The Kansas City Chiefs will see the return of old friends Rich Gannon and Kevin Harlan when they’re on the call for this weekend’s game against the Chargers. Gannon was on 610 Sports this week talking about Alex Smith and the Chiefs offense.
When you talk about Alex this year, you have to talk about the fact that he is statistically among the best deep ball throwers through two weeks which is indeed weird. Here’s what Gannon said when Jay Binkley asked him about Alex:
“Alex to me is playing a lot like he has in the past,” Gannon said. “It’s not like I see a totally different player because they went out and drafted (Patrick) Mahomes. You remember Aaron Rodgers he waited several years in Green Bay so I think they can afford to do that. I think Alex has played well. I think so much has been made of the lack of success on the postseason but I don’t know if yo can put all of that on the quarterback.
“First of all I think he has the highest QB rating in the gun. You look at the way he’s operating and functioning. I know the protection last week wasn’t great at times. He got sacked a bunch in the first half and yet he continued to sit in there and take care of the football and make good decisions and keep plays alive with his legs.
“Just the way he operates the system. You look at all the check with me’s at the lines of scrimmage and changing plays and the protection and the communication and just his overall command of the offense is impressive.”
Gannon then talked about Big Red and the way he runs the offense. I agree with all of this and it’s a lot of fun to watch.
“Their personnel usage, their substitution patterns, their different formations that they present and then the pre-snap shifts and motions and the speed at which they operate and function.
“You look at a guy like Travis Kelce moving around before the ball, he’s never in one place at one time and they allow him to get free releases.
“You look at Tyreek Hill he’s motioning in and out of the backfield, he lines up in the backfield and in the slot and outside the numbers. That makes it difficult for a defense to kinda get their hands on you and zero in on you.
“Then they have all his misdirection where you think that Kareem Hunt is going to get the ball or maybe it’s Tyreek Hill and then all of a sudden it’s a shovel pass to Travis Kelce coming off the line of scrimmage. They’re really firing on all cylinders right now offensively.”