The Kansas City Chiefs have seen their path to the No. 1 seed in the AFC get much tougher in recent weeks. They have lost two games in a row and three out of their last four, dropping their record to 8-5 on the season.
All of a sudden, even their grip on the AFC West lead has become tenuous. The Denver Broncos, who split the season series with the Chiefs, are only one game behind as they have won six out of their last seven games.
A big reason for the Chiefs’ recent struggles has been the performance of their offense. A once explosive and dominant unit has scored under 20 points in four out of the team’s last six games, all of which have been losses.
The defense has been doing all it can to keep the team afloat, but even that side of the ball has a few flaws that need to be worked out. In the opinion of Jacob Milham of Arrowhead Addict, defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi has been a huge letdown.
“Derrick Nnadi was an easy defensive player to pick on over the past three seasons,” he explained. “The former third-round pick has been in Kansas City for six years now and has not done much outside of pile-up snaps and starts.”
“He had a few decent games this season,” Milham acknowledged, “but PFF has him graded as the worst-qualified defensive tackle in the league. His performance Sunday only reinforced that further.”
Nnadi had a few major miscues during the game that played a part in the 20-17 loss. He missed a tackle during Josh Allen’s touchdown scamper and a timeout had to be burned when he was late subbing into the game.
While it isn’t solely Nnadi’s fault, the Chiefs did struggle to stop the run on Sunday. The Bills averaged 5.8 yards per carry, consistently picking up chunk yards to keep the chains moving. Outside of Chris Jones, no lineman was able to make plays for Kansas City.
Because of that, Milham believes a major change should be made. Nnadi shouldn’t be in the starting lineup and eventually, moved on from altogether.
“Chiefs fans have been saying it for years. Nnadi needs to go,” Milham concluded. “These are his prime playing years, and he is still being blocked deep downfield, missing tackles, and not being impactful. Sunday was a rough game for Nnadi, a common occurrence this season.”
Addressing a position of need during the season is difficult, especially with the salary cap concerns the Chiefs have. But, in the offense, expect defensive tackle to be among the team’s biggest needs along with wide receiver help for Mahomes and the offense.
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