Welcome to the Friday mailbag. I hope everyone is staying safe and making the best of the stay-at-home orders. Hopefully this mailbag, and all of SB Nation’s football coverage, can give you a small break in reality.
Ask a former NFL player: Is it a good idea for the Chiefs to basically keep the same team?
In this week’s mailbag, Geoff Schwartz compares the Chiefs to the 2011 Packers, builds his perfect offensive lineman, and puts his cooking skills up against his brother Mitch’s.
Thanks as usual for sending me your questions. Let’s get to this week’s mailbag.
What are your thoughts on the Chiefs just trying to run it back with the same team? — @NathanKeck3
Normally I’d argue that staying the same is NOT improving. Each NFL season is different and even when you win a championship, you should be trying to get better. That does not mean spending more than you should, which the Chiefs couldn’t because they had no money.
Let’s look at what they’ve done so far and what they still need to do.
The Chiefs retained Chris Jones via the franchise tag, which was the No. 1 goal of the offseason for them. The defense needs to add a cornerback and some speed at linebacker in the draft.
On offense, they haven’t done much other than bringing back Demarcus Robinson and restructuring Sammy Watkins’ contract. But where would you even improve? Field Yates sums this up well:
Maybe interior offensive line, but it’s not that important to break the bank there when the players you have can do the job.
The reason I think it was important for the Chiefs to keep the team close to the same, and that includes reworking Watkins’ deal, is the uncertainty of the offseason.
As of now, it appears the NFL offseason won’t happen because of the coronavirus pandemic. Without the offseason, teams that return coaching staffs, schemes, and players at the highest rate will succeed early in the season. They should not need as much time to prepare as teams with new players and coaching staffs.
The Chiefs are positioned like the 2011 Packers coming off the lockout. In 2011, the NFL offseason was shortened because players and owners were working through the labor issue, which wasn’t resolved until late July. The Packers were coming off a Super Bowl win, returned almost the whole team, and went 15-1 in 2011.
If you could build the best offensive lineman in the league right now, what parts would you use from each player? The parts could be brain, feet, hand placement, whatever you think are the most important parts of an offensive lineman. — @spencepepp
I love this question, so I’ll break it down by general body parts/area.
Brain: Mitch Schwartz. My brother approaches the game like almost no one else in the league. He knows exactly what is about to happen before it happens. He’s able to control his reps with this knowledge and understand where contact needs to be made.
Arms: Tyron Smith. Tyron has the longest arms of all time. They are incredible. Longer arms allow you to keep the defender farther away from you body, which should lead to more wins in reps:
Strike: Quenton Nelson. Quenton is so powerful upon contact both in pass protection and in the run game. His pancakes are legendary.
Hips: Zack Martin. His ability to control defenders with his hips is amazing. Just watch him play. He’s moving guys with his hips and then anchoring on pass rush.
Finish: Ryan Jensen. Ryan is a hard-nosed finishing machine. He’s not the most athletic, nor the strongest, but he gets under the skin of most defensive linemen with his relentless finish.
Been wondering who is the grill king: you or Mitch Schwartz? — @KC_Kellen
My brother has been posting pictures of his daily food creations on Instagram. It all looks delicious. Yes, he can cook. But I can also.
Before kids and before retirement, I had time, just like Mitch, to cook often. And I was awesome at it. I’ve been on Guy’s Grocery Games before showing off my skillset. Now, I have two kids and I work full-time. My normal radio schedule is 6-9 p.m. ET Monday-Friday, so cooking something “fancy” during the week is out. Then on the weekend, my wife and I have a date night, or we just eat with the kids.
So, I’m rusty. But make no mistake, I still got it. I’ll post something soon so y’all can still see.
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