The offseason continues to show its fruitfulness for the Kansas City Chiefs following Sunday night’s victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. The All-Pro duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce grabbed the headlines as usual. Still, it was the emergence of several rookies making an impact during a crucial AFC West game.
The 2022 rookie class has shined throughout the season, but they showed well in Los Angeles. The effective play of early-round picks Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis on defense has been expected, but the rest of the class has proven their value in the league. Mahomes was impressed by the youth on display during Sunday’s game and shared his thoughts during his post-game press conference.
“We had a lot of new faces,” said Mahomes. “To see him excel in moments like these is special because, obviously, we’ve done it in this organization for a little bit now, but to have those new guys step right in and make those plays is special. Not only on the offense. You look at the defense, it seemed like, at one point, all of the defensive backs were rookies or new guys. We have done a great job of bringing a lot of talented players in here, and they have stepped up and made plays happen.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was proud of the rookie performances on the offensive side of the ball, including RB Isiah Pacheco. Reid acknowledged the scouting done by general manager Brett Veach and his staff.
“Really, you saw it tonight,” said Reid. “Brett Veach, how good he is at doing his job, and [Isiah] Pacheco is one of those guys. He and his crew, they study it, they see what fits into what we do, and then they’re willing to pull the trigger at the right time and evaluate where they think guys are going to fall. It’s an art. That’s not an easy thing to do; you can overdraft guys, you can under-draft. At the same time, you’re talking about guys you want to come in and play, at least within a year or two.”
Pacheco recorded the first 100-yard rushing game of his career and the first such game by a Chiefs running back since Week 4 of the 2021 NFL season. Reid was more impressed by his growth in pass protection in addition to his rushing stats.
“His growth in the pass protection part of it,” said Reid, “Even though he had a tough one today when three [Derwin James Jr.] blitzed. His pass protection, we are confident in that. His patience, I thought, was good. We’ve been working on that. I thought he did a nice job with that. Not necessarily speed to the hole, but speed through the hole. You could see him let the offensive linemen get it set up and work to the linebacker-level guys, and then go. Hit it, as opposed to being indecisive.”
The surprise emergence of Skyy Moore during the game, taking advantage of extra snaps following the injury to Kadarius Toney, was a much-needed boost to the offense. Moore finished with a career-high five catches for 63 yards and received plenty of encouragement from Reid after the game.
“It’s great,” said Reid. “He had the punt returns that were a bit of a mess, but he had never done that. The guys kept encouraging him through this, whether it was his coach, Joe [Bleymaier], or [Offensive Quality Control] Connor [Embree], they just kept encouraging him. The players stuck by him. They could see how talented he was. Nobody looked at him cross-eyed. That peer pressure is the strongest pressure in that case.”
As the Chiefs deal with injuries to starters it’s opening more and more opportunities for the rookie class to continue to earn valuable repetitions and show its worth on the big stage.
