Nagy and Embree are Now on the Clock

"F*ck Me." 

According to NFL Insider Jordan Schultz, the proverbial 'unnamed' NFL GM texted him that after the Chiefs moved up in the draft on Thursday and made University of Texas speedster Xavier Worthy Brett Veach's top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. It makes sense for that kind of reaction if Worthy does indeed inject the kind of speed and life that was absent from the Chiefs offense last season. You're adding Worthy and his blazing combine record 4.21 40 time and pairing him with another speed merchant in his own right, the newly acquired Hollywood Brown, maybe Rashee Rice after 4-6 games, and just like that, the Chiefs WR room has the potential to be respectable once again. 

Of course there is one -- potentially two -- huge caveats to all of this. Connor Embree and Matt Nagy. 

Nagy gets a slight pass because after all, he's a proven quarterbacks coach and did finally adjust the offense once the Chiefs got into the postseason last year. In fact, for as much flak as Nagy took for most of last season, his second time around as Chiefs OC after his 2017 stint, the offense seemed to resemble their early season form for their four-game playoff jaunt. Outside of Weeks 5-8, when the Chiefs went 3-1 and lost to Denver in Mile High -- Mahomes and company saved their best for last with Mahomes throwing for 1055 yards, completing 69 percent of his passes and throwing six touchdowns versus one pick. Yes the defense was great, but it was the offense that finally came alive and helped the Chiefs clinch back-to-back Super Bowls. 

Now, as with every Andy Reid offensive coordinator, we're never going to know who made the changes and whether it was Big Red or Nagy or some random assistant who wrote it down on their white board of ideas. But -- Nagy has had success before with Andy Reid and did actually take the Bears to a playoff game before the wheels fell off the last three seasons in Chi City. Point is, he's done it before, he helped Alex Smith to a career year in 2017 and thus the pelts are on the wall with Nagy. 

Bottomline -- I'm expecting Nagy to be better schematically this season and we'll see the Chiefs getting back to being the dominant offense we've come to know and love. 

Then there's that pesky Wide Receivers coach -- Connor Embree. A coach's son who grew up wanting to be a coach, the former KU walk-on has worked his way from KU grad assistant under David Beaty to coaching one of the most important groups in the NFL - the guys catching passes from Patrick Mahomes. 

Needless to say, his first full year as WR coach had its challenges.

"Everyone in the building knows what's going on, what's real and what isn't, and basically just stick together and go from there," said Embree during Super Bowl week in February when asked about the criticism he and his group faced during the regular season. 

While you can argue Embree - and really the entire offense can say this -- redeemed himself in the playoffs, the criticism leveled at he and his WR lot was warranted. 

Following a career worst in receiving yards with 315 in 2023, Marquez Valdez-Scantling bounced back in the playoffs with huge catches against Buffalo and clinched the Baltimore game with one of the most terrifying wide-open catches you'll ever witness in your life as a Chiefs fan. That's more than can be said for Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney, who didn't even suit up for the playoffs following disastrous regular seasons. MVS is no longer with the Chiefs and in reality, peaked in 2022 and as I've said before, if you were a middling wideout with Aaron Rodgers, you ain't gonna be much better with Mahomes. He was decent in '22 and helped you win a couple Super Bowls. You got what you paid for with MVS - it was just painful the second time around. I'm not gonna knock Embree for MVS being mid as the kids say. 

Moore and Toney are a different story. Moore was in Year Two and Toney in Year Three last season -- and that's when coaches make their money right -- developing young talent? More troubling -- Moore was a second round pick and Toney a first round pick of the Giants -- that you traded draft capital to get. 

Eerily enough, both guys put up almost the exact same numbers their first two seasons with the Chiefs. Moore caught 22 passes for 250 yards his rookie year before regressing to 21 receptions and 24 yards in year two when much more was expected. Toney stumbled out the gate with an injured knee BEFORE Training Camp officially started last season. And these were guys who contributed the year before when they both scored in Super Bowl 57 off the exact same plays. Toney even broke the SB punt return record in that game. 

Only thing they broke in 2023 were Chiefs fans' hearts.

Then there's Rashee Rice. 

He fell shy of Dwayne Bowe's rookie receiving record for yards (995-938) but led the team in receiving touchdowns with seven and continued his stellar campaign in the postseason with 26 catches for 262 yards and a touchdown. 

After a slow start to the year, the Rookie from SMU caught fire the last six games of the season (he was inactive Week 18) and was the Chiefs best wideout during that stretch, catching a team-high 43 passes for 518 yards and three touchdowns. Sure the Chiefs only went 3-3, but it was clear that the team finally had a legit receiving threat not named Travis. 

So do we give Connor credit for Rashee if we're going to bash him for Toney and Skyy? You have to. And let us not forget -- Embree was only in his first full season as a wide receiver coach for the Chiefs after replacing Joe Bleymaier, who was moved to Pass Game Coordinator, in 2023. 

The Chiefs haven't had a proven WR coach since they moved Greg Lewis to RB coach (21-22) after he spent three seasons (17-20) at WR. He left last season to take the WR coach job with Baltimore. 

If nothing else, Andy Reid has shown year-in and year-out he will always have one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL and last season that was proven again. Can Embree, who will most certainly be without Rice to start the season, get more out of Toney and Moore and even Hollywood Brown, who let's be real - is finally playing with a real quarterback? And now we're throwing another young wideout in Xavier Worthy into the mix. 

Embree has his work cut out for him now that this WR room has been bolstered significantly. Because let's be real -- if this group struggles out the gate, you know what Chiefs fans will be saying...

F*ck Me.