Quote:
Originally Posted by staylor26
The sad part is it’s by far the biggest/longest injury they had.
Their pass rush dropped big time with Ford out. He’s mainly who they’re talking about when they say they’re healthy now.
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Yeah, Ford's no joke for those guys. He makes that pass rush level up in a big way.
Without him, they're just pretty good. But they're nothing we haven't seen a few times this year.
WITH him, they're a problem. But as Duncan has pointed out, can they really get away with having him out there on a bunch of 1st and 2nd downs? And I don't even mean from a "we'll just run at him" standpoint, but the dude's just not played a lot of football this year and he's gonna struggle to get through 60 snaps. He's talked several times about the nagging shit he's working through and he just cannot hold up for that many snaps without being completely gassed.
This team is just as likely to whip one 30 yards downfield on 1st and 2nd down as it is on 3rd. You can't just play them straight up and act like only 3rd and 8 is a 'passing down'. This is Andy Reid - EVERY down is a passing down and Mahomes runs this offense so efficiently that if you're sitting there holding Ford back for the right situation, Mahomes will have them in the end-zone in 5 plays and Ford will have just gotten a nice little rest.
Ford's their pivot point, but he's not a guy they can just set and forget. They've gotta ration his snaps somehow and that could really burn them.
I'd almost treat him like a basketball player and put him on a rotation by quarter. Run him hard in the 1st, sit him in the 2nd, hard for the first couple drives of the 3rd and then sit him until the last drive or two of the game.
I just don't see a way to 'mix and match' his usage and have it work out.