Football Game Planning: Ways to defend the Chiefs 2023 Offense and Travis Kelce
The Chiefs are one of the best offenses in the league and Andy Reid continues to run great schemes that are highly effective. The Chiefs have an excellent offensive line, excellent run game with Pachecho, a great qb and a top 5 TE in Travis Kelce. He is a top receiver and continues to dominate at his position. They are below average on the outside but those players have made enough plays when presented with one on one matchups to continue to win.
They are top 10 in several offensive categories
Questions to ask when game planning against the Chiefs:
Who is going to take the top off of your defense. Is their a guy on their team that will beat you vertically.
Andy Reid is one of the best at scheming against zone coverage.
What do you play in those 3rd and 3 situations to help against those pick, rub route scenarios
How to you limit Kelce in the pass game? Who covers him in man to man?
Do we need to bring 8 guys in the box or do we dare them to run the football
12p vs 11p, coverages to use in those scenarios.
How to handle all the motions and stack formations that they run.
So some of the the game plan will be as follows:
Coverages I would rely on are cover 2, cover 4, cover 24 and 2 man hole to Kelce, man free and even some cover 0 pressures. I would look to play robber in numerous situations with the safeties diving in those lurk, hole type coverages from a 2 deep look. They’ve eaten up cover 3 vs the Bears and Lions because they are so good with their site adjustments. They do a great job finding space in those scenarios.
bracket Kelce and double him when possible. Take him away and make someone else beat you. Even play some weasel, Man on him and cover 2 with everyone else
If you double, play outside leverage with the man on him and help to the inside. This is imperative especially when he is in the slot.
Send 3 and 4 man pressures with a spy(especially when playing man) He is a threat to run and make plays at times so I don’t want Mahomes to get lose. Adding in once he scrambles will force him to the sideline and off his point.
Mix in some 5 man pressures with man coverage. This can be done in a variety of ways.
Stay away from cover 3 weak or strong unless it’s 12 personnel and the situation dictates it
In the pass game:
The game plan starts with where Kelce is at the time of snap. Don’t get caught up with Kelce on the outside. When he is inside is where he does his damage. The Chiefs do have other option.
Zone Coverages
Understand that the Chiefs are exceptional at running their concepts against zone. How many times do you see Kelce run an option route and tear a zone defense apart. Their aren’t too many players better than him at running option type routes.
Play 4 deep coverages against him. I like mixing in cover 2, cover 42(4 to one side, 2 to another as well as cover 4. Another option is to play man on the 1 wr side vs 3x1 and zone to the other side. You can run a few variations. (Part of it depends on where Kelce is) If he’ single I may be more inclined to lock on him. If he’s to the 3 wr side maybe not as much.
They tore about most cover 3 looks in their games this year and it’s very tough to play 3 because of how well they are at site adjustments. The first pass should be an easy completion and the 2nd one is with the nice sail concept off their post wheel series.
Bracket
You can run some bracket concepts against Kelce doubling him with inside outside concepts. They did it with zone coverage and man to man concepts.
They ran some other concepts but mostly ran some double teams making someone else beat them. This was very effective.
Example #1
zone bracket(You can see the concept below in cover 3 with the sam and ILB essentially doubling Kelce. Kelce is in the middle between the hashes with 2 players around him. Mahomes sees it and works off him downfield.
Kelce does beat the coverage but it’s too late as Mahomes came off it and threw the go route. It's incomplete.
Again, Kelce isn’t open early which forces the read and Mahomes goes deep on it. His initial eyes were on Kelce.
Example #2 (bracket)
On a crucial play late in the game vs the Colts, they bracket Kelce again. Also, they spy Mahomes which we get to next with a 3 man rush with a LB playing him. This is important because when Mahomes scrambles you have a LB to add in and force the issue. He loves and is effective making plays on the run.
The bracket concept gets Mahomes eyes on Schuster.
The man on the bottom of the screen is effective. They also spy causes some disruption and changes the passing lane.
The double on Kelce took him out of the equation and they went to the other option, Schuster who was well defended and they get the interception to seal the game.
Example #3
The Dolphins Bracket Kelce with the mike playing inside and the Safety playing him outside.
Example #4
They play 2 man with the weak safety doubling Kelce. They also spy with a LB that does a nice job on Mahomes.
They have a spy on and are sending a 3 man rush. The spy is with LB EJ Speed. They decide to spy him with a more athletic LB.
They force the scramble and get the great pressure as everything is covered downfield.
Example #4
Again, they take Kelce away but Mahomes makes a ridiculous throw downfield. He scrambles and makes a play that should have been knocked down.
Sometimes great players make great plays! That’s a great play coming off his read and throwing on the run.
Spying Mahomes
They spied Mahomes often with 3 man pressures and also with 4 man pressures. They took advantage of the Speed of their LB EJ Speed and used him as a spy guy. This was effective as he often waited and let Mahomes scramble and was waiting for him. This was evident on the 3rd down below.
Man Coverage 4 man rush
I would rely heavily on man concepts, both man free, 2 man hole and some cover 0 pressures. I know the league wide average is 2& but I would throw at least 2-3 in there. The Jaguars go man free hole vs 3x1 but the db plays the curl rather than helping on the crossing route. Again recognize whose out there, the Chiefs wr aren’t very good this year at getting seperation. He should have helped on the crossing route.
5 man pressures with Man Coverage
The Colts in 2022 sprinkled in some 5 man pressures against Mahomes. This was effective as they forced him into some quick decisions. They didn’t do it often but the few times they did it they got home on it. The coverage was man free with the safety playing the RB with the will pressure.
They got a matchup on Mckinney which they created with the game below.
You can see the blitz below with the will LB.
The concept gets home with excellent coverage down field. Here is the tight version. Watch the LB block the tackle and execute the stunt nicely.
You can see the pick by the LB below and he frees the DE up for the sack.
THE DE comes clean and does a tremendous job as he beats the RB.
In the 2nd example, they free release the RB and the Will LB comes clean and does a great job getting pressure. Another efficient snap by the Colts defense.
Short Yardage
3rd and 3 and 4th and short situations.
They love their rub routes, Hard to go man all the time vs them. They are very efficient in these situations. Like below, do you go man and really try to get underneath it or play cover 2 from a 1 high disguise look.
WEll these are some of the ways you can try to defend the Chiefs and take Kelce out of the game and try to limit Mahomes big play ability.
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