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CJ stroud is producing where mahomes hasnt because he is chucking the ball. Hes among the leagues worst in accuracy and completion %. And even if his WRs aren't necessarily better on paper they're better for this type of game. Part of it is that sample size is so low that we haven't seen the lows go with the highs for stroud. But arguably it's also because defenses are rewarding him for this approach. Levis the same but we saw last week why this isn't necessarily the model for success.
The chiefs offensive approach is way better especially since we have a running game and defense we can lean on. But as much as we talk about mahomes taking what he's given he isn't dialing uo the aggressiveness. So is it because mahomes can't, won't, or he won't because his WRs can't. I think it's a lot of the last one. Skyy can't. Mvs makes too many bad decisions to be reliable on aggressive plays. Rice likely can but he's being used more as catch and run. It feels like we doubled down on being a catch and run team and defenses were hell bent on stopping that. Is it any surprise Watson has succeeded here where others haven't? I'd love to believe toney and Richie can solve the issue but they seem to be the same mold of an offense that wants WRs to create after the catch instead of before. To a large extent it feels like we're fitting round pegs through square holes because defenses adjusted and we leaned hard into their adjustment.
So I think to some extent we may have to recognize our limitations and lean into them anyway. It's not ideal but sometimes being aggressive with lesser options may be better than being efficient with better options
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