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KANSAS CITY, MO – NOVEMBER 29: Chris Conley
Things sure do change a lot in just a year. This time last September, the Kansas City Chiefs were a formidable contender whose success started on the defensive side of the ball.
Today, the Chiefs are again heading into the season with the “contender” label, but it’s the offense that looks like it’ll lead the way. Thanks to a legitimate number one receiver, the most dangerous tight end after the catch, the league’s deepest stable of running backs, and a dual-threat quarterback who fits the system like a glove, the Chiefs offense is finally dangerous.
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But even with all of the above – and an improved offensive line to boot – it still may not be enough in a division that boasts the Broncos and, vastly improved, Raider defenses. For this offense to truly go toe-to-toe with the league’s stingiest defense, it needs something the franchise hasn’t in at least the last decade or two: a number two receiver.
Now I could be coming off as greedy here seeing as how we just got a true number one last year in Maclin, but Kansas City is far from the wide receiver factory that it is for running backs and tight ends. Go back to the Bowe years, who was the most dangerous threat to line up across from him? Donnie Avery? Dexter McCluster? Steve Breaston?! That list is almost as depressing as the list of QBs we trotted out during those years (two words – Tyler Palko).
The great Albert Wilson experiment of 2015 didn’t quite live up to expectations, so Andy Reid decided 2016 is Chris Conley’s opportunity to drag the Chiefs out of WR2 purgatory. Does the second year receiver offer any hope? Well, his preseason tape shows some promise.
Let’s start with Conley’s most impressive play this preseason in Week 2 against the Rams. Here, Conley is at the top of the screen lined up one-on-one against the corner in man coverage. With no safety help over the top, Reid has the perfect play-call lined up and Conley executes perfectly.
Conley runs a stutter go route and absolutely shakes the corner. He throws in a little inside shoulder shift during his stutter which causes the corner to take a false-step, giving Conley all the room separation he needed.
After he separates, Conley does a fantastic job of tracking the ball in air, hauling it in, and getting as much YAC as possible. These are the kind of plays we saw far too infrequently from this position last season and will help open things up for guys like Maclin and Kelce.
Something else which Conley demonstrated more than a few times in the preseason was his ability to finish plays. Conley is a monster at 6-foot-2 and 213 pounds, and he shows every bit of that size when he has the ball in his hands.
With the ball in his hands, Conley is not only big enough to run effortlessly through arm tackles, but he’s also got the agility and speed to make defenders whiff altogether. It’s pretty much a necessity in a successful west coast offense for the skill position players to be playmakers with the ball in their hands, and Conley looks to fit that bill.
I also want to highlight something that Conley does which is becoming somewhat of an underrated trait in wide receivers.
When Conley makes a catch, he immediately turns the ball upfield. Particularly on comeback routes, receivers are spending too much time dancing around rather than maximizing yards after catch (both Maclin and Wilson are guilty of this). Must admit, it’s quite refreshing to see the second year pro buck the trend.
The final positive I took away from Conley’s preseason is he shows the ability to run more intricate routes fairly well. We saw that on the stutter go route above, but check out Conley at the top of the screen here:
Once again, Conley is showing some wiggle in his route-running. One of the knocks on Conley coming out of school was he needs to add some polish to his route-running. Given what he showed during the preseason, it looks as though those offseason workouts with Maclin have helped Conley do just that.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a few areas in which Conley needs to improve if he is to become the WR2 this offense needs; his ability to deal with getting jammed at the line of scrimmage and his timing with Alex Smith are two that jump to mind. But two things are apparent when watching Conley this preseason: there is real improvement from his rookie year, and Conley looks to be more than a one-trick pony.
Now, it’s time to see if a promising young Chief receiver can produce when the games actually mean something.
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