The GMKC: Chiefs sign Austin Blythe

 

By Caleb James

April 2, 2021

The Chiefs continued to overhaul their offensive line this week by signing former Los Angeles Rams Center Austin Blythe.

In his first press conference of the offseason, Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach said the offensive line would be a big focus of the offseason. Veach is a man of his word as the team signed center, Austin Blythe this week, the third new linemen they added to the roster this season. It is now highly likely the team will have five new starters at every position across the line, which is nearly unheard of in the NFL.

Blythe is an experienced veteran who has played in a Super Bowl and been an above-average player for the Rams. 

https://twitter.com/CJScoobs/status/1377092163654230016

https://twitter.com/CJScoobs/status/1377092163654230016

Physicality is the name of Blythe’s game, and he uses it to his own advantage. He is a little undersized at 6-foot-3 and only 298 pounds, but he is adequately athletic for the position. He is a high IQ football player. It is easy on tape to see him make his line calls and pick out blitzes, but he also has in play IQ, like the play below displays.

https://twitter.com/CJScoobs/status/1377102963252981767

When he can win the hand fight battle and lock on to a defender it’s hard to get past him. He has some powerful clamps when he gets locked up on a defender and usually plays with good leverage. Blythe was a three-time state champion wrestler as a high schooler in Iowa, so he understands leverage, as well as how momentum works when he battling in the trenches.

https://twitter.com/CJScoobs/status/1377484176379670535

Blythe should be an upgrade over Austin Reiter in the run game. He is more athletic, stronger at the point of attack, and overall more physical. I was really impressed with the way he works up to the second level in zone-blocking plays. He has great explosion off the snap, a good first step, and he works good angles. He turns these blocks into a reach block on the run, which is very hard to do.

So is Blythe better than Reiter in pass protection. It can be hard to tell at times, but he is better in the areas that Austin Reiter struggled in. He is a strong point of attack linemen, gets movement off the ball, and is in general more physical. Reiter may seem to be the better pass protector, but very rarely in the Chiefs offensive scheme was Reiter left alone to block one one one.

The way teams played the Rams this past season their plan was to send pressure early and often to slow down their run game, which would, in turn, slow down the play-action game that they relied on. That will not be the case in Kansas City. Teams were much more reluctant to pressure Patrick Mahomes in 2020 and found more success rushing only four and dropping up to seven in coverage. This leaves one on one blocks upfront and a need for physicality.

This move came down to the Chiefs wanting an established player at the position who could start for a year but also allows them the flexibility to continue to search for a long-term solution at the position. If Blythe plays up the flashes’ he has shown the past few seasons it could be him. This is very much a one-year prove-it deal.

Blythe will be 29 by the end of next season, meaning he has a chance to make one more big contract in his NFL career. If he plays well in 2021 he will position himself to make as much money as possible to wind down his career. It’s a low-risk high reward signing by the Chiefs and should help them improve upfront.

NFL: Top 5 Cleveland Browns free-agent signings since 1999

 

Cleveland Browns v Oakland Raiders

Nishant Upadhyay

ANALYST

Modified 03 Apr 2021

 

Last year, Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry made a big splash in free agency to bolster the team's offensive line. The signings played a big part in the team's success as they ended their 18-year long playoff drought.

Historically, Cleveland has not been a landing spot for top free agents. The team's history of dysfunction, coupled with its lack of success on the field, has always been off-putting for the NFL's best players.

While the team hasn't had much luck with the free agents that they have managed to sign, few players have been outliers to that norm. Below, we take a look at the Cleveland Browns' top-five free-agent signings since 1999.

 

Cleveland Browns’ Top 5 free agent signings since 1999

 

#1 - Phil Dawson, Kicker

Not often a kicker would be a franchise’s top free-agent signing in a 20-year span unless it was Phil Dawson.

He was a constant staple for the Browns for 14 years after their return to the NFL in 1999. He is a beloved figure in Cleveland and is still one of the fan favorites despite playing for two teams after leaving the Browns.

Dawson scored the first points for the returning Browns in the second game of the 1999 NFL season against the Tennessee Titans. Dawson holds almost all kicking and scoring records for the Browns. In his 14 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, Dawson connected on 305 of his 330 field goal attempts and 350 of his 358 extra-point attempts.

In 2019, Dawson signed a one-day deal with the Browns to retire as a Browns player.

Film review: Austin Blythe makes up for lack of size with IQ and technique

 

Let’s see what the Chiefs have in their new center.

By Matt Lane  

Apr 1, 2021, 9:31am CDT 

The Kansas City Chiefs have made another move to bolster their interior offensive line by signing a center named Austin.

No... not former starter Austin Reiter — whom the Chiefs had been reported to be interested in re-signing — but former Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman Austin Blythe. The Chiefs brought Blythe in on a one-year deal worth up to $1.75 million based on his playing time and team performance. This was the final position along the interior offensive line that hadn’t been yet addressed in free agency.

Blythe has started 47 of the last 48 games for the Rams, spending 2020 as the starting center. Much like previous offseason addition Joe Thuney, he has been quite durable throughout his NFL career. Kyle Long notwithstanding, this is something the Chiefs have appeared to emphasize a little on the offensive line during free agency. And after the 2020 season — in which only one Week 1 starter made it to the Super Bowl — who could blame them?

Let’s take a look at Blythe’s film.

Austin Blythe

Run blocking

The stronger part of Blythe’s game comes in in supporting the run. The Rams’ offensive system was certainly friendly to him, as it included a lot of wide runs that often left him uncovered, allowing him to excel as a second-level blocker.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377070726788874240

He may not be the most explosive (or the most flexible) center in the NFL — but he plays quick. He’s fast to move after he snaps the football and has minimal wasted motion while working up through his assignments.

On this outside zone run, his IQ and technique are on display. He gets out of his stance with a strong zone step so the nose tackle can’t work across his face — but at the same time, also makes sure he is working upfield. This allows him to get a good punch on the nose tackle so his teammate can pick him up — and then he’s off to chase the linebacker. Blythe is quick to read the linebacker’s leverage, taking a direct angle; he knows he will have to kick the linebacker outside.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377070752571269122

These are Blythe’s strengths as a run blocker: his IQ and his blocking angles when working up to the second level. While isn’t the most agile blocker in space, he gets on top of defenders so quickly that they rarely have a chance to react and get past him. On the line of scrimmage, he doesn’t always have the power to torque players out of a gap — or the speed to cross a defender — but he’s extremely quick off the snap and is able to identify leverage early in the rep.

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. In big moments, Blythe’s lack of mass and length can be exposed.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377262456066744322

While Blythe tends to make good contact early in a rep (and quickly on the second level), his lack of reach (he has 30.25-inch arms) routinely shows up in his inability to sustain blocks. Against defensive tackles or linebackers, he is easily pressed out of a defender’s frame and disengaged, allowing them to get back into the play.

As we see in the second play, Blythe is in a good position — and initially, has the block framed well. But as the play develops, he is unable to generate movement or create a running lane. He ends up allowing the defender to shed him and assist in the tackle.

But while he lacks NFL mass and length, he displays above-average athleticism. He does a good job maintaining his balance on the move — and has the ability to out-pace a defender directly off the snap. But then his limitations come into play. Attempting longer reach blocks often results in simply trying to run defenders down the line of scrimmage; he doesn’t have the length and power to stop them.

Still, Blythe does present himself as a better run-blocking center than the Chiefs had in 2020. While he has limitations, his attention to detail — and his ability to play quickly — will give him more consistency as a run blocker than we saw last season.

Pass blocking

This area of Blythe’s game isn’t quite as strong as his run blocking — but I do think the gap has been overblown. As in the running game, the Rams’ system — with a lot of motion and play-action rollouts — asked little of him in pass protection.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377074195989954560

You’d expect a center of Blythe’s size to be pushed around in pass protection — much like we saw with the Chiefs last year — but that really isn’t the case. While he doesn’t have the length or power to present a brick wall against defensive tackles, he still handles direct power very well. He consistently skips his feet back to maintain his base and leverage while utilizing his hands to ever-so-slightly redirect the defender’s momentum.

In this play, he gives up ground on the initial contact, but gets his hands set high and low while maintaining his base. This allows him to push the defensive tackle slightly outside — but you can see, he also uses his inside hand to start pulling down on the defender, preventing the rusher from fully attacking him.

This subtle hand usage — along with the attention to detail around his base — allow him to routinely withstand power rushes from bigger players.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377090482023641093

In pass protection, Blythe’s hands are the star of the show.

Here, he’s working against new Chiefs defensive tackle Jarran Reed — and his hand-fighting is practically a clinic. His independent hand usage is outstanding; he’s able to punch and latch with one hand and repeatedly hand-replace with the other.

Blythe doesn’t have the reach to simply punch a defender and lock them into place — but he is able to play with his hands operating independently on completely different levels, allowing him to generate unexpected leverage and survive against much bigger defenders. This is how he is able to compensate for his lack of length and top-end athleticism.

https://twitter.com/ChiefinCarolina/status/1377254012903419909

Still, long, powerful defenders can easily get first contact on Blythe, putting him into disadvantageous positions. He’s very competent with his hands and can maintain his balance — but given the lack of some physical traits, there is only so much he can do. There are plays where his lack of length becomes too much to overcome; he ends up on skates and is easily moved out of the way. When defenders can keep him out of their chest, he struggles to keep them at bay.

With Blythe’s average lateral agility, it can become even more difficult for him in pass protection. He’s simply not able to mirror a rusher, keeping them framed and forcing them into his chest. Quicker rushers will always present a challenge for Blythe — especially if it’s a longer-developing passing concept.

Takeaway

The Chiefs made a savvy free-agent move by bringing Blythe in to compete to be the team’s starting center. While he isn’t an NFL superstar, he is a competent starter. He’s roughly the same caliber of player the Chiefs had in Austin Reiter — but he does bring a different style to the offensive interior.

Blythe is a more advanced run blocker who shows high-end technique, IQ and quality second-level blocking. In the way they all play the game, he’ll fit nearly perfectly between Joe Thuney and either Laurent Duvernay-Tardif or Kyle Long. As a pass protector, he will compete and and hold a more stout pocket than the Chiefs often got last season — but his ability to hold up one-on-one will still make the middle of the offensive line a questionable spot.

But perhaps most importantly, this move allows the Chiefs flexibility. They won’t be forced into drafting a starting center or putting third-year player Nick Allegretti into that role without competition. For anyone to unseat Blythe, they will have to show they are at least an average NFL starter.