
Q: Isiah Pacheco returned to practice last week but didn’t end up playing in the game. What’s the likelihood he’ll be suiting up on Friday and what would that mean for the the Chiefs’ offense?
A: Most people expected Pacheco to play against Carolina but the word was they didn’t want to bring him back from IR to turn around and have a short week. I will be shocked if Pacheco sits again this week. Since joining the team in Week 4, Kareem Hunt has had an insane workload, and it is starting to show from his body language. He really needs Pacheco to split work on first and second downs.
Although he has never developed a running style that makes use of his elite speed (4.37 40-yard dash time at the 2022 Combine), Pacheco is the Chiefs’ only real hope of taking a run to the house. Hunt, Samaje Perine, and Carson Steele have done an admirable job in his absence, but the Chiefs’ run game has been a comical mix of almost every play being efficient with virtually no explosive plays. I do not know how much Pacheco will play in his first game back, but I predict the Chiefs will try to feature him in the screen game once he is fully back.
Q: Noah Gray was an under-the-radar player at the beginning of the season but has already set career highs in receiving yards and touchdowns and is coming off a two-touchdown performance last week. What can you tell us about Kansas City’s second tight end?
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Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images
A: I have always thought Gray is a good player, and Chiefs’ general manager Brett Veach looks like a genius for an under-the-radar extension for him as the season started. For the last couple of years, Gray has been the perfect complement to Travis Kelce. While he will never match the Hall of Famer’s performance, there is a minimal gap in November of 2024 between what the 25-year-old Gray and the 34-year-old Kelce can do on the field.
I knew when Rashee Rice went out for the season that TE2 was going to be a more important position for the Chiefs going forward. Right now Gray has that great combination of being well-practiced with Mahomes while not drawing attention from defenders due to the bigger names among Kansas City pass catchers. It will be interesting to see if Gray becomes a bigger priority for linebackers and safeties over the next few weeks.
Q: Kansas City’s defense was playing very well at the beginning of the season but has given up at least 24 points in three out of the last four games over the last month, including 27 to Bryce Young and the Panthers last week. What’s been the difference between the unit at the beginning of the year and in November?
A: I have some major concerns with the Chiefs defense. The biggest issue is that the pass rush is not getting home. In theory, the constant double and triple teams on Chris Jones should leave favorable one-on-one matchups elsewhere, but the rest of the edge and defensive line room is just not taking advantage. And the ability to just throw people at Jones is wearing him down throughout games to where he can’t be the force in the fourth quarter the Chiefs need him to be.
Going into the last Raiders match-up, a big question would be how the Chiefs would handle the loss of cornerback Jaylen Watson. A month later, we still don’t have a good answer. The Chiefs are giving cornerback reps to two players in Nazeeh Johnson and Chamarri Conner who should both be playing safety at the pro level. The shifting around of the secondary is also limiting Trent McDuffie’s effectiveness because they are out of options to play outside and cannot play him in the slot where he is one of the NFL’s elite defenders.
Not being able to get consistent pressure with four combined with a secondary you can’t trust to hold up on blitz packages has been a rough combination.
Q: Heading into the playoffs, what’s your confidence level in the Chiefs getting back to the Super Bowl and completing the NFL’s first three-peat? Which AFC Team do you think poses the biggest threat and why?
A: The Chiefs are 3-1 over a four-game stretch where they could just as easily be 0-4, so I’m not feeling great right now. I’m not quite to the level of despair I was when the Raiders ruined the Mahomes and Kelce Holiday Special last Christmas. Right now, I need to see what players like Pacheco, Charles Omenihu, Hollywood Brown and newly signed tackle DJ Humphries bring as reinforcements before I really decide my confidence level.
Right now, I see the Bills as the biggest threat in the AFC given how well they planned for the Chiefs even while missing multiple key starters. I think the Bills offense will be in full gear as the playoffs start, and they have the opportunistic type of defense that can recognize when Mahomes is going to be aggressive and be in a position to take advantage of even slight errors.
