Andy Reid’s CONFIDENCE in Kahlil Benson Could BACKFIRE for Kansas City Chiefs

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1:29Thanks for joining us here on What is going to be a Friday show that is not our normal game preview. We'll have that for you on Sunday and I get ready for for Monday's action on Monday night. Football. I'm not Chris Clark. He's Chris Clark from Casey Chiefs Corner. I'm Ryan Tracy from Archie, our football and NFL 33. We are what we do. Yeah, you know, hey, we are your duo for the last 10 years on this show, getting you ready for Kansas City, the football, and we're going to do that again. We're going to go over what this looks like in terms of getting ready to be the last game of the first week. That's later in the show before that. Patrick Mahomes said he just wants to go out and play and be himself. What does that actually mean? And is it a good thing that's coming up a little bit later? And we're going to start at the top because Patrick Mahomes lineup is definitely not what everyone had hoped. We're brought to you by Fahldool today. You get $350 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet a $5 bet every day for seven days straight.

2:34Join all that action over at Fahldool.com. I'll tell you more about them later. It is unfortunate that Josh Simmons was not able to practice today. The first day that they're actually on the field. I don't think that that's necessarily a complete rule out, but it doesn't look good for him to play. Andy Reid seems very, very comfortable starting Khalil Benson in his stead on the left hand side. Andy might be the only person comfortable with that in Kansas City. I don't know. How are you feeling about it? Because I myself am a little concerned. I don't think he's the only one because I think Andy Hick probably is comfortable with it too, but that doesn't make me feel. It doesn't make me feel better about it. Yeah. I said this. I said this on the squad show. It's on the crossover show. This isn't going to be a good scenario for Kansas City and they need to figure something else out. Not necessarily figure out a different player, but they need to have a specific game plan to make sure that they don't leave him on an island because it is not going to be pretty

3:36if they leave him on an island against the knee toe. And you're absolutely right. Here's the kicker. Yeah, you can try to scheme out, giving them some help, etc. Chipping, except everybody on this roster running back has never played in this all offense before. So being able to actually hit the timing of the chips against the route combinations in real live speed is going to be a learning curve. Even for Shardsmith didn't do chipping last year. I might have sought to all season long. So the help factor that I would normally make me feel better about it is not going to be there. And this is why I also said I think on the squad show, maybe they go jumbo 20% of the snaps against the Broncos and they try running the ball. Or they do what they should have done last year at times and go 1213 personal a ton and just put a tie in that next to them an inline tie in next to them every single snap. I don't care if you lose somebody out in the route. Just make it simpler for Benson.

4:39If you're going to ask him to be a holding up in past coverage because you're not putting him in a good situation right now. He's six snaps. Six snaps that left tackle and can't. Had him at right all but the last week and if Josh hadn't been out then he probably wouldn't have gotten any. So this is this is unfortunately a much bigger risk than the team and Andy Reed wants to let on. I thought he was pretty coy in his pressur today. If you guys haven't seen it, go check that out on jeeps.com, etc. It just it felt like they're sticking to their guns even to know they they realize that it this is not the best scenario and quite frankly not the best decision to start in front of Patrick on Monday night football for week one. I don't know quite frankly though. I don't know that they have a better decision. You can you can talk about putting Jalen more out there is that really going to be a better decision long term? No. Is it going to be a better decision in this game?

5:41Possibly. But still maybe not. Jalen more didn't look great at left tackle either. So to me, I think what you have to hope for if you're the chiefs is that you can get Jalen more to be serviceable and maybe average to above average at right tackle to where you can leave him on an island and you give binson help. And that's the only way you can go about doing this and the other thing that you can do is run the ball, run the ball, run the ball and use the screen game. Use every little trick you can to try to slow down the path rush and change the way the Broncos are going to be coming after my homes because they're going to throw everything at binson. Now, the one thing I will say is technically speaking he seems to have issues. The brains seem to be there for the most part from what I've seen. He seems to understand what he should be doing. So that should help. Yeah. That's true. He's lost completely and not having the technical ability or the physical ability to do it.

6:43It's just that he may not have the technical the speed to do what he needs to do. Yeah, I agree with you. We're going to break down like what's the recipe to win one of the must-habs. That's coming up on the preview show that will go up the day before the ball game. So don't miss that. I don't want to give it all away. But he's a heck of a run blocker too. And so I think it is a good combination that will preview later on the preview show that you use him to run at Nick Bonito, who I think is going to be in his face all day long because there's no reason not to be. Yeah. And if he was playing right tackle, I would think that being able to switch sides. Yeah. Personally, I think that's what Denver would do. Like they would put being you on him, especially with Cooper out of this game. So I think you're in a scenario where this is going to be one of those things where he's just going to have to do the best he can and can't sit. He hopefully is not going to get burnt by it. But the first time at Holmes is back there trying to do what you're saying in the neck. We're talking about the next segment of being himself.

7:45That could be a severe problem. And this is one of those things that two plus two might end up at 14. That's how bad this could be if these problems stack on top of each other. We'll go over Patrick and what he's thinking here at the moment. But long story short, the fallback position should things go to absolute hell on a hand basket. I don't know that there is a fallback position. Other than you could bring in a Zuna, you could run six off its alignment. I think that's a good suggestion. I just don't think Andy will do that. But it makes things harder and it makes you more dependent on Pat. I personally hope that they have something in store for Denver that Denver hasn't seen in the preseason. Something they've been working on in practice that maybe they didn't even show a training camp. I hope they have something for Justin Fields in this offense. And yeah, I'm saying that for week one because truly, I do think that you have the ability to have a second quarterback like Justin Fields who can do different things and give you success

8:47at times. It doesn't have to be a ton of plays. But a play here and there changes the look of the Denver defense and what they're going to be coming at with the chiefs. I completely agree. And maybe they do have a package. We'll get to that in our preview show. But it all comes back to Pat and how he decides to play and it seems there's no governor on where he's at right now. And I think that's a mistake. That's next. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of different systems that have never been designed to work together. One app for counting another for inventory and another for sales and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where O2 comes in. O2 is an all one business management software that brings every part of the business together in one powerful platform from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing everything in one place. O2 is one platform to manage, grow and scale your business. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent.

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11:53get hit. I just got to go do my thing. I do appreciate the fact that he has been focused and he has been absolutely superhuman in his recovery. But then he gets to the podium today and he's like, I'm just here to play my game and be myself. Well yourself is how you got in this situation. Let's I remind you Patrick that you got hurt scrambling. So let's have a modicum of, oh, yeah, I do have to protect myself, which I thought he threw in there at the press or just as lip service. I am concerned that coupled with our first topic now with Patrick's attitude that it's just going to be business as usual and put himself in a lot more risky situations than he should. You know, I get where you're coming from and my caveat and what I will say to it is this. It's possible that he realizes that he has to play differently, but it's also possible that he realizes that if he comes out and says that, then, you know, the teams are going to expect him to play differently. So I kind of get it from the aspect of I think he has to understand that he can't play

12:56his normal way. He's my big question when I was looking at this game, my big question isn't necessarily even the game. Assuming he gets out of this healthy and I hate saying it that way, but that's just what I have to say based on the offensive line, the way that it's looking right now, I'm going to be curious what he's like on Tuesday and on Wednesday. What's his knee like? He hasn't had the type of workout that he's getting ready to have. No matter how much he's been going after your things, getting ready and rehabbing for this season. He's going to be running more regardless of whether or not he scrambles than he ever has over the past six months. This is going to be more activity. What's his knee look like when it comes down to it on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week? Yeah. That is an absolutely fair point and you can't get that any other way than playing ball games. And as much as everybody wanted to play in the preseason, I don't even think that would

13:56have prepared him because it's still a step up. It's still not the same thing as this defense. Yeah, it's still not the same thing. You're not going to have the going for four quarters and running for five miles that he usually runs on a given day in an NFL football game. And I hope he doesn't do that this year, especially early on in the season. I expect that as the season goes on, things will kind of get more back to normal. But the chief's offense and the chief's coordinator and Andy Reed have to protect him from himself to an extent. They can do that with play calling. And that's one of the bigger things that we really need that they really need to focus on is put him in the play calls where he's doing things that require him to either one get the ball out quick or not even put himself in harm's way because he's hanging the ball off. Hey, and that's actually the focus. And I did hear something positive along those lines. Being himself, quote unquote, means pushing the envelope and taking what's there and relying

14:58on himself when he has to. And he was also very cognizant today. Excuse me. I have got allergies in there killing me today. He was very cognizant. And I heard him say, I have to be able to get the ball out. And we've been talking about that ever since this injury, but that's really the key thing is it's not necessarily the excess and knows. It's understanding that this snap is happening. You have X number of time. Maybe it's a little bit less. Maybe it's a little bit more depending on the play design. But the balls got to come out in order to move the offense effectively. But hey, to just move on, if it doesn't work, I think there's going to be more throw away this season. And I'm perfectly comfortable with that. In fact, I think it's the best thing for him. No, I think you're probably right. It probably is the best thing for him. I think that when you're looking at this, he needs to throw the ball away. I just don't know if he's going to be willing to. That's going to be the big question. But I go back to what I said just a second ago, they need to run the ball more. They need to be under center and going with more under center runs to Walker and to Johnson.

16:00They need to be putting Khalil Benson in the best possible situation they can by running the ball. Run the ball of Benito. Run it at him multiple times early on in the game. You'll slow him down because the other thing that nobody's taking into consideration for this is it's the same thing for the Broncos. The Broncos aren't going to be as in shape as they will be in a month or two when they've played a couple of games. They're going to be in a situation where this is the first time that they're playing 60, 70 snaps in a game. And I know Benito won't play that many, but the point is, as a past pressure, you're not, you're used to playing, you know, what, 30, 40, 50 snaps. This is going to be a different situation and he hasn't done that yet this year. So his stamina won't be there, but use that to your advantage. Absolutely try to pound the rock at him. And I said this on the squash of the other night. I wouldn't care if they went in, they activated the fullback that they just brought in to try to use him in an aspect of forcing the running game as well.

17:01Yeah. We'll talk about my fantasies about fullbacks here coming up in the next segment when we look at the actual game for Patrick. I don't know that he's going to go for that, but I don't know that you can allow him that option. I think what it comes down to, especially this first week is how they game plan around it. Do they use the extra offensive lineman, like you mentioned? Do they go 13 more? Is it a more of a, quite frankly, a play action, dink and dunk kind of thing, run those screens, although screens open up, you know, some interior offensive lineman are leaving their gaps, not expose them as well. So some of that could be dangerous. But I think the key is both of them, Andy Reed and Patrick Holmes, recognizing that the game plan has to protect him as well, not just how he executes the place, but how they designed the offense to run for the whole game. Well, you know, who else needs to realize that this is a huge game? Every single person on the offense, not named Patrick, but Holmes. Yeah. That offensive line running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, every single person on this

18:05team that is not named Patrick, but Holmes on the offense needs to step up a couple of steps for this game. Patrick, but Holmes has done everything he can to be ready and available. And if you find a way to beat the Broncos on Monday night football, you were in a great position for the next three weeks to not kick back and relax, but at least take a step back a little bit and get your feet wet, trying to figure out how you want to run the offense and how your defense is going to handle things over the next, you know, over the next 17 games. Yeah. You're absolutely right. It's, it's get over this hurdle, get through that and then be able to adjust, not only on what you want to do, but what you see on film and what you can establish at this level, beating a regular season level of competition, what you're able to do against one of the better defenses in this league. I don't know if they're going to end up being the best. They did lose some pass rush with Cooper, but I do think they're going to end up being very good. I think they're going to lose. I think they lost something with John Fuykin, Liars 2.

19:06He was a very good interior defensive tackle. And I understand he's not more pass rush, but when you talk about stop in the run, which is something that the Stimber Broncos team has to be ready for, because I just can't see the cheese going into this game and not running the ball 40% of the time. If they do, that's on Andy Reed. And obviously, you know, game plan or not game plans, but obviously game, you know, situations change what you're playing on doing. So we'll see if that happens, but you're going to get a pretty good idea of what this chief offense wants to do in the first 15. Yeah. We really should see it start to get off. Really first couple of plays. I think you got to, you know, shake some of the jitters out, especially for one left tackle, but you really got to hit that ground running in that 15. And that's going to be against a demo Broncos team that has a lot of seasoning. They have some young guys, but not a ton of them. So what does it have to be a Monday night football? That's next. That's Erie here from the Lockdown Lions podcast.

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22:18On the preview show coming up later as we get close within 24 hours of that contest on Monday night football. But there's a couple of things that are there a pertinent here that we do need to talk about one is. All this offensive talk certainly strikes home and you just don't want to put yourself in any way shape or form the situation the Seattle sea hawks find themselves in coming off the Super Bowl and their quarterbacks are already out. Sam don't got a little bit of good news, but he's going to miss at least a week if not more and the chiefs cannot afford that given their roster and their schedule, especially with the AFC West this year. So you got to have everything else humming as well and unfortunately as of today, Tomari Conner was not practicing either. That is a negative, especially given that he took pretty much every rep and training camp at that strong safety spot. They need him for continuity. I don't feel like they're going to have them now. They will have asked in July. So he practiced in full today should be ready to go. How do you feel about that trade off?

23:19I actually thought you already might not play. So is this a wash at this point? I'm not going to call it a wash. The bigger problem you have is you're quite literally starting basically an entirely new secondary against the Denver Broncos on week one. Because Tomari Conner was essentially a starter at times last year, but he wasn't, you know, you're looking at a situation where he's not going to be out there. So who's it going to be at strong safety? Is it going to be Jaden Hicks? Are they going to give Hicks a chance? I that's who you think is going to be the next man up, but I don't know that that ends up being the case. Or is it going to be, is it going to be Chris Roll and Wallace, which completely changes what you could do with the nickel position? Right. I really don't know what they're going to do and that's going to be something that's going to be intriguing. And then you look at the rest of it and you've got two brand new corners. You got a serious need who's coming back who looks like he's going to be your nickel corner. Okay. He's going to be obviously the veteran in the room fine.

24:20A lowe Gilman wasn't in this defense last year. You're starting an entirely new secondary from last year. You don't have a choice. And continuity is one thing, but going up against the Denver Broncos in a game that the Broncos I guarantee you have had circled for as long as it's been on the schedule. Because they want to come out and they want to show that they are the ones that own the division. Again, this is a huge game for Kansas City. And to me, it's a question of I like the fact that July is going to play. I don't know that he's going to give you a ton of pass rush coming back from the injury that quickly, but he should be able to give you somebody to concept the edge on again in the running game. And that could be huge. You want to talk about somebody that is going to be huge in this game. It's going to be curious. Tonga, the chiefs absolutely have to make this a one dimensional Broncos offense. And I know that sounds kind of funny if I'm saying that they need to shut down the run, but they need to shut down the run.

25:21Because if you can shut down the running game and you can force mix to have to throw, it makes it a lot easier to defend. It's certainly whether or not you think you can or regardless of whether or not you feel great about the matchups, you still are in a better situation if you make them on dimensional. I agree. And now if you could take away the run, that's great. They loaded up though. JK Dobman's obviously be noise and injury. Second year player, RJ Harvey, who had some success last year. Now they're bringing Joan of Coleman, who is very nimble for a guy of his size and got it done at Washington when they want to run. Plus you have to have a body just kind of sitting around waiting. So they have a stacked RB room as well. And I think they're going to use them all in waves. I think not only does cars have to play tough. So is the rest of the front. And they have to go back to that old school mentality that Gunther used to talk about where you have to take away the run first in this ballgame, I believe. And then you can worry about the past because if not, I think they have enough juice and we'll nail down the X's nose in the preview show.

26:32I just feel overall they have enough juice at the running game to hurt you if you don't take it seriously. Oh, you absolutely have to take it seriously and I guarantee you you're right. They do have enough juice to be able to hurt you if you do not mind your assignments and, you know, be where you're supposed to be. They need to continually be putting Denver in third and long or third and medium situations. If you can do that, you can win, but you have to be able to put them in regularly in third and four plus, third and seven plus would even better. If you can do that on a regular basis and you don't have to be getting tackles for losses in run shops, just keep them to one or two yard gain. If you can do that several times, you're going to slow down to how much they feel like they can run and then they're going to try to come out and pass. And yeah, it's a little bit of a different defense. You're in a different situation because you have an all new secondary back there, but they're going to test. You know, they're going to test man's or lane. That is one thing that I guarantee you they're going to do in this game. I hope you make some pay.

27:33I don't think they're going to test them long, but I think he will. I think he will get a couple of looks early. And then I think they're going to have to go away from him because that's how I feel he's going to play. But the bottom line is cheap and great last year too. So I mean, you're not going to be in a much better position in that regard. Well, I think they feel that they have an advantage over an all because of his size with Sutton. I don't think Patrick's a factor and I don't think Waddles a factor there. But if they get to the point where they feel desperate, I think that's the match up they're going to go to. And normally I would say the chiefs have an advantage because of the climate. But being an opening week night game, I think that takes some of that away. And I don't know that it's going to be drastically cooler. We'll see what the forecast is when it comes to the pregame. But I hope that would rely on it a little bit more at this point. I don't think so. And so it is, I think back to that front 15 for the offense. And the first three drives for the defense that are critical to set the tone early.

28:34So that as the night ghouls off, they don't get a second surge. You know what I mean? Well, and I will say this, I also think that Denver has a little bit of advantage. They're training in the in the altitude. So they're going to have a little bit of advantage in that regard. But you're right. I mean, if it was a day game, it probably would it favor Kansas City a little bit more, but it's not going to be it's going to be a night one. And we'll see what the temperature comes out for Monday night. But right now, there are so many things that are not working in Kansas City's favor for this game. The one thing that I will say that I have said since this game was locked in as the starting game for the season for the chiefs is the one reason I like playing the different Broncos. The first game in the season is because Denver has no idea what this chiefs offense is going to look like. And that is your chance to really show something different on offense and to just completely take the completely surprise the league. I mean, sure you ran your normal vanilla plays in the preseason.

29:36They've got something in store for Denver. I don't know what it is, but I guarantee you read and be in the me have something in store for Denver. Newfangled. That's what I'm hoping for. We're going to break it all down for you on our preview show coming up in a couple of days as we get ready for that. Enjoy your first Sunday here. And if you're watching Rams and Niners, enjoy that as well. We'll be back to preview that game, give you our predictions, the things to watch and what this offense and defense should look like. So don't miss that as well. And then we're off into a normal Monday night week, which is a little bit different than the normal week. But we are right into the flow of the season here as we get off on a kick just like the Kansas City Chief. So make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you're with us. Enjoy your weekend and get ready with our preview show. We will talk to you then. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time. Hey, NFL fans. I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the Lockdown podcast network.

30:37Your team every day. NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your teams in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the Lockdown podcast network. The NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.