Chiefs roster: 3 biggest offensive questions in Texans playoff game

After missing the Wild Card round with the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the Kansas City Chiefs open their playoff schedule this Saturday against the Houston Texans on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let’s consider three offensive questions about Kansas City’s divisional round game.

1. Can the Chiefs handle the Texans pass rush again?

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The last time these teams played, Kansas City handled Houston’s passers well – but they will still be a threat in this game.

The Texans’ Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are one of the best power forward duos in the league. Anderson brings some of the best speed and power tools to the NFL. Hunter is a jack-of-all-trades passer who can complement Anderson’s ability to crush the pocket. These two can destroy games – as they did against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday – but Houston also has solid interior rushers. Well into his 30s, Denico Autry continues to be a productive player.

Head coach DeMeco Ryans also does a tremendous job designing pressure packages for these players. Using stunts, fake pressures and blitzes, Ryans can exploit weaknesses in an offense. Against Los Angeles, Ryans performed a variety of tackling stunts in which Anderson or Hunter looped inside against the Chargers’ weak offensive interior to get quick pressures.

In their Week 16 matchup, the Chiefs handled most of Houston’s pressure well, keeping a strong pocket for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to work from. My biggest concern is that Kansas City’s likely tackles – Joe Thuney and Jawaan Taylor – don’t have great foundations as offensive tackles. This can be a problem against Anderson and Hunter. Even though Thuney did his best against Anderson, there were still times where his lack of length (and mass) was an issue; Anderson could knock him back with a bull rush.

On Saturday, Kansas City will need a solid protection plan – and another good day from its offensive linemen.

2. Can the Chiefs unlock their play-action game?

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Ryans comes from the NFL defensive coordinator pipeline of the San Francisco 49ers, so the Chiefs have plenty of experience playing against that type of defense. They often attack this type of pattern with play passes from the center.

That’s harder to do against a team like San Francisco because of linebacker Fred Warner’s coverage ability — but Houston doesn’t have a player like him at the second level. The Texans linebackers tend to bite on fake runs; they focus on going downhill to make flashy plays. This can create playmaking opportunities in the middle of the field, especially for tight ends.

In Week 16, Kansas City didn’t need much play action to move the ball — but on Saturday, we might see more of it.

3. Will Ryans change his defensive game plan?

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Last game, Houston did what it does against most opponents: play a lot of Neighborhoods coverage on early downs to limit explosive plays over the top – and make his safeties scream downhill on runs. In obvious passing plays, the Texans relied primarily on man coverage, mixing five or six man pressures with the defense’s fearsome front four.

Later calling the Week 16 game his best of the season, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid destroyed Houston’s defensive system using movement, stacks and formation groups and releases switch. This gave his wide receivers a schematic advantage against Houston’s man coverage. With the speed of his receivers, Mahomes only needed minimal separation to get the ball to open targets. This quick passing game also helped negate the Texans’ pass rush.

Still, since this is Ryans’ typical defensive approach, it’s reasonable to expect the same on Saturday.

But what happens if he decides to change it?

He has already demonstrated the ability to develop effective game plans for specific teams. Perhaps the most famous example is the one he used against the Green Bay Packers in 2021, when he was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. Green Bay’s offense was built around the connection between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wideout Davante Adams. So Ryans played 1-Double Cover on Adams, allowing him to have double teams on him all over the field. This took the Packers offense by surprise, throwing it into disarray.

There’s a chance Ryans looks back on the Week 16 game and decides he can’t play that way again against Kansas City. To win, the Texans must create a low-scoring game in which they can rely on their defense. So we could see Ryans using more zone coverages to keep the secondary’s eyes on Mahomes, trusting his speed to rally and tackle.

If this is how Houston proceeds, I would expect a big day for tight end Travis Kelce, who could pick apart the secondary by finding holes and manipulating his zone drops. Kelce isn’t having as much success against man coverage as he used to – but against zone coverages, his intelligence (and sense of space) can help him win.

This is exactly why the Chiefs use an opening play scenario. It is specifically designed to reveal exactly what they can expect from the opposing defense. Once Kansas City has this information, Reid can tailor his play calls to beat whatever approach the Texans use.