The Chiefs rookie could get his first real targets of the season after Jody Fortson’s injury

The big game has kept the Kansas City Chiefs from going home in recent years.

Last postseason, the Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl for a number of reasons — a legendary head coach, the best player in the game at quarterback, a world-class defense — but part of the offense’s success in the NFL playoffs was based on the ability team to go big with its staff.

In Chiefs parlance, the package called Rhino, goes 13 personnel (which means 1 running back with 3 tight ends). If the Chiefs want to take things to 14 personnel (and add another tight end), it’s called T-Rex. Either way, it can be a matchup nightmare in the right situation, and bosses have found grouping quite useful along the way.

It made a lot of sense for the Chiefs to go bigger in the playoffs a year ago. The wide receiving corps has been woeful all season, so any way to minimize reliance on a frustrating unit is a wise path. The game also becomes much more physically accurate as the weather cools down. In those situations, a guy like Noah Gray is more likely to do better than someone like Devon Wylie in certain situations. (Hat tip to die-hard Chiefs fans on this one.)

By this season, the Chiefs are taking things to a new level. In 2023, the Chiefs were already well above the league average in running 13 personnel on 7.1% of all plays (more than twice the NFL average of 3.2%). In 2024, however, they took things to a new level — at 16.1 percent — while the NFL average remained the same.

The Chiefs signaled that with a few moves this offseason. First, they shut down unexpectedly Noah Gray to a multi-year extension— even while others, like linebacker Nick Bolton and guard Trey Smith, were still waiting. Second, they spent a fourth-round pick Jared Wiley from TCU in this spring’s NFL draft.

Most recently, they even re-signed Jody Fortson to the roster after he failed to stick with the Miami Dolphins after leaving for South Florida in free agency. From that moment, the bosses began to experiment with T-Rex and rely on 14 personnel. Unfortunately, Fortson went down after just three games in his return to Arrowhead with a serious leg injury.

While the stats are minimal, Fortson gained at least three targets in his time with the Chiefs, while the jury is still out on any impact Wiley had. The rookie has just one target to his name — a 7-yard catch from Week 2 — despite playing in every game so far in 2024. In fact, Wiley has played in 20 percent of all offensive snaps to date. not sees a target.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if this changes for the Chiefs. The confidence is clearly not there yet from Wiley and other targets are clearly in play for the limited amount of snaps he is getting as well. But given his playing time, it makes sense that he gets at least 1-2 targets per game instead of the zeros that fill the stat sheet week after week.

As the second half of the season approaches and with Fortson on the mend, it will be interesting to see if Wiley develops at all as a secondary target for the Chiefs in larger offensive packages. The ball skills have always been there — to the tune of 47 catches for 520 yards and 8 scores at TCU last year — and now it’s about perfecting his technique and rounding out his game to ensure he’s an asset, regardless of what the game throws at them. .