Arrowheadlines: Taco Charlton is being overlooked as a potential sleeper

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2 underrated sleepers on Chiefs roster heading into 2021 NFL season | Clutch Points

Taco Charlton

Taco Charlton has had it rough since joining the league in 2017. He hasn’t lived up to expectations, and it was believed that he’d turn it all around in 2020. Instead, he only played seven games and finished with just seven total tackles, two sacks, and one forced fumble. With a full year to develop and learn with the Chiefs, Charlton could put himself back on track. If can live up to the expectations he had when he was first drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, the Chiefs pass rush could be dangerous this year.

Charlton is at his best when he runs freely at the quarterback. The Chiefs coaching staff is one of the best in the league and they’ll find a way to get him involved. Untapping his potential is essential for him, as this is possibly his last chance to prove himself. He has the teammates around him to alleviate any pressure, so things are looking up for Taco Charlton.

Projecting the stingiest NFL defenses, from first to worst | YardBarker

11. Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs saw a complete turnaround with their defense in 2019 by hiring coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and switching to the 4-3. They ranked top 10 in points allowed for the second consecutive season, with excellent play from their young corners and continued dominance from defensive tackle Chris Jones. The team has concerns on the edges with Frank Clark struggling last year and some free-agent losses, but have actually improved the defensive line by adding defensive tackle Jarran Reed. The promising young talent at the second and third levels, along with leadership from Tyrann Mathieu, should make the Chiefs strong again in 2021.

NFL’s Mount Rushmore: League’s all-time greatest influencers | Pro Football Network

Honorable Mentions

These men are staples of the NFL. However, they just missed out on the NFL Mount Rushmore.

Lamar Hunt

Without Lamar Hunt’s inability to purchase an NFL franchise, the league as we know it wouldn’t exist. He founded the AFL in 1960 and owned the Dallas Texans, who eventually moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs.

Hunt accidentally coined the term “Super Bowl” in a letter to then-commissioner Peter Rozelle. He’s also the one that pressed the commissioner to name the trophy after the terminally ill Vince Lombardi.

Ranking top 10 Super Bowl offenses ever: Will anyone beat the Greatest Show on Turf? Cowboys, Chiefs challenge | CBS Sports

7. 2019 Chiefs

With reigning league MVP Patrick Mahomes under center, the Chiefs scored 51, 35 and 31 points in their respective playoff victories while becoming the first team in league history to overcome three consecutive double-digit deficits in a single postseason. Down 20-10 late in Super Bowl LIV, Kansas City scored three unanswered touchdowns against the 49ers’ formidable defense. The comeback started when Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill on a 44-yard completion on a third-and-15 situation. It ended when running back Damien Williams (who scored the Chiefs’ go-ahead touchdown) ripped off a 38-yard touchdown run.

Alabama Roots: The 100 greatest careers of the NFL’s 101 seasons | Alabama.com

5. Buck Buchanan, defensive tackle (Parker High School in Birmingham)

Kansas City Chiefs 1963-1975: Pro Bowl 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971; All-Pro 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969; Super Bowl champion 1969, Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 1990.

Around the NFL

D.J. Chark on 2021 Jaguars: ‘We’re gonna shock a lot of people’ | NFL.com

During an interview on Friday’s edition of NFL Total Access, fourth-year receiver D.J. Chark spoke on the team’s expectations as it kicks off a new era under coach Urban Meyer.

“Just to go out there and compete, be better than what we were last year,” Chark told NFL Network’s Omar Ruiz. “The 1-15 season is somewhere that we don’t want to go back. Everyone that’s here understands that. The guys that came in came from a lot of winning programs so we’re trying to develop that winning culture and just that comradery here and I think we’re going to do really good. I think we’re gonna shock a lot of people. I’m not one of the people that’s huge on setting record goals or anything like that, or saying how many wins or losses we’re gonna have but we’re gonna be an exciting football team, for sure.”

From Aaron Rodgers to Deshaun Watson and more: Predicting the outcome of NFL’s most pressing situations | CBS Sports

Aaron Rodgers

Rodgers is enjoying having his foot on the neck of the Packers brass. This is not, and never has been, about opting out before July 2 and using the pandemic as a contract mechanism. This has been about making Mark Murphy and Co. feel what Rodgers felt himself when they ambushed him to move up and draft Jordan Love a year ago. This is about blowing up their timeline for a peaceful transition of power and trying to win a Super Bowl somewhere else.

I don’t expect to hear anything out of Rodgers’ camp until the start of camp, and maybe not even then. He isn’t worried about fines – he will be made more than whole whether that ends up in a redone deal in Green Bay or a new contract as part of a trade. I suspect he will let Cheesehead Nation get a nice look at what this offense looks like without him this summer – it will only end up strengthening his position – and then perhaps he will change his tune and come in on a horse made of Cheddar cheese to save their season. Or maybe he’ll sit out til they trade him. Regardless, I don’t see him flinching at all in the next few weeks.

NFL Players Coming Off Injury with Most to Prove in Training Camps | Bleacher Report

Ronnie Stanley, LT, Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley’s season ended just six games into 2020. An All-Pro the previous year, Stanley landed on injured reserve with a left ankle ailment and was replaced by Orlando Brown.

Brown made the Pro Bowl, only adding to the expectations for Stanley. Not only will the Notre Dame product need to live up to his five-year, $98.8 million contract, but he will also have to justify the Ravens’ trade of Brown to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Brown has as many Pro Bowl appearances as a left tackle as Stanley, though without him Baltimore no longer has an elite Plan B at the position.

Stanley appears on track to start in Week 1.

“He should be ready to open the season, for sure,” head coach John Harbaugh said June 15, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley.

Being ready and being in pre-injury form are two different things, of course, and Stanley must show the Ravens they still have a Pro Bowler to block Lamar Jackson’s blind side.

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