Kansas City Chiefs: Chris Conley must step up in 2017

With the shocking news that top wide receiver Jeremy Maclin was released on Friday, the time has come for former third round pick Chris Conley to step it up and become that number one receiving threat.

On Friday evening I was eating at a restaurant before going to see Tom Petty in concert (awesome start to the weekend, by the way) when I got a text from my co-editor Ben Almquist that the Kansas City Chiefs had released Jeremy Maclin. I couldn’t believe it and honestly thought Ben was playing some sort of sick joke on me.

I then went to Twitter and saw it was true. The KC Chiefs released former Missouri Tiger Jeremy Maclin and now the team is without a true number one wideout. Where to turn to now? Well… It’s time to shine for Chris Conley, who has failed to live up to any hype whatsoever during his first two years in the league.

Conley was a third round pick by the Chiefs in the 2015 NFL Draft and has been very disappointing. In two seasons with the Chiefs, Conley has caught 61 passes for 729 yards and has one measly regular season touchdown to his name. He had a big touchdown catch in the playoffs in the 2015 season, but that doesn’t count towards his regular season stats.

If [Conley] can take the next step, the Kansas City Chiefs might have made the right move with releasing Jeremy Maclin.

Now I’ll say this. Chris Conley has shown flashes of “WOW” on some plays. There were several plays he made over the last two seasons where I couldn’t believe Conley came down with the ball. Perhaps Alex Smith isn’t the best quarterback for a receiver like Conley, but the former Georgia Bulldog has struggled with drops throughout his young career.

With Maclin no longer in Kansas City, the Chiefs don’t have many options to fill that number one spot. A lot of people will say that Tyreek Hill will take over as the main man, but his size is really going to prevent him from excelling in that role. Other teams will also make it a point to cover him now, so Smith will be forced to spread the football around.

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Other than Conley, who else is there? Demarcus Robinson got a lot of hype when he was taken in the fourth round last year, but he did nothing on the field in 2016. Ben Almquist wrote that this is his time to show his worth.

There’s also Albert Wilson, who a lot of people always forget about. Wilson is either good or he’s invisible. He is not a number one wideout.

Oh, and let’s not forget rookie Jehu Chesson, a fourth round pick from this year’s draft. Chesson had a good junior year at Michigan, but fell off big time during his senior season. If he can get back to that type of play from 2015, the Chiefs might have found a diamond in the rough.

Chris Conley has the right build to be a good receiver in the NFL, but he has to make basic plays along with the crazy catches. If he can take the next step, the Kansas City Chiefs might have made the right move with releasing Jeremy Maclin.

One thing is for sure though and that’s that Chris Conley has to start finding the end zone. True number one receivers do that with ease and Conley hasn’t shown that he can do that yet.

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