Seahawks @ Chiefs
This should be a pretty entertaining game between two solid squads that will most likely be competing in the postseason this year.
The Chiefs are very deep defensively and are led by a great three headed ground attack on offense when everyone is healthy. Obviously Charles won’t be playing in this game as he is recovering from his ACL injury but Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware are more than capable of holding things down during his absence as they proved very well at the end of last season.
On defense KC has tons of young depth all around especially at linebacker with some promising rookies from last year returning from injury. They will be missing their stars on defense in Tamba Hali and Justin Houston but they have the depth for this to not be a big factor.
At QB they have Alex Smith who is reportedly having his best training camp to date. That is great to hear but he will only play one series at most and then will be relieved by back up QB’s Aaron Murray and Tyler Bray. They also have Nick Foles who is a solid veteran filling the 4th string.
We will will likely see a lot of playing time for Murray and Bray in this game as they compete for the backup QB role.
Last year the Chiefs went a perfect 4-0 in preseason action, winning their preseason opener by a 34-19 score over the Arizona Cardinals. This was due in large part to the depth they have at QB and RB and on defense across all of their units as well as Andy Reid wanting to win preseason games.
Pete Carrol is no slouch either but with all of the injuries the Seahawks have right now, I can’t see him worrying about winning this meaningless away game. Again typically the home teams dominate week 1 unless there are certain trends that go against them like we saw last night in 4 of the 5 games.
Seattle is also missing a few key players in this one from their starting unit on both sides of the ball with Jimmy Graham, C.J. Prosise, Kam Chancellor, J’Marcus Webb and Jordan Hill all ruled out for tonight’s game.
Seattle will look to get their defense rolling but without a solid ground attack here I think they are going to struggle once Wilson leaves the game. Rookie Trevone Boykin from TCU will be playing the majority of the snaps for the Seahawks on offense and although he is a scrambler I don’t see him having much success against this very deep KC defensive unit.
The second half of this game should be very interesting considering the backup quarterbacks for both teams are college stars who haven’t done anything yet at the NFL level. These guys will be eager to prove themselves. Seattle’s roster is pretty much set and I trust KC a little bit more due to some roster spots being wide open, which creates competition and increases the level of play overall.
KC has the deeper defense like I said and I really like KC’s runningbacks with West and Ware who combined for over 1000 rushing yards last season.
KC also has a definite the edge at QB with Tyler Bray and Aaron Murray who are battling for the backup spot so they will both be bringing their best tonight. I really think Bray who threw for 34 TD’s in his last year in college will make his presence felt in this on tonight.
Lastly, the line movement in this game is also interesting. Normally, preseason lines fall between 2.5 and 3.5 in favor of the home team, but the line for this game shot up a full two and a half points after opening at Kansas City -1.5. This is very similar what happened in the Vikings game last night and despite the injuries on defense once the second half rolls around KC will benefit from turning the reigns of the offense over to Tyler Bray, Aaron Murray and/or Nick Foles, all veterans and should pull away in the second half. I’m not a huge fan of laying 4 points in the preseason or else this would have been a 3 unit play, but the Chiefs should easily take care of business in the second half after establishing a small lead in the first half.
Chiefs -4 (2 units)