Kansas City Chiefs rank as top five wide receiver duo

The Kansas City Chiefs added to their wide receiver talent this offseason and rank as a top five wide receiver duo in the NFL.

The Kansas City Chiefs bolstered the wide receiver core with the addition of Sammy Watkins this offseason. General manager Brett Veach was willing to spend big money to bring in Watkins showing his confidence in the young wide receiver. To be honest, I think Watkins might be one of the most underrated wide receivers coming into 2018.

The critics of Watkins always want to point out one thing when it comes to the young wide receiver, and that’s box score stats. The stat that gets brought up the most is the fact that Watkins has only had one 1,000-yard receiving season during his four seasons in the league. While that may be true, he was just shy by 18 yards during his rookie season and hurt in 2016 only playing eight games.

Then you take a look at last season where Watkins was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in August. He barely had time to learn the playbook, and the Rams kept him on one side instead of moving him around the offense. When I watched the film on Watkins following the signing, I found that his production on the box score stats didn’t match what he was doing on the field. Watkins has great speed and the ability to get off his coverage and break open. Rams quarterback Jared Goff missed him a lot of snaps deep down the field where Watkins came wide open.

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Missing Watkins coming open was a huge trend last season during the five games that I watched, all at different points in the season. I don’t believe Buffalo, or Los Angeles, got the full potential out of him. We have yet to see what Watkins can do with other weapons around him and be moved around with a quarterback who will give him more opportunities.

Kansas City will be his first time really moving around on offense and having other weapons around him that can take away some of the extra attention. With guys like wide receiver Tyreek Hill, tight end Travis Kelce, and running back Kareem Hunt as just the main starting weapons, defenses will have a hard time doubling down on Watkins giving him more one-on-one matchups.

Tyreek Hill broke out last season after being labeled solely a gadget player and nothing better by most analysts this time last year. Hauling in 75 catches for 1,183 yards and seven touchdowns, Hill made himself one of the best receivers in the league last season. With yet another weapon for defenses to watch in Sammy Watkins and a new gunslinger quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, I expect to see even more big plays coming from Hill in 2018. The duo of Watkins and Hill ranked 5th in the league by NFL Network:

It will be interesting to see how defenses try and cover both of these wide receivers. They both have significant speed, ball tracking skills, great separation, and the ability to win at the catch point. Hill may be smaller, but he is excellent at going up and getting the ball. We saw it last season when former Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith would underthrow the pass and Hill would come back and beat the cornerback at the catch point.

One reason I’m interested to see how defenses match up against these two is that considering their speed, most teams will play off-man coverage. Given that one false move when playing press would leave the cornerback in the dust given both their speed, teams have played off-man to help with the speed and keeping their corners from getting beat deep.

That has yet to work as Pro Football Focus published an article on wide receivers against specific coverages. When it came to off-man coverage, Watkins and Hill ranked number one and two on the list. Watkins had a wide receiver rating of 139.7 against off-man coverage and hauled in 20 catches for 329 yards and four touchdowns. He was one of just two receivers with 30 or more targets against this coverage without dropping a single pass.

Hill’s speed especially warrants teams to play off-man coverage to give their cornerbacks a chance. Fortunately for the Chiefs, Hill was outstanding against this type of coverage as well. 61 of Hill’s 75 catches came against off-man coverage, and he tallied 924 yards last season with those catches and finishing with a 136.3 wide receiver rating.

With the weapons around the offense and the ability of both receivers to beat any style of coverage, it will be fun to watch the Chiefs offense make plays his season. Watkins and Hill are both major deep threats but are also dangerous underneath. Then adding in guys like Kelce and Hunt, and I can’t figure out what type of defense teams will try to deploy to attempt slowing the Chiefs down. There are still players like Chris Conley that will benefit from Mahomes willingness to throw the contested ball and benefit from the lack of attention given the other weapons around him.