Kansas City Chiefs: Chris Conley Needs to Step Up

The Kansas City Chiefs will square off against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. They’ll do so without their best wide receiver in Jeremy Maclin. It’s time for Chris Conley to step up and be a legitimate threat in the receiving game.

The KC Chiefs had struggled with finding a reliable wide receiver for several years. Dwayne Bowe‘s production was declining and Donnie Avery was a bust in Kansas City.

When the Chiefs signed Jeremy Maclin prior to the 2015 season, it seemed like they had finally fixed the problem. They also drafted Georgia receiver Chris Conley in the third round in that year’s draft and it seemed like the offense would be set for the next few years.

While Maclin had an impressive inaugural season for the Chiefs, Conley has still yet to have that one true “big” game in the pros.

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Conley has only had one touchdown so far in his career. He had a touchdown during the playoffs last year, but that’d still only bring his entire total to two scores.

Conley just hasn’t been that passing threat yet, but the former Bulldog needs to step it up this week against the Panthers.

Maclin won’t be suiting up against Carolina and that will make Conley the number one guy for the Chiefs in the passing game. Travis Kelce will likely draw double coverage from the Panthers defense, which means that Conley will have to work extra hard to make sure Alex Smith can get something going down the field.

The other receiving options for Sunday are Albert Wilson and Tyreek Hill. Wilson has been vastly disappointing this season and Hill has been good, but isn’t a number one option by any means. His speed can be a game changer though for sure.

Back to Conley, the kid has potential to be a star in the league. He’s 6’2″ and just over 200 pounds and has shown that he can make some impressive grabs. Conley just needs to be able to step up and be a true number one receiver and give Smith some confidence down the field.

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It is worth noting that Conley has already shattered his 2015 numbers (he had 17 grabs for 199 yards in his rookie year) with 26 catches for 314 yards. He’s slowly but surely getting better each week and this HAS to be the week in which Conley has the best game of his pro career to this point.

Will Chris Conley step up for the Kansas City Chiefs this week?

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