James Palmer of NFL Network has a podcast and came away with some interesting things to say this week after he covered the Chiefs win over the Colts last weekend.
First, he says he talked Jeremy Maclin last week and Maclin and other Chiefs players know the reputation of their offense -- that it’s really boring.
“The Chiefs know, talking to Jeremy Maclin, that everybody in this league thinks their offense is extremely boring,” Palmer said. “He goes I know people think we’re boring but we really do play a style of play where we never hurt ourselves, we never really make mistakes and then the minute you go to sleep on us we have, who you saw was sleeping all year, broke out in Travis Kelce, and then Maclin as well. Nick Foles comes in twice to relieve Alex Smith and they don’t miss a beat. It’s kind of that steady as she goes type of team that is really common with Andy Reid that could be the monkey wrench in the middle of this division and win it.”
This falls in line with what we heard from those anonymous execs in that Albert Breer piece earlier this week. The Chiefs aren’t flashy but you don’t want to play them because they won’t make mistakes and they won’t beat themselves. Is that enough in the playoffs? Can the Chiefs push past the elite teams like that? That remains the question we hope to see answered in January (and February).
The second piece of insight to know from Palmer’s podcast is when the Chiefs get rolling, they get simple. Check this quote out:
“I talked to Doug Pederson when I was in Philly kind of about the Chiefs and their ability to put these strings together and he said something pretty interesting,” Palmer said. “He goes a lot of people will overthink you when you’re on a roll like that so we would simplify things. Andy and I would sit there and talk and go what has made Alex succeed throughout this stretch and do the simplest things he succeeding with. What makes Maclin the ability to get the football and let’s go backwards during these stretches when teams overthink you when you’re on a roll like that.”