The regular season is finally here as the Chiefs are preparing to open up their season against the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road. There are plenty of storylines to keep an eye out for this season as the Chiefs try to make a Super Bowl run. Here are five things to watch as the Chiefs take on the Jaguars on Sunday:
Running back rotation
The Chiefs are loaded at the running back position, especially with the recent acquisition of LeSean McCoy.
It will be interesting to see how Andy Reid utilizes all of the running backs against the Jaguars. In my opinion, the Chiefs feature back will still be Damien Williams with McCoy and Darwin Thompson getting some reps off of the bench. Reid did say that both McCoy and Williams would be the starters, but since McCoy has only been with the team for a week I would imagine him getting a pretty light workload to start.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chiefs practiced packages this week that utilize multiple running backs. All three of those running backs have shown to do some damage in the passing game, so I wouldn’t be surprised to the Chiefs bring out a couple running backs one of them splitting out wide to take advantage of some mismatches with the Jaguars defense.
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The nearly complete defense
The Chiefs defense is finally all coming together and fans will be able to see what Tyrann Mathieu, Frank Clark, Chris Jones and others all look in the new defensive scheme that Steve Spagnuolo has brought to the team this season.
This is a defense that has been completely remade, making it that much harder for the Jaguars to gameplan against. They’ve seen a few vanilla snaps from them during the preseason, but that’s it. Spagnuolo also had a full year off from football to work on his scheme and add in a few exotic looks that he might not have used before.
You should also keep in mind that there are most likely still some kinks to work out and the defense may still struggle in the early part of the season. It’s a new defense so there may be some communication issues or confusion at times but the players will only get more comfortable as they go.
This will also be a great test for the Chiefs cornerbacks as they’ll take on the former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles. The Chiefs are without cornerback Mo Claiborne, so it will be up to Charvarius Ward, Kendall Fuller, Bashaud Breeland and Rashad Fenton to help slow down the Jaguars offense. Questions remain about this group, so keep a close eye on their performances throughout the game.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brett Veach make a move before the trade deadline if the secondary struggles this Sunday and further into the regular season.
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Hill vs. Ramsey
It’s round two of the Tyreek Hill vs. Jalen Ramsey saga as Ramsey will be shadowing Hill during the game. Last season Ramsey had some shade for Patrick Mahomes number one weapon calling Tyreek Hill a Pro Bowl return specialist. Hill then made a few plays against the Ramsey in their week 5 matchup, but both teams are different this season and it will be interesting to see how these two great players go against each other.
The Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash said that Ramsey has matured from his early years with the league. That helped to make the team’s decision to have Ramsey follow Hill throughout the game. They did this a little bit in 2018, but not on every snap. It will surely be a battle as Ramsey is still one of the top corners in the league and will attempt to cover one of the fastest players in the NFL.
Also, an important note to keep in mind, Hill just signed a massive contract extension with the Chiefs. He’ll be seeking to prove the Chiefs’ investment a worthy one.
Who will take this round of the fight?
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MVPat
This will be the first time fans are going to be able to see Patrick Mahomes play in a real football game since the AFC championship. There has been some chatter about Mahomes potentially having a down year, but after watching him during the preseason it looks like he has only improved.
Mahomes will have a good test against a solid Jaguars defense, but I expect him to come out victorious. He has a lot to prove against this particular team after they gave him fits in Week 5 of 2018. I don’t think it will be the scripted plays or the gameplan that gets the job done, I think Mahomes takes over the game and looks as good as ever.
This is only the start of what could be another MVP season for Mahomes if he goes out and has a big game to begin the season. I believe Mahomes is going to catch people off guard again this year with how good he is all while creating highlight plays for all of us to fawn over.
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Ejections
The last couple times the Chiefs have played the Jaguars the two teams have had players disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct. This can be traced back to when Travis Kelce was disqualified for throwing his towel at a referee in 2016, although the altercation was not at the Jaguars you could tell that they were getting under his skin.
Last year there were multiple players disqualified in the Week 5 matchup with Chris Jones punching an opponent and Dee Ford was also ejected for supposedly taunting Blake Bortles.
It will be interesting to see how much this plays an impact in Week 1. It should be noted that one of the Jaguars starting linebackers from 2018, Telvin Smith is taking the year off from football. Smith had plenty to say about the Chiefs going into the 2018 matchup which could have played a big impact on ejections and chippiness in last year’s game.
Is the fire still there or has everyone left that behind them? You will have to tune in at noon to find out.
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