Arrowheadlines: The competition for MVP is fading

The latest

Patrick Mahomes’ competition for NFL MVP is fading | New York Post

A bet on the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl is not as simple as it might seem, and there’s not much value in the 5/2 odds offered at most sportsbooks.

A bet on Mahomes to win the MVP award at the price of -400 appears to be that easy.

“It’s Mahomes and there’s nobody else,” said Vinny Magliulo, a veteran Las Vegas bookmaker and VSiN oddsmaker. “Aaron Rodgers is second, but he’s not a close second.”

MVP watch: Rodgers leapfrogs Russ | Fox Sports

What people are saying: ”This is the Mona Lisa, this is the Sistine Chapel, the 8 Wonders of the World. This is it, you watched it. I defy anybody that can objectively say there’s a quarterback currently playing in the NFL that is better than Patrick Mahomes.” ⁠— Shannon Sharpe

Tyreek Hill unleashed: How Chiefs are using star receiver in ways they haven’t before | CBS Sports

At 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, it’s impressive Hill has been able to accumulate the statistics he has while playing more than half his snaps as a perimeter receiver, a pre-snap location believed to be best-suited for bigger, more physical wideouts.

But space is Hill’s best friend, and he’s afforded more of it in the slot than being double teamed by the sideline on every play as a boundary target for Patrick Mahomes. In what’s become vintage new-age Chiefs, instead of being content with quality production from Hill — and the rest of their offense — they’ve cranked things up by featuring Hill in the slot even more.

Other than that, Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy have deployed Hill almost identically to years past across the board. Motion rate, deep target percentage — you name it. And defenses have played him similarly too, with right around 30% of his routes coming against man coverage and about 44% of his routes featuring press at the line.

By the way, Hill’s destroyed the man coverage with 21 catches for 374 yards and eight touchdowns on just 29 targets. Bananas.

7 things that need to happen for Steelers to hold onto top AFC seed, first-round bye | Steelers Wire

If Pittsburgh loses once to a non-division team, and Kansas City wins out, it goes to a tiebreaker:

Pittsburgh remains the top seed since the Chiefs lost a divisional game to the Las Vegas Raiders.

If the Steelers lose to a divisional opponent and Kansas City wins out:

I don’t wanna go there. But I will. The next tiebreakers would be conference schedule, then strength of victory, and then strength of schedule.

The Chiefs are hot and look to be unstoppable. Do you see them losing to any of these teams? Maybe the New Orleans Saints; only if Drew Brees is back.

Club Announces Chiefs Wellness Program Presented by GEHA | The Mothership

Using a mixture of videos, graphics, articles and events, the program will feature weekly content from the Chiefs organization, which is slated to expand to include workout suggestions from the team’s strength and conditioning staff, meal recipes from the team’s food service professionals, and overall health tips from the team’s athletic training staff. The content will live on Chiefs.com and the Chiefs Mobile app, with program highlights being featured on the club’s social media platforms.

2021 NFL Mock Draft: Five QBs go off the board in top half of the first round; yet another deep WR class | CBS Sports

Wyatt Davis OL

Kansas City

The Chiefs don’t have a lot of holes on offense but Kelechi Osemele is an unrestricted free agent after the season and Andrew Wylie will be a restricted free agent. Davis is a road grader who is a Day 1 starter.

Around the NFL

Garrett from COVID-19 list, put Ronnie Harrison on IR | ESPN

The Browns activated defensive end Myles Garrett off the reserve/COVID-19 list Tuesday, clearing the way for the star pass-rusher to return Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

While Garrett is on his way back to the field, the Browns will be without safety Ronnie Harrison, whom the team placed on injured reserve Tuesday. A source told ESPN that Harrison could miss the rest of the regular season with a shoulder injury he suffered Sunday. Harrison is expected to be out four to six weeks, though there’s hope he could return before the playoffs, should the 8-3 Browns advance to the postseason.

2021 NFL salary cap conundrum: Three major consequences of projected decrease | NFL.com

2) Teams with less draft capital may be in for longer periods of hardship. One way teams can control spending is by having strong drafts with good, young players under their very manageable, four-year draft contracts. Consider the Seattle Seahawks, who struck gold in the 2012 NFL Draft with a haul that included DE Bruce Irvin, LB Bobby Wagner, QB Russell Wilson, RB Robert Turbin, CB Jeremy Lane and OG J.R. Sweezy. This ultimately helped the ‘Hawks win a bunch of playoff games in the ensuing three seasons (lost in the Divisional Round in 2012, won the Super Bowl in 2013, lost the Super Bowl in 2014).

On the contrary, some teams have given away a lot of draft capital of late in exchange for veteran talents who are often given top-of-the-market contracts. An example of this is the Laremy Tunsil trade between the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins in August of 2019: Houston traded two first-round picks, a second-rounder, CB Johnson Bademosi and OT Julie’n Davenport in exchange for the left tackle, wide receiver Kenny Stills, a fourth-round pick and a sixth-rounder. The Texans then gave Tunsil a three-year, $66 million extension last offseason. The trade left Houston without a 2020 first-round pick and a first- and second-rounder in 2021, all slots where they could’ve landed talented players for relatively cheap. Meanwhile, Tunsil’s massive contract will end up accounting for 10.8 percent of Houston’s cap next year, per Over The Cap.

It’s a risk to invest in veteran talent because the player may not fit well into your scheme or could get injured, among other things. That’s not to say decisions like this don’t pay off, but it’s certainly worth weighing the options before pulling the trigger on such moves, especially in this cap climate.

The Sanctity of the NFL Schedule Is Straining Its Teams | The Ringer

If you watched the NFL this weekend­—or plan to this week—you may have wondered what, exactly, that threshold might be. It was apparently not met in Sunday’s Denver–New Orleans game when Kendall Hinton completed one of nine passes for the Broncos. Hinton, a receiver for the Broncos’ practice squad, who started four games at quarterback for Wake Forest, was called up less than 24 hours before kickoff because every other quarterback on Denver’s roster was unavailable to play after testing positive or being exposed to COVID-19. Hinton had not met many of his coaches and teammates prior to Sunday because of social-distancing restrictions between players on the practice squad and those on the official roster. He was called up only after the NFL rejected the Broncos’ request to sign their offensive quality control coach, Rob Calabrese, who played quarterback at UCF from 2008 to 2010, to their active roster for the game. What the NFL didn’t do was move the game, so Hinton became the first non-quarterback to start an NFL game at the position since 1965, operating with about 10 percent of the playbook at his disposal.

Worst NFL playoff teams in history: 2020 NFC East champion set to join list | CBS Sports

2008 Chargers (8-8)

From 2004-09, the Chargers posted five winning seasons while averaging over 11 wins per season. The one season that saw the Chargers fail to post a winning record during that span was in 2008, when the Chargers won their final four regular season games after a 4-8 start. Darren Sproles’ 22-yard touchdown run in overtime gave the Chargers a win over the visiting Colts in the wild-card round. Despite Philip Rivers’ 308 passing yards and three touchdowns, the Chargers were unable to keep pace with the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers in the divisional round, as Pittsburgh ran for three scores while holding the Chargers to just 15 rushing yards in a 35-24 win.

The ‘08 season was the final one in San Diego for running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who finished his Hall of Fame career with the Jets.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Breaking down an all-time performance by Patrick Mahomes against the Buccaneers

On Sunday in Tampa, Brady was beat at his own game by a man with superior athletic traits and unrivaled arm talent.

Yes, Patrick Mahomes is able to do several things that Brady can’t on the football field, but in the fourth matchup between the two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, it was the kid that was putting on a technical show. The level of command of the offense Mahomes showed on Sunday looked like a quarterback that was 35 — not 25. He was processing the game at a rapid rate and letting natural gifts torch one of the better defenses in the National Football League to the tune of 462 yards and three touchdowns.

It was a masterful game from the best player in the world, and he only gained ground in the race for the regular-season MVP. If he plays as he did on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, he’ll earn a second MVP trophy on that same field in late February.

A tweet to make you think

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