- 15 minutes ago
Seth and Sean talk with Carrington Harrison from The Drive on 96.5 The Fan in Kansas City to preview Texans @ Chiefs this Sunday night.
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00:00Joining us right now, he does an outstanding job on afternoons
00:03on our sister station up in Kansas City, AM 610, FM 96.5.
00:09The fan up in Kansas City, he hosts The Drive from 2 to 6 p.m.
00:13He is Carrington Harrison joining us on the show.
00:16Carrington, always great to have you on.
00:18I guess this is the thing right out of the chute that I'm most curious about
00:22is that the national talk about the Chiefs all season seems to be,
00:26well, they're just going to start winning at some point.
00:28These are all one-score games that they're losing, and it's Andy Reid,
00:31and it's Patrick Mahomes.
00:33And until this week, everybody's been fairly nonchalant nationally about it.
00:38What's the temperature there in Kansas City?
00:40What's the concern level right now that this is not a playoff team this year?
00:45Well, I would say right now that it's pretty split,
00:48and I would say this is probably as divided as Chiefs fans have been
00:51when it comes to this topic.
00:53There is one group of Chiefs fans that just think that it's over,
00:56that the game against the Cowboys is the loss,
00:59them being 6-6, them having to go 5-0,
01:02and just the amount of mistakes and errors that have kind of built up
01:05over the course of the season.
01:07There's a group of people that just think that the season is over.
01:09And then there's another group of people that kind of hold on
01:12to what you're talking about.
01:13They're the Chiefs.
01:14They'll figure it out.
01:15Their three most important games the rest of the way are at home,
01:18and they have played much better at home than on the road.
01:21So I don't want to make it seem like everybody has given up on Kansas City,
01:24but it is very much divided between a group of people
01:27that kind of just realize the daunting tasks that the Chiefs have
01:31over the last month of the season,
01:32and another group of people that just,
01:35they will never give up on Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.
01:37Oh, yeah.
01:38And look, I'm not giving up on them as being the biggest threat
01:42in any time you face the Chiefs.
01:43Even if the Chiefs had won two games this year,
01:46I'm still worried about Pat Mahomes,
01:48especially in the fourth quarter.
01:49I guess if I look at the team, and from my perspective,
01:52the biggest difference on the team this year looking at the Chiefs
01:56is that that defense, it's not like it's a bad defense.
01:59They're not allowing a boatload of points or anything,
02:01but they're just not making as many high-impact plays in any given game.
02:06What's been the biggest difference
02:08or what's been the problem with the Chiefs defense?
02:11One thing that I don't think we do a good enough job in the media
02:14when we have these conversations is we just preach
02:16it's a quarterback, quarterback lead.
02:17Obviously, it's a quarterback lead,
02:19but I would say the second most important thing that you can have
02:22is a team that can get after the other team's quarterback,
02:24and the Chiefs just don't have that.
02:26The Chiefs haven't gotten a sack in 11 quarters,
02:28so if you're not disrupting the other team's quarterback,
02:31what are you doing here?
02:32And that was a major problem against the Dallas Cowboys,
02:35and just they're not good when they don't send pressure.
02:38They're not good when they actually send pressure,
02:40and I think that's just been the biggest problem with the defense so far.
02:44Yeah, honestly, I knew that they weren't as effective with the blitz
02:48until this week when I started seeing how ineffective they've been when blitzing.
02:54It was a shock to me,
02:56and I know one of the theories floating around out there
02:58is simply just that not only have teams seen Steve Spagnuolo's blitzes
03:03for many years now,
03:04but there are so many teams around the league copying them
03:07that offenses have just caught up to a little bit.
03:10Have you seen that?
03:11Yeah, I mean, I think one of the main problems with the Chiefs is
03:16I just think they've grown a little bit stale and predictable
03:18in a lot of different ways.
03:20I mean, you guys have mentioned it when I mentioned,
03:23you know, Chiefs are basically the same team.
03:25Like, if you look at the matchups that they've had against the Texans
03:28and where they are now,
03:29you've seen 80% of this Chiefs team.
03:32Nothing's really going to take you by surprise,
03:34and I think more and more information that you give other teams in the league,
03:37you can just copy and study and adapt,
03:39and that's what I think a lot of the other teams in the NFL have just done.
03:43But I think at least to the players' credit
03:46and where I don't think it's Spaggs' fault is,
03:48to use a basketball analogy,
03:50sometimes you just need a guy that can go get a bucket.
03:52You guys saw James Harden.
03:53You don't have to draw anything up.
03:55I'm just going to make a move,
03:56and I'm going to figure out a way to score.
03:58Sometimes when it comes to pressure,
03:59you just got to beat the guy that's in front of you,
04:01and they just don't have many of those guys.
04:03Chris Jones only has three sacks so far this season.
04:06The expectation was that George Karloffis was going to take a big step forward.
04:09He didn't take a big step forward.
04:11Charles Aminu, who has one sack this season.
04:14Mike Dana, who they gave three years $24 million.
04:17He has one sack and four tackles this season.
04:20So a lot of the guys that they were depending on
04:22to kind of be that one-two punch or at least complementary pieces,
04:26they just haven't been that for the Chiefs.
04:27Chris Carrington Harrison of AM610, FM965 in Kansas City
04:33joining us right now here on Sports Radio 610.
04:35Does afternoons up there.
04:38So from that standpoint, looking at this Texans offense,
04:40because I can tell you, Carrington,
04:41the offensive line for the Texans is not great,
04:43but it's better than it was last year.
04:45It won't be a get-well game for that Chiefs pass rush, I don't think.
04:48They've been better at protecting C.J. Stroud.
04:50With that in mind, what's the biggest concern then defensively
04:54for the Chiefs against what's a pretty average Texans offense right now?
04:58It's funny because not really much of the conversation in Kansas City
05:03has been about Houston's offense.
05:04Like, I don't think anyone's really worried or concerned about Houston's offense.
05:08Like, I'm picking Houston to win this game.
05:10I'm not worried about Houston and their ability to score against Kansas City.
05:13It's much more on the other side.
05:15So I'm not trying not to not answer your question,
05:17but the conversation in Kansas City has been about,
05:20I think the nation has seen, when the Chiefs have breakdowns up front,
05:25bad things happen for the Kansas City Chiefs.
05:27Mahomes starts to get skittish.
05:28He starts to run around.
05:29Like, that's when the Chiefs are at their most vulnerable.
05:32The Chiefs are not going to have their left tackle,
05:34their right guard, and their right tackle in this game.
05:37So just so much of the conversation has been,
05:39how can they block Will Landers?
05:41How can they block DeNeal Hunter?
05:42How can the Chiefs manage things up front?
05:44We have spent no time talking about Woody Marks this week.
05:48They have so many more problems than that.
05:53Well, okay, and this is where I, when you start thinking about, okay,
05:56different ways that the Chiefs might attack the Texans' defense,
06:00I feel like this when I talk about the Bills a lot,
06:03but not as much as with the Chiefs.
06:06But you see, Kareem Hunt gets over 100 yards rushing against the Colts.
06:10It seemed to be working.
06:11You look at the rest of Kareem Hunt's game log this year,
06:13and it's like 20 yards, 30 yards.
06:16Like, I watch these Chiefs games where the run game sometimes is working
06:20really, really well, and then they just go away from it.
06:24And does Andy Reid have it in him to go into a game saying,
06:27you know what, we need to get Kareem Hunt 30 touches this game?
06:33What was that Bill Parcells quote?
06:34At some point, you just are what you are.
06:36Your record is what you say it is.
06:38Like, you mentioned the game against the Colts,
06:40and that's a good example for the Chiefs.
06:41I mean, they ran it 30 times with Kareem Hunt.
06:44Now, if they're going to show that level of commitment to ground and pound,
06:48they also ran 91 plays in that game.
06:50So they just kept the ball and kept the ball and kept the ball,
06:53and eventually it just kind of grinded out the Indianapolis Colts.
06:57If they're prepared to have that kind of game plan for sure,
06:59then they give them a chance.
07:00But I think sometimes their offense runs into the Pat Save Us mode,
07:05and they ask Patrick to be a superhero,
07:08and just one mistake kind of kills that.
07:10A bobble ball, a penalty on third down that removes the first down,
07:14a touchdown that gets taken off the board.
07:16I mean, they've had four touchdowns get taken off the board this year
07:19because of penalties.
07:20That kind of stuff just adds up over time.
07:23So I think it's just been a lot of those little things,
07:25in addition to what you're mentioning,
07:27which is they just don't have a level of commitment to the run.
07:29One of the big talking points, at least with Chiefs fans,
07:32has been their runs from shotgun and their runs from under center.
07:35So there was a sequence in the Cowboys game.
07:38They ran it six times on a drive and got 54 yards.
07:41They then ran it five more times the rest of the game after that.
07:44So nobody can explain it.
07:46It doesn't make any sense.
07:47The Chiefs just do random things on offense now.
07:50What's the biggest thing the Texans defense needs to take away
07:54from the Chiefs offense this game?
07:56What's the head of the snake here for the Chiefs?
07:59That's a good question because I would say that they don't necessarily have one.
08:03I mean, it's probably still Travis Kelsey and Rasheed Rice.
08:06Kelsey is having a really, really good season.
08:08I'm giving Kelsey a lot of credit where Kelsey did, you know,
08:12Kelsey said in the offseason, you know,
08:13hey, maybe I was too focused on doing these things away from football
08:16and it got my attention away from, you know, the main thing.
08:19So I got to get back to it.
08:20Last year, Kelsey averaged 8.7 yards per carry or catch.
08:24He's now at 12.9.
08:25So just a drastic improvement from where he was last year.
08:28He just looks fresher and renewed.
08:30Just a very different player than he was last season.
08:32Rasheed Rice is playing at a high level.
08:35Aside from that, it's just kind of hit or miss.
08:38Xavier Worthy's been pretty banged up this year,
08:40so he hasn't had many explosive plays.
08:42Tyquan Thornton can kind of beat you down the field with something.
08:44Hollywood Brown.
08:45But aside from Kelsey and Rasheed Rice,
08:48there's not anything I would say to overly be worried about
08:50with Kansas City's offense.
08:52Hey, Carrington, sorry, I should have had this clip ready for you,
08:54but it just occurred to me.
08:55Did you happen to see the clip of a reporter here in Houston
09:00asking C.J. Stroud about Stone Cold?
09:04I actually saw it last night.
09:06I saw it, yeah.
09:07Okay.
09:07Now, like, you know, we have Ron Hughley here,
09:11but I'm curious.
09:12Does anybody in Kansas City actually call him Stone Cold?
09:15Very, very rarely.
09:19He kind of went through this, like, I don't know.
09:22I feel like he was trying to brand himself in a way,
09:25and I just thought it never really kind of caught on to me.
09:28Like, I remember one time he, like,
09:30he, like, mixed up a rock analogy with the Stone Cold,
09:33and I'm like, wait, you didn't really watch wrestling like that
09:35if you're going to mix those two analogies.
09:37Oh, okay.
09:38That's sacrilege.
09:40Yeah.
09:41He was like, if you smell what Stone Cold is cooking,
09:43like, nobody said that, that's not how it goes.
09:46Yeah, yeah, that's not how it goes.
09:47Okay, we just found a bullet point.
09:49I'm telling you, look it up.
09:50I will.
09:51Have your producer Google it.
09:53He said if you smell what Stone Cold is cooking,
09:56and if you grew up doing that era, you know,
09:58you can't say that.
09:59No, no.
10:00Okay, well, so, you know, Stone Cold, as I like to call him,
10:03doesn't seem to be having, like, a classic Stone Cold season.
10:07What's going on with him, honestly?
10:09He's old.
10:10I mean, that's the answer.
10:12He's old.
10:12The football, I really think, this is my hypothesis,
10:17I think that Tom Brady broke our expectation of football players
10:21because Tom Brady played until he was 57 years old.
10:24Now, everybody thinks everybody can do it.
10:27Football is best play from people between the ages of 22 and 27 years old,
10:31and when you get, the further away from 27 you get,
10:34the more likely it is you can be washed,
10:36and you can be washed instantly.
10:38Like, we saw Julio Jones in two years go from being the best receiver in the league
10:42to out of the league.
10:43We saw DeAndre Hopkins go from being really good to,
10:46I don't even know where DeAndre Hopkins is anymore.
10:49Like, that's just how quickly it can go.
10:51So, the Chiefs signed Chris Jones, so that big contract, that big extension.
10:55He has had six and a half sacks in the last year and a half.
10:58He's just not the same player that he was anymore.
11:00So, when you're paying somebody the fifth most of any defensive lineman in the league,
11:04and he's just not that disruptive, it just starts to affect other things on your defense.
11:09And when you haven't found that next complementary piece, that next star,
11:13you get the D line that the Chiefs have.
11:14So, you're saying that even though DeAndre scored four touchdowns for the Chiefs
11:19and helped get the Chiefs to a thrashing in the Super Bowl,
11:24that he's not going to retire as a Kansas City Chief.
11:26You guys don't think of him as a lifelong Chief.
11:28No, no, DeAndre Hopkins.
11:29I do know he plays for the Ravens.
11:31But, no, DeAndre Hopkins, DeAndre Hopkins, I mean, he was fine last year.
11:35But, I mean, I kind of think DeAndre Hopkins, now in hindsight,
11:39was kind of indicative of the problem.
11:42That the Chiefs have just, they have relied a lot on players who are 30 years old or older.
11:48And that's just not the NFL.
11:50When you look at, you know, all the teams that we think can make a run
11:53and all the teams we think can win the Super Bowl,
11:55they're really led by young pieces or they're a team, to your point earlier, Seth,
12:00that can run the football.
12:01Like, every team you think can win the Super Bowl,
12:03they might not be the best run team in the NFL, but they can rely on it.
12:07So, I think for Kansas City, at least what I'm kind of focusing on for the offseason is,
12:11they've got to turn over the bottom half of that roster
12:13and they've really got to emphasize young players who are entering their prime.
12:17And the Chiefs just have to find an ability to run the football
12:20and be able to rely on running the football,
12:23take some of the pressure off their quarterback,
12:24as he's now 30 and over.
12:27Yeah, I just got depressed thinking about DeAndre Hopkins' rapid fall.
12:30You know, that 31-year benchmark for receivers, it's pretty consistent.
12:34That's real.
12:35It's like there's almost everybody falls off a cliff,
12:38except the ones that don't end up being awesome
12:40and playing for a long time after that.
12:42But, yeah, DeAndre, since he had over 1,000 yards in his 31-year-old season,
12:47just hasn't been the same guy.
12:48Haven't been the same guy.
12:48Hey, Carrington, before we get you out of here,
12:50we're talking to Carrington Harrison of our sister station up in Kansas City.
12:54He does afternoons up there.
12:56I mean, you just talked about a little bit what may need to happen in the offseason.
13:00I mean, I'm just looking at the standings.
13:02The Texans win on Sunday.
13:03I don't know what the tiebreakers are, but if the Texans – I know this.
13:06If the Texans win on Sunday and the Broncos win on Sunday,
13:08the Broncos clinched the division because they'll have a five-game lead with four games to go.
13:13Is this the Broncos' division now?
13:15I'm not just talking in 2025.
13:17Is this the Broncos' division moving forward now?
13:20I mean, I'm not ready to say that just because I think the Broncos are just last year's chiefs.
13:26Like, the Broncos every week just randomly pull something out of the fire.
13:31Against Philadelphia, they block a kick.
13:33Against the commanders, the commanders score, and then they go for it on two-point conversion,
13:37and then it gets blocked.
13:39It's funny, and I think one of the things Chiefs fans have kind of pushed back on this season is
13:43the Broncos are getting praised for everything the Chiefs got criticized for last year.
13:47Like, people look for reasons to not believe in Kansas City where, you know, it's new.
13:51It's different.
13:51It's fresh with the Broncos.
13:52So, I think that's it.
13:54I'm not ready to hand things over completely to Kansas City, but I do think it's time for
13:58the Chiefs to have a little bit of a reset.
14:00Their just roster has gotten stale.
14:02They've had the same offensive coordinator, the same defensive coordinator, the same O-line
14:05coach.
14:06Like, they just kept things the same for a while.
14:08You know, we all work in radio.
14:09You guys can't do the same bits for five consecutive years.
14:12The audience gets tired of hearing that bit.
14:14We can.
14:15I think you underestimate us, Carrington.
14:17Okay, my bad.
14:18Well, that's just kind of where I think the Chiefs are.
14:21They just need new bits.
14:23They need new features.
14:24They need new audio, new imaging.
14:25They need all of that stuff.
14:27If there's a single player that you could single out as, oh, man, this guy's really getting
14:33it from the fans this year as the Chiefs are struggling, who is it?
14:37Honestly, it's been their offensive coordinator.
14:40I would say it's him and Stone Cold Chris Jones.
14:44Those two individuals.
14:46It's those two.
14:46And you know how it is.
14:47It's like, if you were somebody that makes a lot of money and you're not living up to
14:52that expectation, the fans are just going to be frustrated with you.
14:55So if you're the sixth highest paid defensive lineman in the league and you got three sacks,
15:00and if you remember that game on Monday Night Football where Chris Jones is just standing
15:05there in the middle of the field while Trevor Lawrence scores a touchdown, it has been all
15:09downhill since that point, at least with his relationship with the fans.
15:12So, yeah, I would say Chris Jones is probably public enemy number one, and then I would
15:17say their offensive coordinator because the number one thing any fan base complains about
15:21when it's not working is play calling.
15:22Oh, yeah.
15:23We know that very, very well here.
15:24So wait a second.
15:26When things aren't going well, it's Matt Nagy, the offensive coordinator, but when things
15:31are going well, it's like, well, it's Andy Reid's offense anyway.
15:34I mean, Seth, it's like you've never met NFL fans before.
15:39You're like, come on, we all know how this works.
15:43Chris Jones has always been fascinating to me because, like, honestly, you know, you'll
15:47watch him cruise through games, but then all of a sudden in the fourth quarter, he shows
15:51up big time.
15:52And I figured it might, not saying that it's over for him or anything, but you knew that
15:57the end for Chris Jones wasn't going to necessarily be pretty because nobody's ever said about him
16:03that he's a high motor guy or anything like that.
16:06So, yeah, as he gets older, that's going to wear on fans, I would imagine.
16:11Yeah, for sure.
16:12I mean, I would say there's a couple of things that kind of work against Chris Jones.
16:15I would say, number one, Mahomes and Kelsey are so popular.
16:19Like, fans only have room for one, you know, a couple of players in their heart.
16:23So I think that's it.
16:25And then I think, number two, and this goes back a couple of seasons, you guys remember
16:28Chris Jones held out of all of training camp.
16:31And then when the Chiefs raised their Super Bowl banner, Chris Jones didn't play and was
16:35sitting in the audience.
16:37And then he came back.
16:38He had a 10-sack season, the last one that he had in his career, but he had to play in
16:42the last game of the season.
16:44The Chiefs didn't actually need the game.
16:45He was the only starter that played.
16:47He played to the third quarter to try to get his money because the Chiefs basically gave
16:51him a chance to get back all the money that he lost in training camp.
16:54So again, I really think it comes down to, man, you did so much to get this big contract.
16:58You had $140 million, you had 91 of it guaranteed.
17:02And since he put his name on that paper, he has six and a half sacks.
17:06You can't do everything that he did and then not perform and then think that things are
17:09going to go well with you and the fan.
17:11Okay.
17:11Now, I'm even angrier about this Stone Cold thing now because Stone Cold Steve Austin
17:15actually wrestled with like a broken neck for like two years to make his money.
17:20And Chris Jones is playing a fraction of the plays.
17:23And he's really Teemu Rock.
17:24He's not even Stone Cold.
17:25He's botching the Rocks catchphrase, according to Carrington.
17:29So I'm even angrier now.
17:30Good.
17:30You know, the good news is Carrington, the very next segment we do every Friday at 825
17:34is five reasons I hate you about the opponent.
17:36So you just gave us like three.
17:38We've been doing it for five years, we have.
17:39Yeah, we've been doing this bit for five years.
17:41We actually have.
17:42We've been doing it for five years.
17:43And we did a, we did a, a, what do they call it?
17:46A group panel with some listeners where they told us what they like and don't like.
17:50Favorite segment?
17:51Five reasons I hate you.
17:52So that is a bit that is enduring Carrington right now.
17:54Carrington is going to tell me that I shouldn't be wearing Zubaz anymore.
17:57Great.
18:00That's funny.
18:01I'm telling you, girl, I want you to have your producer look it up.
18:04And if he can't find it, I'll send it to you.
18:06So even if you don't have it for today's show, you have it for Monday, you have to get,
18:09when, when Chris Jones said, if you smell what Stone Cold's come, you have, because
18:14you just have to hear it.
18:15Oh my God.
18:15It's just, it's just so cringy.
18:17It's so bad.
18:18It's so bad.
18:19You have to hear it.
18:20Yeah.
18:20You telling us about it is, is getting me hot and making me in a bad way, making me cringe.
18:26Carrington Harrison, uh, joining us here, or joining us, Carrington, uh, we'll cut you
18:30loose here.
18:31Go do your TV.
18:32Enjoy the game on Sunday.
18:33We always appreciate the time, man.
18:35You do a great job.
18:36Keep up the great work.
18:37Hey, absolutely, man.
18:38I appreciate you guys.
18:39Thanks for having me on today.
18:39Thanks.
18:40You got it.
18:40Carrington Harrison, host of The Drive in Kansas City on our sister station up there, uh, is
18:45fantastic.
18:46He does great.
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