Chiefs\u2019 starters would see some action<\/a>, giving us one more chance to see the team before the regular season begins in two weeks.<\/p>\n1. Right tackle and left guard<\/p>\n
A week ago, Jaylon Moore got the nod at right tackle while Jawaan Taylor stayed out of the game. Taylor had been coming back from an injury during the offseason, so we assume the Chiefs didn\u2019t want to risk aggravating it. But Moore did a fine job in his place, leading to speculation that Kansas City might consider giving Moore the starting job.<\/p>\n
At left guard, Kingsley Suamataia once again struggled with pass protection in Seattle. The team has also considered playing Moore at left guard, but we have yet to see this in a preseason matchup. Reid has often said that \u201cthe best five\u201d offensive linemen will play. If Moore ends up in this group, he could end up playing right tackle or left guard at some point this season.<\/p>\n
2. Depth at defensive end<\/p>\n
Defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah suffered a hamstring injury during the waning moments of the Seahawks game. The injury was severe enough that he landed on the Chiefs\u2019 Reserve\/Injured list, where he could spend the whole season. This came just one week after defensive end Janarius Robinson went onto IR after fracturing his foot in the preseason Week 1 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n
Both players were primed to make the roster. Other players will need to step up.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs\u2019 only defensive ends with NFL experience are George Karlaftis, Mike Danna, Charles Omenihu and Malik Herring. Karlaftis, Danna and Omenihu have all been key cogs in the defense during the past two seasons. In some situations, we\u2019ve even seen them on the field simultaneously. Herring has mostly been a reserve player.<\/p>\n
Rookie defensive end Ashton Gillotte will probably hear his number called most often \u2014 but after that, it gets murky. Watch to see how often Gillotte is out there.<\/p>\n
One of training camp\u2019s standouts has been rookie linebacker Jeff Bassa. The Oregon product still needs some development, but he has made an impact on defense and special teams during the first two preseason games.<\/p>\n
Reserve linebacker Jack Cochrane will miss Friday\u2019s game with an injury, which sets the table for Bassa to play more snaps as an inside linebacker as he continues to adjust to the NFL\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n
So far, Bassa has made most of his plays by using his downhill attacking style as a blitzer. He can improve in two areas: reading plays as they happen and playing within the defense. While big hits (and big plays) are crowd-pleasers, Bassa must learn to get more comfortable reading and reacting to what is in front of him.<\/p>\n
You should be able to see him grow as a player.<\/p>\n
4. Wide receiver Nikko Remigio<\/p>\n
The Chiefs traded wideout Skyy Moore to the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday, opening the door for Nikko Remigio to have a serious shot at once again making the 53-man roster. Throughout training camp, Remigio was competing to return as the team\u2019s punt returner \u2014 but because of the depth the Chiefs have at the position, he\u2019s not had many opportunities to show what he can do on offense.<\/p>\n
He will still have to compete for time \u2014 and if players like Tyquon Thornton or Brashard Smith show they can return punts and contribute to the offense, that will make things more difficult for Remigio.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see how he responds to the situation.<\/p>\n
5. Player management and injuries<\/p>\n
The best training camp and preseason is one where there are few injuries. The only key players to miss extended time during the preseason have been Hollywood Brown and Drue Tranquill, while the core of the Chiefs\u2019 roster has remained relatively healthy.<\/p>\n
Getting quality conditioning and snaps in is important \u2014 but going into Week 1 of the regular season, nothing outweighs having a healthy roster.<\/p>\n
Reid and his coaches have historically done a tremendous job at managing players\u2019 preseason snaps to get the best of both worlds \u2014 and Friday night shouldn\u2019t be any different.<\/p>\n
16 Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday night, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Chicago Bears for their first (and only) home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[51435,9373,9374,349,99],"class_list":["post-102920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-preseason","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-game-information","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-roster","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}