Chiefs biggest flaw is on the OL, and it’s not Orlando Brown

December 21, 2022 ndowd

Orlando Brown is an easy one to point fingers at, but the Kansas City Chiefs have even bigger concerns.

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have been forced to scramble 38 times this season — sixth-most in the NFL. Looking at times hurried, the Chiefs are second-worst in the league at 48.

Thank goodness they have a wizard for a quarterback, because if not, the offensive line would be catching a whole lot more blame. But in fact, perhaps it’s worth applying some criticism even though the Chiefs have found a way to persevere beyond some of these pressing issues.

Orlando Brown has been the subject of most of the criticism, a known violator of the Chiefs’ biggest flaw: Their offensive line. But the issue cuts far deeper than that.

Chiefs have offensive line issues with far more than just Orlando Brown

Yes, Orlando Brown has been a huge sore spot for the Chiefs, but take a look, he’s far from the sole proprietor of those giving up opportunities to opposing pass rushers:

The offensive tackle who has given up the most pressures this year is actually a three-way tie between Dennis Daley…and both starters for the Chiefs – Orlando Brown Jr. and Andrew Wylie.

They’ve all given up 43 pressures this year, still with three more games to go.

— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) December 19, 2022

Here’s how the starting offensive lineman grade per Pro Football Focus, along with sacks allowed:

Orlando Brown: 73.3; 4
Joe Thuney: 75.9; 1
Creed Humphrey: 87.6; 0
Trey Smith: 74.3; 2
Andrew Wylie: 62.6; 7

Brown and Wylie have combined for 11 sacks. Either of them alone accounts for more sacks than the rest of the starting offensive line combined.

Wylie, though, has given up seven, three more than Brown. That differential is more than Thuney, Humphrey, and Smith combined.

He is, by far, the sore spot, and his 62.6 grade per PFF proves it. While Chiefs fans have reason to hate the PFF grading system, it’s actually a lot better at grading offensive linemen than it is quarterbacks.

Give some credit to Thuney, Humphrey, and Smith… They’re doing what they can to keep Mahomes from getting collapsed on with any sort of pressure. On the outside, though, there is a major deficiency.

It’s a good thing the Chiefs have one of the best passing wizards in the NFL. They’re averaging 7.9 yards per scramble (that’s a total of over 300 yards this season on scrambles; 21.44 per game), much of that credit to Mahomes being able to make something out of nothing when Brown and Wylie go into turnstile mode.

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