Who is the most irreplaceable Kansas City Chiefs player?
This is not the best Chiefs player. That's another debate. This is who is the most irreplaceable which means you have to take into account the player but also their position and who his behind them. While Dustin Colquitt is clearly great, he's not a good answer here because he's a punter. (I'm sorry, punters) I'm also going to exclude Alex Smith from this list because quarterback is the most answer here for most teams.
You can call this a ranking but honestly I wouldn't argue any other order here. They're pretty close. Give me your list in the comments.
WR Jeremy Maclin: The Chiefs have a bunch of receivers on the roster but everyone behind Maclin isn't all that different. Albert Wilson, Chris Conley, Rod Streater and DeMarcus Robinson are all different types of receivers but they're the same in terms of what we can expect from them next season. We're waiting for one to break out. Maclin is the most explosive receiver on the roster and the one that changes the dynamic of the offense the most. The playoff game sealed it for me.
LB Justin Houston: This is why I didn't want to rank these. Is Houston ahead or behind Maclin or Kelce? He's obviously very important but the Chiefs have two pass rushers behind that are at least competent. The drop off is larger at receiver.
TE Travis Kelce: Pretty much for the same reasons as Maclin. Tight ends are important in this offense as Kelce's production the past two seasons has shown. The offense becomes a lot less dynamic without Kelce. It's close between him and Maclin on offense.
These three are a rung below because they have decent backup options:
NT Dontari Poe: He is so hard to replace because not many 340 pound nose tackles play as many snaps as he does. In this day and age of subpackages, Poe doesn't have to come off the field. That's tough to replace, even if the Chiefs just spent a first round pick on a defensive lineman and signed one in free agency too.
LB Derrick Johnson: This old man isn't so old. If there has been a drop off in his play in the past few years I can't see it. We have the 2014 season as evidence of his value. The Chiefs have added some potentially good inside linebackers in the past year but it's that word, potentially, that matters. We really don't know what Justin March or Ramik Wilson or DJ Alexander can do over the course of a full season.
RB Jamaal Charles: He would usually top this list but after last year, how can he? It's not that Jamaal doesn't have a significant impact - he does. It's that his backups are actually pretty good. So the gap isn't as big as other positions.