Robert Klemko of The MMQB has a must-read article for Kansas City Chiefs fans that focuses on how the Chiefs use Travis Kelce. Specifically, the piece dives into Y-ISO, which is a formation with three receivers to one side of the field and the tight end - Kelce, in this case - on the other side.
“Defenses treat that formation a certain way; they have different rules for it,” Alex Smith told Klemko. “So sometimes you can declare as soon as you break the huddle. [Travis] thinks just like I do. So he knows right away, right when we break huddle, as he’s getting up at the line he’ll be calling for things. I love when he calls ’em.”
The Chiefs ran the fifth most plays in the league out of this formation last season. If the defense has three cornerbacks on the field, you could have a mismatch with Kelce, who is the key to all this working. Another key here speaks to the Chiefs entire offense - they can do multiple things out of one formation. Klemko shows an example of the Chiefs effectively rushing the ball out of that formation as well.
One reason Andy Reid’s offenses work well because they can do so many things out of the same formation. It’s one of the reasons why it’s hard being a receiver in Reid’s offense because his receivers have to know every role on offense. Hopefully that means the Chiefs could see a jump out of young receivers Albert Wilson and Chris Conley, who have been working out with veteran Andy Reid receiver Jeremy Maclin.
This summary here doesn’t do it justice so go read it. I learned something.