The Eagles Weakness + Press Conference Recaps

Good Morning Chiefs Kingdom,

Today we bring you a look at an Eagles weakness, press conference recaps, and more.

Go Chiefs!

— Luke Gromer

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The Latest

The Eagles have an area of weakness on offense that the Chiefs defense may be able to exploit on Sunday.

Jalen Hurts is near the bottom of the league when he faces pressure:

• #37 of 37 QBs in success rate

• #37 of 37 QBs in EPA (expected points added)/att

• #33 of 37 QBs in sack rate

• #32 of 37 QBs in yards per attempt

To simplify it: Hurts is really good when he has time and really bad when he’s under pressure.

The good news for the Chiefs is that their defense is one of the best in the league at getting pressure on the quarterback.

The Chiefs were a top-five defense in pressure rate at 26.1%.

However, the Chiefs’ pressure rate will mean little if they don’t force the Eagles into obvious passing situations by stopping their run game on early downs.

Even though Barkley is an elite runner, the Chiefs defense is capable of slowing him down.

If the defense can put the Eagles into 2nd/3rd and long situations and then get pressure on Jalen Hurts, it could prove problematic for the Eagles.

Andy Reid

• On winning one score games: “Some of those were how the ball bounced literally. Others were how hard our guys work starting in training camp.”

• On Mahomes’ mental acumen: “Patrick is a real sharp guy. Really smart. Spends a lot of time on the game… He’s able to see and anticipate what the defense is going to do.”

• On Travis Kelce during practice: “He goes 100 mph and wants to be in on every snap… He wants to fight you when he has to come out. It’s the same way during games… It’s not just when he’s getting the ball. It’s literally all the time.”

• On DeAndre Hopkins: “I knew we were getting a good player. But I didn’t know the leadership part… He hasn’t complained that we’re spreading the ball around or utilizing guys other than him. That whole senior leadership part that he’s brought, I’ve really appreciated.”

• On what Spags means to this team: “Spags… has done a great job with the guys. I think the thing that I appreciate the most is watching the trust the guys have in him. That means you’re doing a lot of things right… They trust his scheme. He’s a good teacher. They trust him as a person.”

• On legendary QBs Mahomes reminds him of: “I’ve tried not to compare him. I’ve been blessed to have been around some great ones. You can take a little piece of every guy and say he’s kind of like this guy. But he’s really re-writing it for himself… [The great QBs] all kind of put their own mark on it… [Mahomes] does so many things so well in a tough sport. There’s the mental part of it and there’s the physical part of it too.”

• On Mahomes on 4th down: “4th downs have been good for us. You’re seeing that more in this league now. We have trust in our guys, trust in Patrick, and we trust the game plan. If we’ve got something there that we think is a viable play in that situation, we’re going to try to use it within reason.”

• On Xavier Worthy: “He’s a poised kid. He does it with a smile on his face every day. He comes out and works hard and wants to get better. All the things you want in a player, he has. He’s probably mature for his age and experience. He jumps in and he’s willing to listen, which I think is important… That’s not always the case with players.”

• On when Mahomes earned his trust: “The first game that he started against Denver his rookie year… He came in, and you could see the poise and the confidence. But there was a humble side to it… Some of those great defensive players kept looking over at me… saying, “We see why you like him.’”

• On the guys that set the culture in the locker room: “Patrick and Trav are the ones that jump out at you and Chris Jones… There’s a lot of good leadership in that locker room. Those top three are where it starts. They all bring their own personality to it. Patrick being that steady part and you get two characters with Kelce and Jones that can be as serious as can be and at the same time, they can bust the room up.”

• On leaders he tries to emulate: “I’ve been lucky to have been around some great coaches… If you’re talking just NFL, I was very lucky and fortunate to be on [Mike Holmgren’s] staff and watch how he went about his business.”

Patrick Mahomes

• On what Kelce brings to the Chiefs: “It’s the level of leadership. With his career, he could take reps off. But that’s not his personality. He wants to put the work in. Whenever you have a Hall of Fame guy putting the work in, it kind of bleeds through the football team.”

• On the selfless culture of the Chiefs: “It’s a culture that’s been set by Coach Reid. Throughout the whole organization, it’s about winning… I think that’s what [has] made us so successful these last few years, and I hope we can continue that.”

• On playing in front of President Trump: “It’s always cool to be playing in front of a sitting president.”

• On how he defines success: “For me, success is leaving everything you have on the football field every time you have the opportunity to… I don’t want to have regrets at the end of my career.”

• On 4th down success: “Knowing that it’s kind of that win or go home mentality that you have in the playoffs. You have to go out and execute… The preparation prepares you to go out and execute in those high leverage situations like 4th down.”

• On Joe Thuney: “He’s such a tremendous player and teammate. He’s a gold jacket guy. He’ll do whatever it takes to win. You need those guys. To have him jump out to LT and have the success he has, it just shows the kind of player he is.”

• On Travis Kelce continuing to play: “He takes care of his body. He’s focused on the ultimate mission of being the best football player he can be… I believe he can play as long as he wants to play… Hopefully, he does play for another three years because that’s good for me!”

• On a game that keeps him up at night: “The Super Bowl versus Tampa Bay, that’s pretty easy.”

Travis Kelce

• On Joe Thuney playing LT: “The numbers tell you everything you need to know about that. His leadership makes this team so much more fun to be a part of… We’ve got a bunch of them on the offensive line that make coming into work so much fun.”

• On being the greatest TE ever: "I used to really, really care about that. I used to want to be known as the greatest tight end ever. I think it's more about sharing these moments with my teammates… I've gotten away from [wanting to be] known as that. I think I just want to be known as one of the best teammates these guys have ever had."

Other Chiefs

• Chris Jones on his superstitions: "I've got to stick to the routine. Even though I'm not at home, I have to make sure everything is fluid like it is at home. I wear the same gloves. I wear the same cleats…. My gloves smell like a dead animal." 

• Trent McDuffie on Steve Spagnuolo: “I love how aggressive Coach Spags is… It really takes discipline to know your plays… At the end of the day, he’s going to trust us to go out there and make plays, and it gives us a lot of confidence.”

• Steve Spagnuolo on stopping the tush push: "Try not to get them in those situations, that's the best chance you have."

Press conferences can be viewed here.

Yesterday we asked our readers…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ S Bryan Cook (13)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ S Jaden Hicks (12)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ CB Chamarri Conner (5)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ CB Joshua Williams (10)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 LB Leo Chenal (55)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ DE Mike Danna (6)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ DT Derrick Nnadi (4)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ DT Tershawn Wharton (19)

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Around the NFL

The Latest

• 🏈 Who: Chiefs vs Eagles

• 📆 When: Sun, 2/9, 5:30 pm CT

• 📍 Where: New Orleans, LA

• 📺 Watch: FOX

• 📕 Line: KC -1.5, O/U: 49.5

• Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson made it public that he would like his contract renegotiated

• The Bucs are hiring former Texas HC Charlie Strong as their new D-line coach

• Eagles star DT Jalen Carter missed his media availability on Wednesday due to an illness, his status for the game has not changed at this point

• The NFL Referees Association released a statement responding to suggestions that officials favor the Chiefs by saying, "It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team.”

• The NFL announced that it will play its first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia, featuring the Rams and another team to be determined

See the winner of the January giveaway for an AFC Championship t-shirt in the video below!

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Worth the Click

• 🎁 TOUCHDOWN KANSAS CITY: Grab one of our new shirts, sweatshirts, or mugs to support our work

• 💪 This Super Bowl is a matchup of strength against strength

• 🎤 Mike Pennel was mic’d up during Super Bowl opening night (he’s a fan of the food)

• 🔑 Eric Mangini shared 3 keys for a Chiefs victory

• 🐂 Offenses planned for Chris Jones all season long

• 🎙 Listen to Mitch Holthus talk about the Super Bowl on the Defending the Kingdom Podcast

• 😤 A “reporter” asked Mahomes and Kelce about referee conspiracies, and they both handled it like professionals

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