Kansas City Chiefs: What does Breeland Speaks bring?

When comparing Hali and Speaks coming out of college, there is a lot to like. Both players were power first edge rushers that could win most of the time with their bull rush. Speaks and Hali both coming out of college were inconsistent with their hand usage but displayed flashes of aggressive hand fighting that needs to be crafted more at the next level.

If there is anything that Hali is known for in the NFL, it’s his hand fighting skills. I’ve never seen someone more talented at hand fighting than Hali, and it was something that he had to develop and polish at the NFL level. Speaks shows that same ability and with the right coaching, maybe from Hali himself if the Chiefs decide to bring him in to work with the young pass rushers, he could be dangerous.

Most of his pass rushing is done with a bull rush move. Relying too heavily at times on his strength in college is something that will have to change at the next level. Even players like Justin Houston and Chris Jones who are exceptional at using their strength have other moves. That’s not to say that Speaks won’t be able to win from time to time with his natural power, however.

If an offensive tackle doesn’t keep in front of Speaks, it’s lights out. His ability using his strength and quickness to get in between blockers and shed between them was remarkable. He showed plenty of this against LSU. Speaks is too powerful and linemen must stay in front of him if they want any chance of slowing him down. Allowing him to get inside is a nightmare.

His strength also tends to mask his quickness forcing offensive linemen to over commit. Speaks forced the tackle off balance and just as the tackle tries to get his feet back in front of him, Speaks realizes the move and spins around the tackle to disrupt the pocket forcing the quarterback out of the pocket. It’s not something that will show up on the stat sheet, but he disrupted the entire play.

Here is another clip where the left tackle was preparing to stop Speaks with power and not anticipating Speaks to win with quickness. He’s able to knock the left tackle off balance and too the ground allowing him a straight shot at the ball carrier.

While he shows plenty of flashes that warrant the comparison to a Chiefs future Ring of Honor player, he still has some developing to do. He has the traits to become an elite player at the next level, but will first have to perfect his craft. One part of his craft is coming into every play with a game plan. Rushing blind and not having a method of counter moves hurt Speaks at times in college.

He tries to win with power against this right tackle who was geared more towards power than speed. Instead of countering with a speed move or some hand fighting that would knock him loose of the tackles grasp, he kind of just dances with him. I saw this more often than I would like but it’s one of those areas that just hasn’t been perfected yet.

What threw me off when watching his film was when Ole Miss lined him up off the ball as almost an inside linebacker. I would rather him be up on the line of scrimmage but having that ability to move around the defense and blitz from multiple platforms is valuable. I would like to see defensive coordinator Bob Sutton move him around like he’s talked about moving Houston around this season.

Once again though, Speaks can blow through the interior getting himself into the backfield. Thankfully he was able to recover and grab ahold of the running back, however, because he blew right past him. One area that needs to be worked on is keeping his head up and eyes on the ball carrier. It’s great to be able to get inside the backfield, but it doesn’t do you any good if you blow right past the guy you are supposed to tackle.

He did show some of that inconsistent but flashes of abilities to hold his ground in the middle. During the run game, he could be found holding an offensive lineman in place waiting for his chance to pounce the running back. His length mixed in with his strength allow him to be a promising interior player which I like him as.

During the game against Mississippi State at the end of his last season with Ole Miss, he did extremely well against option plays. When the starting quarterback for Miss. State went out with an injury; they relied heavily on option runs. Speaks showed some nice plays like this one of setting the edge and running down the ball carrier.

Given his talent against the run, it should be no problem to surpass Dee Ford on early downs. Ford has been a liability against the running game for the last four seasons, and it’s something that Veach wants to change this year. Tanoh and Speaks both are better against the run than Ford which will likely make him a positional player instead of a starter this season.