Le'Ron McClain.

Our brand spanking new fullback offered these words of encouragement to the Kansas City Chiefs fans that may have felt Mr. McClain was going to whine about not getting enough carries:

"I'm a fullback, and I'm here to win. Two things. Just two things: Getting Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones 1,000 (yards) apiece, that's what I'm here to do.  Blocking linebackers, picking up linebackers, keeping them off Cassel, anything I can do to help the team win." 
-Le'Ron McClain

Kansas City Star

Sounds great, so my intention for this piece was to fluff up the Le'Ron McClain signing.  Get everyone feeling all good about just how great he will make the Kansas City rushing attack.  However, in doing my research (if you want to call it that) I noticed something.  Take a look:

One thing that I want everyone to understand about those numbers, is that in 2008 when the Ravens had 2,376 yards. Most of that was due to Le'Ron McClain running the ball himself, having his career best year with 902 yards at 3.9 YPC (Thomas Jones 2010, 896 Yards at 3.7 YPC.) It is interesting to realize that this former Baltimore Ravens Fullback, who gets all of this hype as a COMPLETE 'FULLBACKING' BEAST, gave the Ravens their most productive rushing season, when he was actually pounding the ball himself, and not creating holes for others.

Listen, I am not saying that McClain won't be our answer at fullback.  In fact, my goal was to do the complete opposite of that.  However, in all of my delusion, I try to at least show the facts when I am making a point about how good the Chiefs can be.

Does Le'Ron McClain make the rushers around him better?

Follow me after the jump...

Let's take a look, shall we (Numbers from http://www.pro-football-reference.com/.)

Same chart, but this time we will look at the Ravens top rushers (obvious exclusion 2008 when it was McClain himself), their yards, and yards per carry totals.

It seems like the easy answer is yes, in the three years where Le'Ron was primarily in a blocking role, in which he started 38 games, and only had 82 rushing attempts, his best rushing teammates had 3,766 at 4.46 YPC.  Of course all of those yards aren't directly due to Le'Ron McClain because, obviously he wasn't blocking for Rice and McGahee on every play.  However, I think it is safe to assume that Le'Ron McClain is going to do a good job blocking for Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones.

How much better will Le'Ron McClain help make the Chiefs rushing attack become?

This is where speculation comes into play.  I think the Ray Rice and Willis McGahee numbers from 2007-2010 fall in line 'talent wise' somewhere above Thomas Jones' 2010 version (which gets a lot of negative criticism for having a season very comparable to McClain's breakout rushing season) and well below what we seen out of Jamaal Charles in 2010.

In other words, while McGahee and Rice were very good backs for McClain to block for in Baltimore.  He hasn't seen anything like he will see working for Jamaal Charles in Kansas City this season.  Jamaal Charles is something special in the NFL, his YPC numbers are legendary and he can break a long run at any moment in the game.

Knowing this is true about Jamaal Charles, and figuring in the idea that Thomas Jones play is more around the level that Le'Ron is used to out of his teammates coming from Baltimore.  I think it is safe to assume that Le'Ron and Jamaal are going to put on a show for us in Kansas City this season.

Let's face it, the Fullback play in Kansas City last year was average on a great day.  I believe that Scott Pioli and Todd Haley recognized this fact as well, having drafted Shane Bannon from Yale in the 7th Round of the 2011 draft, and now recently hauled in Le'Ron MClain in this crazy Free Agency period.

The amazing thing is that despite the fact that the Chiefs had often times a mediocre Fullback playing, they still managed to be the number one rushing team in the NFL with 2,627 yards.

The idea that Le'Ron says he is on board to get both Chiefs backs over 1,000 yards a piece, is a scary one indeed. Not for us fans here in Kansas City, but for fans of every team the Chiefs face this season.  

How are they going to stop this Offense?

The simple answer is that NFL teams are not going to, the Chiefs have weapons all over the place, and they added a Fullback with the reputation as one of the best in the game.

I know a lot of you are going to read that and give me 100 reasons why the Kansas City Chiefs offense is not going to be elite.  That is fine, I welcome that kind of negative discussion.

The Chiefs had the number one rushing offense in the NFL last season and have done nothing to their offense to put that title in question.  On top of that, the Chiefs added two potential big play receivers and have a talented youth movement arriving to shore up the offensive line.  Question this offense and depth issues all you want to, it is fine.  I welcome that debate, but this season, the Kansas City Chiefs are most likely going to have one of the most balanced offenses in the NFL with scary talent and great coaching.  Le'John McClain is just another Diehard piece that was added to Scott Pioli's masterful puzzle.

 When I read what Le'Ron had quoted for the star, it got me excited and it also got me picturing his follow up quote:

"I'm a fullback, and I'm here to win. Two things. Just two things: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kickass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
-Le'Ron McClain ... potentially.