The Kansas City Chiefs' pass rush let them down in a Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, which was the first time in eight games between the division rivals that the Chiefs lost.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert dominated, throwing for more than 300 passing yards and three TDs. This type of effort simply won't cut it, creating an urgency for the front office to fix a defensive line that already looks vulnerable. Veach isn't immune to mistakes, but his constant effort to leave no stone unturned gives the organization an opportunity to find diamonds in the rough.
Well, there's one free agent available with 70.5 career sacks who the front office now needs to target to fix these obvious problems.
Chiefs Must Target DE Preston Smith to Fix Pass Rush Issues
As pointed out by Chiefs Hive on X (formerly known as Twitter), "Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna, and Derrick Nnadi combined for 68 pass rush snaps. They combined for a 0% WIN rate."
That's simply unacceptable. Win rate is a statistic that measures how often a pass rusher beats their blocker within 2.5 seconds on a given play, implying quick pressure. The average time to throw for a quarterback usually is close to that 2.5-second mark, indicating that's the amount of time that a rusher needs to pressure the signal caller before they throw the ball.
Fortunately for the Chiefs, former Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers EDGE Preston Smith is available. With 70.5 career sacks and a season with 12 under his belt, he'd be a worthwhile dart throw given the obvious limitations of the current group.
For Omenihu, Danna, and Nnadi to combine for a 0% win rate is egregious and represents a massive failure when you consider that Los Angeles was missing star left tackle Rashawn Slater. This should've been a matchup that favored Kansas City but instead, the defensive line was exposed.
Smith is 32 years old but has been remarkably durable during his career, playing in at least 16 games every year of his 10-season career. At the very least, it's worth a phone call to see if he'd be interested in coming to the best franchise in the sport.
Herbert was sacked three times, twice by Drue Tranquill on designed linebacker blitzes, but he navigated the pressure with relative ease. Adding someone like Smith would give the team another option to rush the passer and if Omenihu and Danna aren't going to play well, it's time to sound the alarms and look for another option.
We'll see if we can just chalk this up to a mediocre performance overseas in the first game of the year, but you can bet that Veach is already looking at options like Smith to fix the problem.