Kansas City Chiefs: Key To Making A Run With Alex Smith

The buzz question for the Kansas City Chiefs remains the unavoidable one. Can this team win a championship with Alex Smith as their quarterback?

There is no doubt the former #1 overall pick has come a long way from where he was when he first entered the league. Those days he looked like a dispirited, lost individual who just couldn’t grasp how to play the position the right way. Since then though he has emerged as one of the most efficient, intelligent players at the position. A great manager of the action who makes very few mistakes and runs the offense with precision.

At the same time modern NFL offenses can win in the playoffs without big plays. Smith, for all his ability to avoid mistake, also doesn’t take many chances. Since 2013 when he first arrived, the Chiefs have never ranked higher than 16^th in yards per pass attempt. Too often he seems more content to check the ball down than he is going over the top to a receiver down the field. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t trust his arm, which is fair but it’s a dimension this team is lacking. History shows it can be hard to win championships without it.

Now the good news is the two previous Super Bowl winners (Denver and New England) ranked 25^th and 16^th respectively in yards per pass attempt. This means it’s possible to have a successful offense without a significant vertical game, provided there’s a good running game and strong defense to help compensate. Kansas City has both. So what is the missing key that could get this team over the hump?

ESPN posed that question recently and an interesting answer came up.

"“It will be important for the Chiefs to win the AFC West and secure home-field advantage at Arrowhead Stadium. The last two times Kansas City has made the playoffs, the Chiefs have lost postseason games on the road. But if they can win enough games to host those contests at Arrowhead with a quarterback like Smith, who doesn’t make many mistakes, the Chiefs have enough talent to earn a trip to the Super Bowl.”"

It’s not an altogether crazy idea. In his three years as starter, Alex Smith is 16-7 at home and 14-9 on the road. Some of those wins were significant ones. In 2014 he helped crush the Patriots 41-14 at Arrowhead. Then they defeated the defending champion Seahawks a few weeks later. Last season they knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers, another playoff team. So it’s not just quantity of victories that explain why home field is crucial but also quality. This Chiefs team knows they can handle the best in the AFC in their building.

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That’s why records of 9-7, 10-6 or 11-5 aren’t going to cut it this year. If this group wants to build on getting that playoff monkey off their back from last season, then they need to set themselves up with zero letdowns during the autumn months. Knowing that conference as it is, chances are it will take at least a 12-4 record and probably 13-3 to secure both the division and home field for the playoffs.

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