We all remember what happened to the Chiefs’ patchwork offensive line in Super Bowl LV — the Buccaneers’ defense pretty much killed it, pressuring Patrick Mahomes on 31 of his 56 dropbacks (per Pro Football Focus), and forcing Mahomes into some ugly numbers under pressure — 9 of 26 for 78 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception in Tampa Bay’s 31-9 win. After the season was over, the Chiefs released offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz, both of whom were not able to play in the big game.
In late April, just before the draft, the Chiefs traded their 2021 first-round pick (No. 31 overall), their 2021 third-round pick (No. 94), their 2021 fourth-round pick (No. 136), and a 2022 fifth-round pick to the Ravens in exchange for offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., Baltimore’s 2021 second-round pick (No. 58 overall), and a 2022 sixth-round pick. The move to get Brown solidifies the left tackle spot, and the second-round pick of Oklahoma center Creed Humphrey in the 2021 draft put some more power in that front five.
Why the Chiefs may have hit the jackpot in the Orlando Brown trade
Geoff Schwartz, former NFL offensive lineman and brother of Mitchell Schwartz, pointed this out from the Chiefs’ training camp video:
We are eating breaking in the hotel and my wife was asking why I’m basically giddy over a football video. So I gave her a lesson. pic.twitter.com/iKpUEocmbT
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) July 31, 2021
Mitchell Schwartz was also impressed.
Extremely well blocked play across the board! But the best block here is actually by @creed_humphrey on the N. When you’re back blocking and drive that guy 4-5 yards downfield, that’s the good stuff https://t.co/Pzw49WDqlO
— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) July 31, 2021
If the Chiefs are about to move away a bit from inside and outside zone to more of a power/counter/trap/pull man-on-man series of blocking schemes, they couldn’t have done much better from a personnel perspective than Brown and Humphrey. Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, the Ravens ran more straight-up man-on-man stuff, and power blocking with pulling guards, than any other NFL team, and it wasn’t particularly close — 363 snaps.. The Patriots ranked second with 256 overall. In the run game on those concepts, Baltimore led the league with 313 rushing attempts for a league-leading 1,899 yards, a league-leading 862 yards after contact, a league-leading 105 first downs, and a league-leading 15 touchdowns.
The Chiefs weren’t even in the ballpark — they had 102 rushing attempts on such concepts for 497 yards, 201 yards after contact, 31 first downs, and three touchdowns. Obviously, Baltimore’s run game is more complex, and far more of a staple than Kansas City’s, but you can’t blame Andy Reid for wanting to flip the script, if that’s the idea.
In addition, as he showed in this rep against Cleveland edge-rusher Myles Garrett last season, Brown (no. 78) has quite enough practice in protecting his mobile quarterback from pressure over an extended period of time. Blocking for Lamar Jackson will tend to make that happen.
As for Humphrey, selected out of Oklahoma with the 63rd overall pick, he was quite the bully in power schemes. From 2018 through 2020, again per SiS, the Sooners ran man of some sort on 48% of their rushes, and Humphrey was responsible for blowing things up to his gap to the tune of 6.9 yards per carry.
Interestingly enough, Brown and Humphrey were teammates at Oklahoma, as well — Humphrey was redshirting for the Sooners in 2017, which was Brown’s last season there before the Ravens selected him in the third round of the 2018 draft.
The connection appears to be strong here.
“Orlando told us to go get Creed.”
– Coach Reid on Orlando Brown Jr talking up his former OU teammate. Now they’re teammates once again in KC.
— Matt McMullen (@KCChiefs_Matt) May 1, 2021
Brown, new left guard Joe Thuney, and Humphrey all have the athletic attributes and understanding to present more power to opposing defensive lines. Add in tackle Lucas Niang, a second-year third-rounder who is highly regarded in the organization, and you have the makings of a front five capable of presenting as much power as necessary to opposing defenses.
What might this look like? We got a bit of a preview last season — the Chiefs signed veteran left guard Kelechi Osemele last July, and when healthy, Osemele showed that he was more than happy to go old-school and take people to the woodshed. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who gained 138 yards and scored a touchdown on 25 carries against the Texans in the 2020 season opener, seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. Knee issues limited Osemele to just five games last season, but he showed a particular paradigm that the Chiefs appear to be extending for the 2021 season. Not that the Chiefs will entirely scrap their zone concepts, but don’t be surprised if Reid and his staff want to give defenses that much more to think about as his team tries to get to the Super Bowl for the third straight season.
How Kelechi Osemele expands and perfects the Chiefs’ impossible offense