The Chiefs Should Pay Trey Smith.. Yesterday

The Kansas City Chiefs are currently in the middle of a journey to go for the never done before Super Bowl Three-peat while boasting the NFL’s best 8-0 record. It’s a weird time to begin looking ahead in any fashion but there are some major looming questions for the Chiefs coming up this offseason. One of those pressing questions is what to do with offensive guard Trey Smith in terms of re-signing him or looking to move on from him in Free Agency.

The Chiefs paid his draft and running mate, Creed Humphrey, this previous offseason and that led the consensus to think that Smith would likely be on his way out the following year. That was easy to say in the offseason when Smith was coming off a slightly “down” year, and the thought was the Chiefs’ were leaning back into a pass-centric offense that would mitigate the importance of the interior offense line.

Well here at the midway point of the NFL season, those things have quite happened for the Chiefs. The Chiefs currently throw a pass on just 53% of their total plays which is their lowest mark since 2012. The offensive line is still entirely anchored by an elite interior unit. The kicker? Trey Smith is currently playing as good as he ever has and that could make him non-expendable to the Chiefs.

Trey Smith Film Review

The way Trey Smith is playing this season - perfectly timed in the contract year - is enough to raise attention to a looming payday on it’s own. According to Pro Football Focus, he currently has an offensive grade of 81.5 which is a career high. He also has career highs in both his run blocking and pass blocking grade while being on pace to give up his least amount of pressures and commit his least amount of penalties. Moral of the story is that Smith is playing great but the cherry on top is just quite simply how pivotal he is to this Chiefs’ offense and how they function.

Run Blocking

Smith is known for his power and ability to move bodies in the run game. It’s obvious to anyone that’s every watched him but what has become more clear as the years have gone on is that he is the lynchpin of the Chiefs run game. Humphrey is obviously a phenomenal player who brings a ton of versatility but the run game is based around and goes with Trey Smith. The short yardage run designs tell that story pretty clearly too.

The Point Man

Think back to all of the Chiefs’ short yardage runs. They run the FB Dive from an offset alignment to the right and run directly behind Trey Smith and run off his block. They run Power Rt - a gap scheme run with the LG pulling across the formation and inserting off the right side of the line of scrimmage - relying on Smith to create the initial rush lane with his down block on the defensive tackle. The latter is on display in the play above.