NFL SCHEDULING Changes Could THREATEN Chiefs Early Season?

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up everybody? This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, and if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love for you to join. It's called the Everydayer Club, and one of the things that you get as a member is an ad-free version of the podcast that you're listening to right now. It works with whatever podcast app you already use, same episodes every day, just no ad. There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team, plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everydayer Club link in the show notes. These are dropping hints at the owner's means, we're going to tell you what it means right now on Lockdown Chiefs. From the land of the free and the home of the chiefs, this is the Lockdown Chiefs Podcast. You are Lockdown Chiefs, your daily Kansas City Chiefs Podcast, part of the Lockdown

1:03Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in friends and neighbors, Chiefs Kingsham at large. We thank you for joining us. I'm Ryan Tracy from Rogue Analytics and NFL33.com. This is Matt Derrick from ChiefsDigest.com and 41 is the Mike and over there is my partner, Chris Clark from KC Chiefs Corner. We are here today to give you the lowdown on what is going on with the owner's meetings, taking us out of where the chiefs are. Later, we're going to talk about where they are as a team, as a unit, what this office season has done for them. We are going to come back just before that. The chiefs could be high on the list of teams that might get exposed to this new every day, all week, all the time type propaganda that's going on. We'll discuss that, but we start at where the nuggets are falling out of people's mouths right now over at the owner's meetings. Matt, a very slimmed down Andy Reid, at least by my attributions, showed up at the owner's meetings. He and Brad Beach have been speaking. It's been kind of hit or miss for me.

2:06I want to get fresh perspective from you of all the things that have been kind of nugget drops. What stands out to you about what we're learning from their perspectives, Clark included? Yeah, I thought some of the, honestly, the scheduling perspectives that Andy Reid talked about, especially acknowledging that the NFL maybe hesitant to put some marquee chiefs games early on to the schedule and some marquee windows early because nobody really knows about the status of Patrick Mahomes would begin this season. Obviously, the chiefs once again reiterate the message from Permanee Reid that Mahomes looks good. He's ahead of schedule, all those things. My partner, Nick Jenkins, I talked about this on our 41 is the mic podcast on Sunday that yeah, I mean, the NFL with the way that they usually go about scheduling things, they're not necessarily going to be big fans of front loading the chiefs schedule with a lot of marquee games and I don't know, you know, how many prime time windows that the chiefs

3:07are going to get scheduled in or, you know, are they going to get scheduled in maybe some windows that can get flexed easily if they're winning games and Mahomes looks good and he's healthy and he's back and everything. I'm intrigued about that. I thought it was interesting, some of the things that Andy Reid said about Kenneth Walker and the run game and how he's been used in Seattle versus how the chiefs may use him. There's a few things scattered in here and I know a lot of people are obviously going to focus on the comments about Patrick Mahomes and that he does look good, coupled on the back of the video from last week that he's out throwing a football just three months outside of surgery. There's still a long ways to go, but, you know, it's obviously at this point, everything that we've gotten on Mahomes has been a thumbs up. And that's exactly what you want to hear at this point is that it's all going in the right direction. Question is, is how quickly will he be returning? We obviously are going to have an answer for a while and that's fine. I have a question for you though, Matt, because Ryan was actually talking about this the other

4:10day when we were actually discussing Mahomes out throwing. Do you think he will be out there in OTAs doing anything? I'm not talking about running with the team, I'm talking about doing anything. Yeah, I know there's been speculation that maybe he'll do a few things during OTAs. I think the cheese would be absolutely crazy to push him to that point. Even if Mahomes is out there and says he wants to do something, no, you tackle him, you put the brakes on him, that is way too early. I mean, remember, there's not going to be a single OTA or mandatory mini-camp practice that's being held more than six months out from his surgery. The idea that you're going to put him out there in a practice field, even at run-through speed, and honestly, even mandatory mini-camp practice is a little bit faster than that. It's absolutely insane, the idea that you would throw him out there. If he's had a schedule, great. That means he's ready for day one of training camp.

5:14There's too many opportunities that you don't have to worry. Once again, Randy read-addressed Travis Kelsey in the fact that the only three days that he might be in two days, really, two days, maybe he's going to be there for the mandatory mini-camp. He's going to usually do a lot on the third day of the mandatory mini-camp. So there's really no reason. The fact that you're going to have Justin Fields in there, probably another quarterback too, that you're going to be trying to teach things, not that Mahomes can't be out there as a sounding board for Justin Fields and whoever else is in OTAs, but the idea that you're going to have him run around on a practice field less than six months from surgery unnecessarily, absolutely mind-boggling insane to me. Well, and to be clear, I'm not saying I expect him out there throwing and running around. I'm just saying, can he go out there, can he just be throwing on the sideline, can he be doing that kind of stuff, throwing on air? It's interesting because we didn't think that he'd be anywhere close to where he is right

6:16now, and he is obviously doing things that Patrick Mahomes does, getting healthier, quicker than most other players will. Ryan, I know you have some thoughts here as well. Yeah, and I'm happy to see it, but Old Gumby Mahomes here is getting everybody revved up a little bit early. I love the concept that you just mentioned though, Matt. Yes, he could stand on the sidelines and throw it to a ball, boy, but I think it's even more important, given what I think the season's going to go like and the caution that you need to show as you just described, that he's in the ear and that rather than standing on the sidelines, that he's standing next to Andy Reed, and he's standing next to Eric B. Enemy, as Justin Fields takes his reps so that he can give perspective, not just from the two coaches, but from Mahomes perspective behind the huddle. I have no problem with him walking around on the outside. That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm just saying, don't put him in position to ever get touched or breathed on wrong. Yeah, I'm the same way, and I've heard some speculation that maybe he'll take some reps in OTAs, and that is just, it's crazy to me.

7:21The rules on how much you can take part during OTAs and still be eligible to begin the training camp on non-football injuries are a little opaque, you know, technically by the rule of the book, once you participate in OTAs, you're supposed to kind of be ineligible for NFI to begin camp, or in this case, it would be, you know, the populist, physically unable to perform list, but, you know, hey, that's not super enforced, so you can do a little bit, you know, it was a little bit of debate last year, like with Christian Fulton, you know, whether he was eligible for the populist to begin the season, because he, you know, took part in a little bit of OTAs, and then it turned out that he apparently had some cleanup surgery afterwards, so that kind of reset his clock for the populist a little bit. But again, you know, six months out, there's zero reason to expose your quarterback to anything unnecessarily and take any chances, so, I mean, the chiefs might do it, but if

8:22they end up doing it, I will still think that they're completely and totally insane. It's a group thing at this point. Well, it's not the only thing that's insane. We could see football seven days a week here, very shortly, folks. Chiefs will be part of it. We're going to dig into it because I think it's a mistake. That's next. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So that when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but I never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You no longer have to be a spectator play by play. You decide trade every play with Robin Hood now available across the US. Download the

9:23Robin Hood app now and begin futures and clear swaps trading involves significant risk is not appropriate for everyone event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. There's a lot. I just gotta say I hate this. I absolutely hate this topic. I just I absolutely hate it. This is the dumbest thing. And I just read something else right before we started this that according to one of the reporters that covers the NFL. ESPN has said that they will no longer have multiple Monday night games. But they have also stated that it's possible that they will be having a pre Thanksgiving game on Wednesday night. The NFL is going way too far with the schedule and what they are trying to do playing every single day of the week. Sorry Ryan. I know I stole your thunder. I'm just sick of this because it's complete BS. And the other thing the thing that actually

10:24started this. The reason we're talking about this is because the NFL has also changed the rule stating that games that are played on Fridays are no longer considered short week games. So now teams that are limited to two Thursday night games. Guess what? They can play another game on Friday or multiple games on Friday because it's not considered a short week anymore. This is stupid and this is going to get players hurt. After you met, I have nothing. Sorry. If you think you guys are fired up, wait until the players get involved and start talking because they're going to be dropping some some f-bombs and all sorts of language on this because they're not fans of it. I mean, there's been some putting up with the short weeks and some of the nonsense of the last few years. But you know, but again, this is it's it's a it's a lot of different things. And you know, one one aspect of it is that, hey, the NFL, if they've got an opportunity to unearth a rock that

11:25has some money underneath that they're going to do that. So if that means putting games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Fridays, it's going to happen. The only thing it's going to stop them will be Congress. And that's the only thing that really stops them right now from playing a lot of games on Friday and Saturday because the sports broadcasting act of 1961 prohibits them from the second week of September until the first week of December from playing on Friday and Saturday nights to protect college and high school football. So there's been talk about scrapping that. You know, the NFL hasn't lobbied really hard, but there's been some talk about that. But that's one of the reasons why like the NFL can play on the Friday night and opening the season and have those the Brazil games international games because it's the week before their window closes that they can't play on Friday nights. And it's the reason why you get Saturday games late in the season. I mean, the NFL would love to breach that. I would love to get through it. But again,

12:29you know, I have I have no faith in the NFL PA to block this and fight it in any way whatsoever. Because once again, you know, this gets into my pet peeve, which is that when forced with tough decisions, and this is the NFL again, putting it to the players, they're going to they they want this. So they might be willing to cave on something else in order to get this from the players. But we're talking about the next CBA coming in in like 2032. I mean, what do we expect the to look like? I expect there to be 18 games. I expect the NFL to have the ability to put games on every single day of the week on any network they want to Pluto come into a channel. I hate that too. I absolutely hate that too. It's going to happen. I mean, somebody's going to get involved in this and it's going to be crazy. But I mean, and one of the players going to get an exchange for it. I mean, they probably get like a hundred

13:31dollars extra per DM on road trips and maybe an extra 50 bucks a day during training camp. I mean, it's going to be something ridiculous because that's what the players usually do. And bless their hearts because this is just its nonsense. I mean, having these crazy schedules with now that that Fridays are not considered short weeks. I mean, you're going to you may have teams like the chiefs who are going to play into playing two Thursday night games and a Friday game. I mean, they could end up with at least three games in those situations. And that doesn't even preclude the fact that they could still end up on some sort of squirreliness where they play a Saturday Wednesday, two Thursdays and a Friday. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's the scary part. And and to your point, do you think where the NFL PA is and the and shredders return? Like what does this do to what it looks like going forward? We're talking about possible ramifications and work stoppages here, but we're not talking about the players yet.

14:34Does this have any like to shed on it? Really quick, Matt. And I want to add to his question because Ryan, I also talked about this. Do you think that the thought process of going to an 18 game season is going to be hell because you have to give them two week two buys plus an extra game. You're going two weeks later and getting into almost March. Sorry. Well, and you know, and the NFL's kind of, you know, kind of tried to bake it in a little bit because they've just kind of magically, you know, pushed back the Super Bowl an extra week. So, you know, it's always going to they want it to be on they want it to be basically Valentine's weekend every year in that second or third weekend of February. So you already have that scenario in place. So they've kind of baked that in a little bit. And remember, they're going to lose, you know, a training, a spring training, our spring training. They're going to lose a an exhibition game in that scenario to go to two exhibition games. I mean, the exhibition games, nobody, you know, nobody cares about. I know you're not supposed to call them exhibition games either,

15:35but that's a point they are at this point. That's what they are at this point. I mean, they're just there's silly this. I mean, especially now that there's only three of them. And how many teams are even already holding up their starters and don't play any body in these preseason games. So I mean, and that's another one of the things that's kind of, you know, I think with the with the players complaining about the preseason games, I mean, you're getting to the point where the starters don't play. So what does it matter to them? But I'll be honest, I mean, I've got some, I mean, this is a hot button issue for me because I actually thought that the NFL PA was moving in the right direction when they started bringing in professional union folks to run their union. And that was a great, great, great, great direction. They just made some really dumb choices. They, you know, Lloyd Howe was a terrible choice as it turned out, probably should have gone in a different direction. But I think it was David White actually looked like he was going to be a pretty good choice. And then instead of deciding to have a true union

16:36negotiator, someone who's run unions before and gone up and head to head negotiations, they'd bring back JC Treter to take over for no reason whatsoever. I mean, if this is just a, you know, a two year window to get through things and then you're going to go out and once again, hire another true executive director to lead the, because the NFL players association is not going to get anything that they ever want unless they do a major league baseball style showdown. Because what we have seen in the past is that NFL players can't miss pages and they've caved every single time that they do. So until until they get to a point where they're willing to shut down the game and take and enforce the owners to lose some money to nothing's going to change. And they're just going to continue to roll over and give the NFL what they want, which eventually will I assume be a Wednesday night game on Mars that you can watch on the streaming service of your choice

17:40that you've never heard of on Saturday television probably be on team move for crying out loud. There will be more. The one good thing is that we don't have to deal with that right now. And there are some other takeaways from what we're learning at this point before we go down the full rabbit hole here. We're going to shift gears because there's two things that stood out about the chiefs and how they're approaching this offseason that we have to discuss. That's coming up next. As we get back, we have to take a look at two things and these are the ones that really stand out to me. A lot of comments made this week and I'm not even going to start. I'll let Chris bring up anything that he has, but I want to start with this one. I didn't like the direction that I all of sudden had a panic about Kenneth Walker in his usage. I need you to talk me off this ledge today, Matt, because what I heard from Andy Reed today was

18:40is I don't care what he's done. He can work out of my system, too. We're just going to run a shotgun all the time. My nuts. You're not nuts because that's kind of what I heard, too. And maybe not quite as much as we're just going to run the shotgun all the time, but definitely, hey, he can run what I want to run coming from Andy Reed. And what Andy Reed likes to run, of course, is the West Coast offense, which means the Tuesday and the ages and the shotgun to pistol quite a bit. I will say this. This was a stat that I stumbled over in the last few days that makes me think that as long as the chiefs make some adjustments, I mean, because let's face it, they've had a couple of problems. One, I think is obvious is that they need to freshen up their blocking schemes a little bit, although this stat is going to undermine that just a little bit, but they have to cut down on the RPOs, or they're going to have to have more faith that they can run from the RPO and

19:42not just pass it all the time, because let's face it, the chiefs problem was that no one respected their run game last year. So if they were running an RPO and Patrick Mahomes decided to throw the ball, there's nobody open, because nobody was biting on the on the R part of the RPO. There were only five or six guys in the box. There's five or six guys in coverage. That's an unwinnable situation. So you're hoping that one, what Kevin Walker does is that he draws that extra guy into the box. So now there's six or seven guys in the box. So if you do an RPO, it's going to open things up a bit more. But the way the NFL right now is that everybody's seeing RPOs. There's nothing new that you're going to be adding to those wrinkles. So if you're the chiefs, you're probably better off dialing them back a smidge, maybe a big smidge. But the thing is, is that the chiefs last year were fifth in the league in yards for their running backs before contact. And that tells me what we all kind of suspect, which is that this offensive line is

20:47getting holes for guys. It's just that they didn't have the guys who could get through the holes. Bless is hard. I mean, you know, Pateco, the knock against him last year was that all he did was see a hole and then run into the back of an offensive lineman. And that's not completely far off from the truth. But both Ham and Karim, they just did not have the juice and the explosion to go through the hole. Who does? Kenneth Walker. I mean, this guy is the most patient back in the league. He is the most the best acceleration in the league. I mean, these are not just observations. These are numbers that you look at the next gen stats. He spends the most time in the league behind the line of scram age. I think he's the third fastest running back in the league out of the back field. You know, he's what had the most explosive runs over the last couple of seasons. I mean, these are numbers that are completely opposite of what the chiefs offense was producing. The chiefs offense was producing about a yard and 1.8 yards per play before their running

21:49backs were even touched. And then their running backs were getting touched and going down and getting about another 1.8 yards. Kenneth Walker is going to take that 1.8 yards and he's the dude that can take it 72. And that's what's going to be different. You hope about this running game. It's going to be interesting to see what they're able to do and how they're able to get this to function. And I will say this, Andy Reed has never been a guy that actually gives like shows his hand. So I understand why people are upset. I understand why they're kind of like looking at this going, okay, so they're not going to change anything. I don't believe that. I think that he's going to look at what they did last year. He has a new running back. You at least put him in a better position. It doesn't have to be something where you're running the ball 50, 60 percent of the time. You can change up how you're running the ball to an extent and still be okay. And I also think that when you're looking at how this is going to work out, especially early on in the season, if my home's this and playing, it's probably going to work to your benefit to have him running, you know, not in shotgun, not having Justin Fields in shotgun because he's probably going to be

22:52a guy that wants to be closer to the line of scrimmage and that's probably how your office will run. I get why you're upset Ryan. I didn't like the comment myself, but at the same time, I'm just kind of like, Reed never really tips his hand on anything. So we'll see what it happened. What happens in that regard in my mind? Well, he tips his hand on this one, Matt. The last scenario that caught my eyes. I knew Travis is excited to be back. I know he's got a busy summer. I just don't know if Andy really has any plans to do anything with him at all. Maybe he shows up to the mandatory minicamp and says I was here. I don't know that he actually takes the field. Does that bother you in any way? Because I'm actually for it. I would excuse him for mandatory minicamp study truth and tell him, just be ready to go when we get back to Kansas City halfway through our training camp. Hey, I was on board with the whole notion the last couple of years that if Travis said he was retiring to say, hey, Travis, take the summer off. Don't do anything. Check back with us in October

23:55and we'll let you know if we need you and you want to play. We got a match made in heaven. Yeah, I mean, there's a part of me that would not be surprised if Travis showed up for a few OTA. He sometimes does. I guess it's still not real clear when and if the wedding is going to take place this summer. I mean, I'm still assuming that it is. I don't know when. Nobody has sent me an invitation. You're in the invite. No. So I don't know for sure. And I haven't checked, you know, Blake live with schedule or anything. So I don't know how that's looking either. But you know, I wouldn't surprise me if he snuck it. I also wouldn't surprise me if he just came in for the mandatory mini game. Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if he didn't come for the mandatory mini camp. But he's going to he will probably will. I mean, it's Travis. He wants to be there as much as he possibly can. But again, not needed. And you know, and even for the whole, hey, wouldn't it be great if Travis is there to mentor the young guys? Yeah, I mean, you're talking about 10 OTA practices. That's a caveat though with for me. I don't know. Sorry. But see, even that it's like,

24:59I don't know if there's some sort of magic crumb or crystal that, you know, Travis Kelsey is going to be able to impart anybody in one of 10 OTA practices. And if anything, you know, if he's if he's out, if he's there, he's going to be taken reps. And then he's taken a reps from young guys. And even if the chiefs don't take a tight end, they got a bunch of young guys that they they want to get a look at Jared Wiley. They want to get a look at Jane and Jake bringing the stool. So they got plenty of guys to throw reps at as it is. And last year, of course, they ran as a problem because they had so many guys heard that, you know, they really didn't need to take advantage of that and didn't get to see as much of those guys during OTA. So I mean, with Travis, it honestly, this that this point in his career and Chris Jones is the same way there's other guys too, but those are the two big ones. As little as much as they want to be there for OTAs is great. I mean, those 10 practices, I mean, there's like I said, there's nothing they're not going to crack

26:00the, you know, the answers of the nuclear vision or anything and those 10 OTAs. Anything they need to pick up, they can get during that exhausting training camp when they're all being held hostage in St. Joe. I'm on a roll today, aren't I? I'm just defending everybody. This is, would you look at how this is going to go? We're less than a month away from the NFL draft. Is there anything that you are hearing or that you were thinking is kind of changing when it comes to the Chiefs as they prep to get ready for a big draft with two draft picks in the first round? Not really Chris. I mean, you know, the Chiefs are doing a pretty good job as as they usually do under Bridge Beach of keeping everything tight lipped about what they like and what they don't like going into the draft. So, Bridge Beach is a good job of keeping people guessing and even that I think it's one thing you probably learned and picked up from John Dorsey was pretty well

27:01Dorsey was pretty good at that too. I mean, you get a sense about some players that they certainly like and I don't think that's a huge surprise about who some of them are because some of them are in this position that you expect. I will say, you know, and if I haven't gone off on this tangent here yet, I've gone off on enough places. If I could be wrong, I mean, maybe Bridge Beach is going to take Kaden Proctor number nine overall. But if you were in the mock draft that has achieved taking a tackle at number nine so that they can move Josh Simmons to write tackle or something like this, just just put it down, just delete it off your phone, don't even bother because that's not anybody who has any type of conversation with what's going on and one overhead drive. 29 totally different conversation. There could be a lot of things, but you know, you got to remember that, you know, Brett Beach is all about value more than anything else than the drafts and especially on early round picks. There's a consensus of maybe one offensive tackle that's worth going in the first round.

28:08That dude's going to be gone before the chief probably draft at nine. I'm absolutely sure. One thing you could absolutely bet on is that Brett Beach is not going to take a player that he's going to second round grade on at number nine overall. Yep. So I think you feel pretty good about that. There's a few others I've seen out there that I'm just like, what are you thinking? But the offensive tackle one is the one that is just absolutely driving me crazy. I mean, if you're reading the mock draft that has achieved taking an offensive tackle at nine, just set your phone on fire and move on with your day because that's that's that's somebody with a 30,000 foot view of the chiefs that did not watch any of the chiefs games last year. Matt folks, you can reach Matt at 41 is the mic.com feel free. Oh, Greg 41 into this. Just set on the chiefs. I just I just want to throw this out there because it's interesting. You say that we're actually going to talk on our bonus episode here just a moment about what Beach did say about what they could be looking at at nine. So you played in right into that and we will be talking about that here shortly. So thank you,

29:11Matt. I appreciate that. Glad I can help out. And I guess today, you know, today I was just I was just Mr. Offensive guy today. So I don't know what happened to me. Drop all the cards chiefs. I just a.com where you can find him Matt. Thanks for your insight and you know, duck. I was a player of talking to you never know when you guys are going to push my buttons and just send me off. So today, today was the day. Usually I'm talking you down Ryan. Today you might have to talk me down. Sorry, I failed you folks. Thanks for being with us and watching me fail talking man off the ledge. You can hear more. We are going to have a bonus episode for you for tune into that. Check out Matt on 41 is the Mike with Nick. Have a great day and we'll talk to you tomorrow.