Kansas City Chiefs: Four players to watch vs Panthers in Week 9

BASHAUD BREELAND

There hasn’t been a ton of discussion relating to Bashaud Breeland this year, but he’ll have a tough task this weekend, assuming he’s the one who gets to defend Robby Anderson. Breeland has defensed two passes, hauled in one interception, forced a fumble, and recovered a fumble as well through his four games back after his suspension.

Breeland has been fine this year and both he and Charvarius Ward might take turns defending Anderson, who has 688 yards through the first eight games of the season. Anderson has only scored one touchdown so far, however, so he’s not someone the Panthers turn to in the red zone.

It’s going to be tough to slow Anderson down, but hopefully Breeland is up to the  task this Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

ANTHONY HITCHENS

This could really apply to all of the Chiefs linebackers, but I’m especially intrigued to see how Anthony Hitchens does on Sunday. The Chiefs run defense hasn’t been great this season, but Hitchens has been playing considerably better than in previous seasons.

To this point of the season, Hitchens has 47 tackles and as I just mentioned, has looked much better. He’ll have his work cut out for him this weekend, as he and the other Chiefs linebackers will be tasked with slowing down Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, who is making his first start since Week 2.

McCaffrey could be a huge factor in this game, so it’s up to Hitchens to attempt to slow him down and make sure the Panthers running back doesn’t have a game for the ages.