Kansas City Chiefs: Alex Smith Has Been Dialing It Up

As the Kansas City Chiefs are in the midst of a playoff run, it has gone surprisingly unnoticed that quarterback Alex Smith has stepped up his game.

Chiefs Kingdom is in a fervor as the Kansas City Chiefs are rolling towards another playoff appearance. On the strength of another victory over the Oakland Raiders, the Chiefs are now in control of the second seed in the AFC. One of the primary reasons for KC’s success has been an effective weapon, but not getting much credit for it…quarterback Alex Smith.

The narrative is well known by now. “Alex Smith is a game manager.” “He won’t win games for you, but he won’t lose them either.” “He doesn’t take chances or make mistakes.” “He doesn’t throw the ball down the field.” Well, at this point I don’t think any of that really applies. Why is that? Because over the past few weeks the Chiefs signal-caller has been doing the exact opposite of the narrative.

Now, it’s easy to understand how you might have missed this. Alex Smith isn’t putting up eye-popping numbers. The Chiefs offense isn’t blowing out their competition. Rather, the Chiefs seem to be doing just enough to get a lead and then working to maintain it as time runs out. However, the things this offense is doing before that “cruise control” setting are pretty impressive.

That is what has stood out to me. The Chiefs have begun to open up their offense more and more in their games. We are seeing more deep passes, plays off misdirection, and attempts to get the ball in the hands of playmakers than we had before. It has helped lead to some big wins over the past few weeks, and I think it will be a huge asset in the postseason.