Kansas City Chiefs: Behind Enemy Lines With Bolt Beat’s Matthew Pagels

The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1. We take a look from the Chargers perspective with Matthew Pagels from Bolt Beat.

The Kansas City Chiefs will face off against an AFC West divisional opponent to start off the regular season as they travel to take on the Los Angeles Chargers. Given the uncertainties of young quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Chargers are once again favored by most national analysts to win the West. Los Angeles has been favored the last couple of seasons but has yet to take the next step.

Patrick Mahomes and defensive question marks are the thriving reasons that Kansas City has not been favored to win the West for the third season in a row. Los Angeles has been unable to start strong and stay healthy which has hurt their seasons the last couple of years. Whether or not they will be able to get there this season will remain to be seen.

Most Kansas City fans are worried about the Chargers offense exploiting the Chiefs defense in the first regular season matchup. While the secondary is better than last year when these two teams faced off, the lack of addressing larger needs during the offseason has fans uncomfortable. Phillip Rivers enters his 15th season in the NFL and is one of the top quarterbacks in the league.

Fortunately for Kansas City, head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Bob Sutton have done a great job at shutting down the Chargers winning eight straight. We talked to Bolt Beat writer Matthew Pagels to get a look at his thoughts on the matchup on Sunday afternoon. He gives us some great insight on where the Chargers are at this point and how the Chiefs can come out with a victory.

Can you give us a rundown of the Chargers injuries going into Week 1?

MP: The biggest injury this season was Hunter Henry. They had moved on from Antonio Gates, who has resigned a couple of days ago. Hunter Henry was the present and future and he goes down with a torn ACL in OTAs. They also lost starting cornerback Jason Verrett who I feel so bad for. He was finally back healthy and he tore his Achilles the day prior to training camp. Defensive End Joey Bosa has been limited in practice with a low ankle sprain.

The national media has favored the Chargers to win the West. What’s your perspective?

MP: The hype is pretty real with this Chargers team which always scares me because I feel the team does better when they aren’t being looked at. Hense, everyone knows the Chargers are a team that chokes under pressure. I think this is the most complete roster the team has had since the 2006-07 days. A couple of concerns with depth at a couple of positions, but I have to see it to believe it. They have to win within the division and win close games. This is a really important battle to beat the Chiefs and end that losing streak. The offensive line looks good this preseason, but the defensive line has struggled against the run. That’s where the concerns are with the Chargers. I think this division is for the Chargers to lose even though the Chiefs have won it the last two years, but I don’t think you can say just give it to the Chargers.

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Los Angeles has made some moves on the offensive line. Will it be better than years past?

MP: I’d say depth-wise, the tackles are the area of concern. Russel Okung came in last year and people were saying they overpaid him. Hey, it panned out because he helped change this offensive line. Pro Football Focus, prior to last season, they ranked in the back end of the league. They played pretty well last year but still need to improve in the run game. Pouncey’s addition will help them improve and watching the preseason you could absolutely tell he was making everyone around him that much better. It’s not just the pass blocking, but also the run blocking as well. They look good as long as they can stay healthy.

Have the Chargers done anything this offseason to address their struggles with stopping the run on defense?

MP: They drafted four defenders with their first four picks. That was their major weakness. Those four players bring that young hard-hitting style of defense that the Chargers need. You can’t let these long runs happen and the Chargers have to address it. The interior defensive line is what scares me and seeing Kareem Hunt run straight up the gut. This game will be a good test to see how that unit does and if they can hold Hunt to minimal yards per carry.

Did the Chargers bring in any big names to their starting line up this offseason?

MP: The Chargers were relatively quiet during free agency. They brought in Pouncey at center, Virgil Green at tight end from the Denver Broncos who’s a low key name but will help in the run game. First-round pick safety Derwin James is the name that stands out. He will hopefully be the player that takes a good defense and puts it over the top. I think having James on the back end will make the biggest impact on this team.

Do you think that the Chargers will move Keenan Allen to the outside to avoid lining up against Kendall Fuller?

MP: I think it’s going to be a great matchup and anywhere you put Keenan Allen on the field he is phenomenal at his route running and no matter the defender covering him. I would say watch out for Mike Williams. He was our first pick last season at seventh overall and had an underwhelming rookie year dealing with that nagging back injury. He’s looked good in training camp and the preseason looking like the wide receiver coming out of Clemson. That’s what we need. I’m not worried about Keenan Allen even if he’s playing an All-Pro corner.

Thanks again to Matthew Pagels of Bolt Beat for taking the time to answer some questions about the Chargers. He gave us great insight on what to expect from Los Angeles in Week 1. If you would like to listen to the entire interview, check out the full interview on Thursday’s episode of the Arrowhead Report Chiefs podcast. You can also follow him on Twitter @Matthew_Pagels.

(If you would like to follow the Arrowhead Report Chiefs podcast, search for @ArrowheadReport on Twitter. You can find our hosts Travis Steffen @SteffenNFL on both Facebook and Twitter. If you want to find Chris Taylor, you can find him on Twitter @ctaylor1911. Feel free to email the show at

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