Maclin has quietly produced back-to-back
seasons with at least 85 catches, 1,000 rec yds and eight
TDs.
QB Alex
Smith (2015 QB Rank – No. 17, 19.8 FPts/G)
After starting his career with one of the worst winning percentages
in the league, Alex Smith has finally started to develop into one
of the better game-managing, winning quarterbacks in with a 49-21-1
record over his last five seasons. Of course, those wins don’t
mean much for fantasy owners, who likely have been taking a lot
of losses if they’ve trusted Smith to be their starting quarterback
in their season-long fantasy leagues. It’s not that Smith
has been horrible – he just hasn’t been great. This
past season, he threw for 3,486 yards and 20 touchdowns with just
seven interceptions. The seven interceptions are elite among starting
quarterbacks, but without many yards or touchdowns to go along with
them, the fantasy points just aren’t there.
One thing to note, however, is that Smith’s rushing numbers (498
yds) were better than ever in 2015. He’s never been one of the elite
runners at the quarterback position, but he’s certainly better than
average, if for no other reason than that he’s willing to take off
and pick up a first down with his legs – something that many other
QB’s are simply not willing or able to do. This past season, Smith’s
84 attempts were nearly double the number of attempts that he had
in 2014 when he ran the ball just 49 times on the season. It’s important
to note that Smith might have been running a bit more often because
Jamaal Charles was injured, but even that wouldn’t account for his
high total. It appears as if the Chiefs are not overly concerned
with Smith getting injured by running the ball, which definitely
bodes well for his fantasy potential.
Still, Smith is not much more than a reliable QB2, bye week fill-in
or short-term replacement for those who opt to take Tom Brady. The
Chiefs simply don’t pass often enough for him to make a real
push to be an elite fantasy quarterback and the best case scenario
is that he finishes the season as a low-end QB1.
Always a fantasy juggernaut, Jamaal Charles was off to a great start
once again in 2015 as he had already accumulated 541 total yards
and five total touchdowns by the end of Week 5. Unfortunately, it
was in Week 5 when Charles once again broke the hearts of Chiefs
fans and fantasy owners everywhere when he tore his ACL for the
second time in his career. There aren’t many NFL running backs
who’ve come back from torn ACL’s and picked up right
where they left off by dominating the league, but Charles is definitely
a player who did just that. He missed nearly the entire 2011 season
before coming back in 2012 and setting a career high in rushing
yardage with 1,509 yards. Now 29 years old, however, Charles is
at a substantially higher risk for not being able to return to peak
condition.
The concerns with Jamaal Charles are two-fold in that, he might
not be fully recovered and thus may not be the dominant force that
we once remembered him being. But in addition to that, there is
a growing worry that the Chiefs might give into the current NFL
trends and turn their backfield into a much more split by-committee
approach. Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware are not the physical
beasts that Charles is, but they showed in 2015 that they are capable
of producing serviceable numbers as a duo. Even if Charles remains
healthy, they might cut into what has typically been one of the
highest workloads of any back in the league.
Still, Charles presents the kind of upside that is rare to find
in Round 2 and would be the ideal complement to an elite WR should
fantasy owners opt to go in that direction in Round 1. Even if he
doesn’t get back to producing high-end RB1 numbers, his usage
should at least allow him to finish in the range of an RB1.
Following a reasonably productive 2014 season most fantasy experts
had Knile Davis locked in not only as Jamaal Charles’ primary
backup, but also as one of the league’s premiere “handcuff”
running backs. That assessment couldn’t have been further
from the truth as it was actually second-year back Charcandrick
West who emerged as the Chiefs’ lead tailback once Charles
went down with an ACL tear in Week 5. West produced borderline elite
numbers almost immediately, including taking 20-plus carries in
three straight contests from Weeks 7 through 9. His numbers began
to dip a bit toward the end of the season, however, and he finished
with just one rushing touchdown over his final six contests. Most
believe West is in line to be Charles’ primary handcuff, but
don’t be overly confident with that on draft day. There is
still a very real chance that West is third in line behind Charles
and Spencer Ware.
He didn’t get his first touch until Week 7, but Spencer Ware
jumped onto the fantasy radar relatively quickly this past season
as he split carries with Charcandrick West when Jamaal Charles was
placed on the IR. He scored his first rushing touchdown of the season
in just his second game, after just four carries in those first
two contests, and proceeded to lead the team with six rushing scores
by the end of the season. Ware’s 5.6 yards per carry dwarfed
that of fellow young back West, who managed just 4.0 yards per carry
despite earning the lion’s share of the touches most weeks.
It was Ware, however, who showed more burst and a much better nose
for the end zone. These qualities certainly make the backup running
back position an interesting one, especially with Charles likely
to take the majority of the snaps on passing downs. The team might
opt to give Ware more playing time than West simply because he is
a more obvious complement to Charles even if he would not be the
primary beneficiary if Charles were to get injured.
There was reason to be extremely skeptical after the Chiefs failed
to produce a single wide receiver touchdown for the entire 2014
season, but things definitely turned around for this passing game
in 2015. Much of that had to do with the newly-acquired Jeremy Maclin
who led the team with 87 receptions for 1,088 yards and eight touchdowns.
Unfortunately, Maclin was a bit inconsistent with his production,
but that is to be expected in an offense that throws the ball as
rarely as Kansas City does.
With his 2015 season in Kansas City and his 2014 season in Philadelphia,
Maclin has quietly produced back-to-back seasons with at least 85
receptions, 1,000 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Those numbers
don’t make him an elite option, but they certainly make him
a quality, if not high-end WR2 for fantasy purposes. This is especially
true given that the Chiefs failed to bring in another productive
receiving option through the NFL Draft or free agency. Those who
get Maclin as a WR2 or better yet a WR3 are likely to be happy with
the production, but expecting WR1 numbers might be a bit much given
the Chiefs’ mediocre passing game.
TE Travis
Kelce (2015 TE Rank – No. 8, 7.3 FPts/G)
Travis Kelce was one of, if not the hottest pre-season fantasy
tight end heading into the 2015 season. Many believed that he
was a “Gronk 2.0,” just waiting to explode into monster
fantasy production. While he was good, Kelce fell far short of
those expectations, leading many to consider him one of the biggest
draft busts among the players who actually stayed healthy. Kelce’s
72 catches for 875 yards and five touchdowns would’ve been
good enough to make him an elite fantasy tight end most seasons,
but in an age where many tight ends are putting up high-end wide
receiver-like numbers, what Kelce did in 2015 just wasn’t
enough.
He’s still going off the board as a top five option at the
position in most drafts, but there will undoubtedly be some leagues
where Kelce falls further than he should due to his lackluster
2015 season. At just 26 years old, he’s still very young
with plenty of upside. The Chiefs saw that this off-season when
they gave him a nice contract extension, securing him for the
next five years. That, along with the team not investing any sort
of resources in new pass catchers, should be an indication to
fantasy owners that Kansas City views Kelce as a huge player in
their passing game going forward. He’s improved in each
of his first three seasons as a pro and there’s little reason
to believe that another improvement on his already good numbers
isn’t in store.
