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The Kansas City Chiefs have long boasted one of the best tight ends in the NFL with Travis Kelce. Seemingly, he has only continued to get better with age. His unique instincts both before and after the catch are somehow rarely counteracted by even the league’s best defenders. Entering 2023, the Chiefs are quietly among the best when it comes to their tight end depth behind Kelce.
Kansas City increased their usage of multiple tight end sets last year. Obviously, the Chiefs were already among the most explosive and efficient offenses in the NFL. Utilizing multiple tight ends would usually indicate that the offense would see more success as a rushing attack. But as we will hit on down the road, Kansas City actually became more challenging to defend through the air when going with this particular offensive personnel.
Why do the multiple tight end sets make the Chiefs more dangerous? In what areas was Kansas City most successful when going this route? Based on how this worked out last year, multiple tight end sets will once again be crucial for the Chiefs in 2023. Let’s kick it off.
Mahomes Was Essentially Perfect When Attacking Out Of This Personnel
Patrick Mahomes is already one of the most difficult quarterbacks to defend in the NFL. Before 2022, Kansas City was mainly using Kelce as the only tight end on the field. They ran 11 personnel 67 percent of the time in 2021. Yet, gone are names like Tyreek Hill, Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson from the wide receiver room last year. Kansas City added a lot more size and physicality to the wide receiver room in 2022, largely with JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Perhaps, a drop in overall speed led to the greater usage of multiple tight end sets. Overall, Kansas City went from running 11 personnel 67 percent of the time in 2021 to using it just 55.7 percent of the time in 2022. Interestingly, the Chiefs went 13 personnel, three tight end sets, 9.9 percent of the time last year. That was good enough for the third-highest rate in the NFL. All in all, this allowed Kansas City to keep defenses on their toes.
A greater dichotomy in how the Chiefs were using their tight end depth forced opposing defenses to sit on their heels, rather than pin their ears back. Mahomes was pinpoint when throwing out of 13 personnel in 2022. He finished with nine touchdown passes and zero interceptions out of that alignment. Mahomes also finished with a completion percentage of 77.4 and averaged a splendid 11.2 yards per pass attempt.
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Depth Tight Ends Bring Well-Rounded Skill Sets
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We all know just how lethal Kelce can be. You can flex him out wide or motion him inside from out wide to the slot, if necessary. Just from a pre-snap perspective, Kelce already creates so many headaches for defenses. Though, the skill sets of the depth tight ends of Kansas City is what truly made the multiple tight end sets so deadly.
Jody Fortson is rarely, if ever, going to get outmuscled for a jump ball in contested catch situations. His added athleticism and length make for a bumpy ride when defenders are looking to bring him down in the middle of the field. Elsewhere, Noah Gray can offer a smooth and savvy route running style, not necessarily having to win immediately with separation. He can also catch opponents off guard with his ability in contested catch situations. Finally, Blake Bell is going to be a physical force that defenses will have to respect vertically. He can also be effective as a blocker and when Kansas City looks to run sneaks up the middle after motioning the tight end behind the center.
This group is versatile in an offense led by one of the most creative play designers in NFL history. With Andy Reid having this many toys to play with, the Chiefs are able to pick their poison at seemingly any moment. Simply put, Kansas City can count on any one of these tight ends to handle the dirty work or to spark an explosive play.
Chiefs Can Open Up Offense Even Further In Dirty Areas With Multiple Tight Ends
The Chiefs may have more notable wide receiver depth entering 2023, compared to where that sat entering 2022. Kansas City is undoubtedly still facing some questions at that spot, nonetheless. With that in mind, the multiple tight end sets will still be crucial for their offensive success this year. This largely stems from the physicality that the Chiefs can offer from certain components of the offensive unit.
For starters, Isiah Pacheco is one of the more hard-nosed runners, due to his running style. He will basically be able to land body blow after body blow against the defense. Then you have the ruggedness of the Chiefs tight end room. Kansas City can play off of those body shots that the defense is taking and open up the offense even further. With their spread attack, the Chiefs can either condense or compress the middle of the field. This can lead to more options in dirty areas or in low-percentage situations.
For instance, the Chiefs were not very consistent when rushing on third and short the last couple of years. Multiple tight end sets helped them navigate those down and distances much smoother. On top of that, the red zone success rate with the multiple tight ends took pressure off of the wide receivers down in the shallow areas. With a continually evolving wide receiver group, Kansas City must pursue taking as much pressure off of them with this rare tight end depth.
Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.
– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.