Kansas City Chiefs

Head Coach: Andy Reid (4th year)
Offensive Coordinator(s): Brad Childress (1st year) & Matt Nagy (1st year)
Defensive Coordinator: Bob Sutton (4th year)

Depth Chart

Quarterbacks: Alex Smith, Aaron Murray
Running Backs: Jamaal Charles, Charcandrick West, Spencer Ware, Knile Davis
Wide Receivers: Jeremy Maclin, Albert Wilson, Chris Conley, Rod Streater, Tyreek Hill (r)
Tight End: Travis Kelce
Kicker: Cairo Santos
Defense/Spec Teams: 2015-finished 7th in yards against, 3rd in points against. Finished 4th in sacks and 2nd in interceptions.

Coaching Philopsophy

Former offensive coordinator, Doug Pederson has jumped ship to become the head coach of the Eagles, and now former quarterbacks coach, Matt Nagy and newcomer (but old-timer) Brad Childress will be “co-offensive coordinators” for the Chiefs. Make no mistake though, while Andy Reid is the head coach, the Chiefs will still run the west coast offense. That means it will once again be a system where they run a lot of short, quick routes rather than take a lot of shots downs the field. This plays into the strengths of quarterback, Alex Smith who is a smart quarterback, but doesn’t have the biggest arm in the league. The running backs should also play a major role in the passing game as well.

Fantasy Outlook

Chiefs Quarterbacks

With an arm like that, it’s not surprising that he is more impressive in the “dink and dunk” passing game.

Veteran, Alex Smith will begin his fourth season with Andy Reid and the Chiefs and is coming off a very productive 2015.  He threw for a career high 3,486 yards, ran for a career high 498 yards and also threw for 20 touchdowns, which was the second highest total of his career. He may not throw for a ton of yards, but he ran for 30+ yards in eight of his 16 games last year which helped his fantasy value tremendously. That allowed him to finish as the 15th highest scoring, fantasy quarterback in 2015. At 32 years old, he should still have some tread left on the tires and should have a similarly good season in 2016. Holding him back is the slow pace that an Andy Reid, offense operates in (they finished 27th in plays from scrimmage last season) as well as having three very good running backs to take the load off his shoulders. Regardless, Smith should still be a very solid QB2 in 2016.

Third year quarterback, Aaron Murray looks to be the primary backup to Smith and is still waiting for his first official NFL throw. He shouldn’t be on your fantasy radar.

Chiefs Running Backs

Jamaal Charles is as happy to be on the field again as Ryan Hallam is when the new Victoria’s Secret catalogue comes.

The Chiefs finished sixth in the NFL in rushing yards in last year and they did it despite not having all-pro running back, Jamaal Charles for three quarters of the season. Charles suffered a torn ACL in a Week 5 matchup against the Bears and missed the rest of the season. It was his second ACL tear since 2011 (it was on the opposite knee, however), so health will be a concern going forward. When healthy, he’s almost a lock to be a top ten fantasy running back. Here’s an interesting stat on Jamaal Charles. He has been in the league since 2008 and he’s never had a season where he averaged less than 5.0 yards per carry over the course of the year. He is also very active in the passing game and should be a good candidate for 40+ receptions again this season. I think the Chiefs will make sure to limit Charles’ exposure to limit injury risk, so I think 200 carries is a reasonable estimate, putting him in the vicinity of 1100 yards for 2016. He also has a nose for the end zone and should see seven to nine touchdowns as well. I would feel comfortable drafting Charles as a top ten back, but just know that you may want to consider handcuffing him if you draft him, just to hedge your bet in case he goes down.

Who is going to be Charles’ handcuff this season? That’s a good question because they have two good options in Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware. Both got a good amount of work last season, so let’s look at their production. For early down work, Ware proved much more effective. He had half as many carries as West, but averaged 5.6 yards per carry versus only 4.0 yards per carry for Charcandrick. Ware was also much better at finding the end zone as he had six touchdowns in 72 rushing attempts versus four for West in 160 carries. West was the much better pass catching back, however as he had 20 receptions versus six for Ware. In a nutshell, I think both will have value, but Ware could be the early down and goal line back while West could see third down work. If I wanted to handcuff Charles, as of now, I would lean Ware but this is definitely a situation to monitor this summer.

Chiefs Wide Receivers

Jeremy Maclin didn’t get the memo that he wasn’t on Chip Kelly’s fast paced, offense last season.

Jeremy Maclin was absolutely fantastic last season. Going from Chip Kelly’s, fast paced offense to Andy Reid’s, slow paced one, I expected a decent regression from him last season. However, he still caught 87 receptions, compared to 85 the season before. He had almost 1,100 yards and had eight touchdowns which helped him finish as the 15th best fantasy wide receiver in 2015. With no real change in weapons, I see Maclin having similar success again this season. He is a legit WR2 and should be a good selection in the late third or fourth round of fantasy drafts this summer.

The number two and three wide receiver jobs should go to Albert Wilson and Chris Conley. Wilson saw a majority of second wide receiver duty last year, but Conley has much more natural ability. With the Chiefs running a conservative offense centered around Charles, Maclin and tight end Travis Kelce, neither is very relevant in 12 team leagues. If you want an upside guy, I would prefer Conley over Wilson so if you are in a deep league and want a late round flier, Conley would fit that bill.

Chiefs Tight Ends

I thought that 2015 was going to be the breakout season for Chiefs’ tight end, Travis Kelce. Instead, he put up almost identical numbers to his 2014 season. That in itself wasn’t’ necessarily a bad thing as he still finished as the eight best tight end in fantasy football, but I really thought he has the potential to finish as a top five tight end and maybe even top three. Will he take that step this season? I think we see modest improvements from the talented tight end. 900 yards and 6-7 touchdowns are a realistic goal and that would put him as a borderline top five tight end. The good part about Kelce is that he has a pretty high fantasy floor, so if you draft him, you can rest easy that you will get good, consistent production from the tight end position.

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