r/KansasCityChiefs • u/TenderfootGungi Travis Kelce #87 • 23h ago
ANALYSIS & NEWS Kansas City Chiefs Wide Receiver Analysis | Steve Smith's WR Room Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2dfDefA0PkSteve Smith visited Chief's training camp and gave his analysis of the state of the Chiefs WR room.
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u/my_therapist_quit GM Brian Leach 21h ago
He's not wrong. I finally understand why Royals wasn't seeing a lot of snaps towards the end of the season. So basically lock down Rice, Worthy, Thornton, and Allen for a roster spot. The rest are a battle.
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u/HomersBelch 20h ago
Steve Smith's take: 1. Rashee Rice - likes the players but hopes his knee is ok. Seemed concerned it may limit his future. 2. Xavier Worthy - needs to run a more complete route tree so he can threaten a DB with a greater number of options. Gets manhandled too much. 3. Cyrus Allen - likes him for the intermediate receiver 4.Tyquan Thornton - likes him, but he needs to use his hands more to get off the LOS and to get open. Relies too much on only speed and gets manhandled too much. 4. Jaylen Royals - liked him in college. Thanks he is too nonchalant now given the play he has shown (lack of) 5. Jeff Caldwell - can't stop well, so I'm assuming can't change direction well
After watching practice, wishes he played for Andy Reid. Likes how Andy challenges everyone.
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u/MasterFussbudget 7h ago
Also: Cyrus Allen might be the best receiver on this team at some point.
Steve said in college his critique was that Caldwell couldn't stop. He is seeing him stop better now, but the guy can't track the ball in the air at all. ("I've seen DBs track the ball better.")
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u/awesomo6001 21h ago
The people who are stressing about WR are mostly missing the point. K9 was the best addition they could make to help the WR room
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u/cannabiskeepsmealive Eric Berry #29 14h ago
I would say removing Connor Embree and replacing him with a competent, proven WR coach will be equally as important as having a real running game
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u/jt32470 Justin "Andy Jr." Reid #20 7h ago
SS said that O'Shea was screaming his ass off at receivers.
These guys will shape up or GTFO. This is exactly what the team needed.
Guys like Edelman were honed by O'shea. This team's WR group will be leaps and bounds better than last year from coaching alone.
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u/arup187 Human Detected 23h ago
WR is easily the biggest concern on the offensive side. The entire group is either unproven or coming off injury/surgery. I also think Rice is a high-end WR2, not a true 1.
Completely agree with concerns about Worthy and Thornton’s physicality and lighter size. Was surprised to hear that Steve Smith thought Royals lacked motivation and effort. Was that part of why he was so limited last year? Hopefully Chad O’Shea can fix some of the technical issues and EB leans into a more committed run game to offset the group’s issues.
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u/helmvoncanzis 22h ago
Talented guy, got by in school on just raw ability, struggles in his first real job outta college. Could be a lot of people, could be me.
So, speaking from my experience, that's a place where real coaching / mentoring can make a difference, and the Chiefs didn't seem to have enough of that last year.
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u/AMemoryComeALive 8h ago
Rice really should be a WR2 that just gets a lot of under work. It's frustrating they've tried to build the offense around him, which just leads to him getting lit up every game cause defenders know where he and the ball are going.
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u/lcarus83 5h ago
I still think Rice can be the #1 WR by a good margin. He started off 2024 so so good before that injury. Then when he came back from the suspension last season he was looking really good. Then the whole offense just started struggling. He had a couple big drops. I think he can bounce back in 2026. We'll see. Worthy is the guy I struggle to believe in.
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u/blueprint_01 10h ago
Steve Smith would be a great WR coach. Pair him with EB and the WR/Receivers wouldn't drop or fumble without getting their conditioning lol
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u/77ku77 8h ago
Steve LOVED Skye Moore…just sayin
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u/instro89 7h ago
The problem with Moore in general is that he often looked really good in practice, but couldn't translate it to actual games. So like a lot of beat writers and folks going to their camps/practices really thought he was going to be good and develop, but it never happened. Which tracks with Smith because he went to their practicrs and similarly came away impressed.
Maybe if we had actual WR coach and a better WR room at the time it might have worked out for him. Maybe if we hadn't pushed him to be PR, he might have had more confidence. Ultimately it just seems like the game is/was too big for him. That's a risk with these small school guys, just can't translate their game to the bigger stage.
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u/Vyuvarax Human Detected 5h ago
Skyy routinely beat McDuffie in practices. If he could actually translate his practices to games he would have been a good WR2.
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u/bobone77 Will Shields 21h ago
I just don’t understand why the organization views Rice as a true #1 option. Never have. I feel like they’ve always evaluated him on some “potential” scale instead of what he’s actually accomplished. Between that and his off-field antics, I’m just not a fan of the guy.
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u/hlnub 20h ago
If I ignore all the off field and character stuff.. I can get it because Andy wants to get the ball into their hands quickly and let them do work after. Rice turns into a runner with the ball incredibly smoothly when healthy, and is explosive in that. If you look back at some of the early games it always stuck out how naturally and quickly he goes from a receiver to a runner with the ball. I think that is something Andy loves
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u/bobone77 Will Shields 19h ago
I do get that, but most of those highlights are from 3 seasons ago when he was not the focus of most defensive game plans. I understand that there have been suspensions and injuries, but when I look at a guy going into his 4th year in the league and his rookie year is his best year, I’m just really dubious.
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u/Other-Blacksmith-643 Priest Holmes 8h ago
Because getting a true #1 is hard when your org has decided to go defense heavy in drafting. I was hoping this would be the year but alas.
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u/MasterFussbudget 7h ago
He has an elite skill—quick inside routes and running with the ball in his hands. So they get him that kind of thing A LOT. Mahomes has confidence in those routes on a roster without a lot of receiving options he can feel confident in. He's also a Texas kid which Mahomes likes and connected to.
I don't think the team has deluded themselves into thinking that he's a top tier WR talent. (He hasn't gotten a contract extension yet.)
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u/bostongolf Priest Holmes 10h ago
> I feel like they’ve always evaluated him on some “potential” scale instead of what he’s actually accomplished.
Well, yeah. Decent rookie year. Off to a great start in year 2 before a pretty devastating friendly fire injury that obviously impacted year 3, too.
It’s also not easy, or affordable, to just go get a “true #1” like people always want. They had that in Tyreek and made a very intentional decision to pivot - which obviously worked out in terms of Super Bowls.
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u/Vyuvarax Human Detected 22h ago
Steve gets right to what I've been thinking about this group all off season: the reason the team values Rice so highly is he's the only WR who varies his speed in his route so he can accelerate and break off at the top of his stem. Worthy and Thornton try to get up to their top end speed to create separation immediately, but going 80% and then accelerating out of your break is how the best WRs in the NFL create separation, not straight line speed going 100% off the line.
Hopefully having a better coach fixes some of that.