NFL Kickoff breakdown: Baltimore Ravens vs. Kansas City Chiefs | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

all right let's take a look now at the tale of the tape for the major pieces of these two teams as we approach opening night of the Season let's start with the offense who's got the better offense between the Ravens and the Chiefs miles well I mean yeah I with apologies to the Ravens who offense I think is very good but look we didn't just spend the last 10 minutes praising Patrick Mahomes for no reason when you've got that guy that makes you the better offense pretty much inherently and you know I I think given the speed element that is now there with Xavier worthy with Hollywood Brown when he returns you know that really does make things different now the other thing that we got with the Chiefs is is a young left tackle and that is something that I think you got to pay attention to especially going up against the Ravens defense but by all accounts he's done such a good job over the course of the offseason program training camp that especially when you have Patrick Mahomes and his experience I I think that they're going to be all right there so I I would say the Chiefs yeah I agree with you the Kansas City Chiefs you know they've got a sneaky good running game that they don't use as much as maybe they could or arguably should but do you really need to do it when you've got what essentially is a a simulated and effective running game in short passes to Travis Kelce or anyone else that happens to be open underneath you've got the Speedy receivers now and it's ultimately momes it comes back to Mahomes until somebody can knock him off the top of the mountain anytime it's Chiefs or that team Chiefs or this team I'm going to be inclined to favor the Chiefs especially on the offensive side of the ball right that part's easy defensively defensively who's got the better of it between these two teams th this one's tough because the Ravens are great on defense you know and I think that there's an expectation that they will continue to be but it goes back to you know what I was saying a little bit earlier in the segment when you have a new defensive coordinator despite how good I think he's going to be eventually I think that there's going to be a bit of an adjustment period there and so because St spagnolo has the experience right he's been there for as many years as he's been there know they've won championships with him um and that defense the for the Chiefs was as good as any last year that they lost the jerus Sneed yes but I think when you've got a guy like Trent McDuffy who's just an absolute dog man I mean you're you're going to be able to be okay at corner so I I would give the edge a slight Edge to the Chiefs yeah I agree with you I mean from a Personnel standpoint I think it hurts the Ravens to lose Patrick Queen especially in the division to the Steelers he's going to be extra motivated that the Ravens didn't want to keep him around they've still got some great pieces but their defense every year gets better over time and this year there's reason for it not to be 85 Bears right out of the gates because of the change in coordinator it's going to take a little time to get to as good as it's going to be whereas the Chiefs I think bringing back your coordinators think about that year after year they just keep coming back none of these guys are serious candidates to be head coaches at this point so they just keep coming back and having that continuity and stability having Chris Jones available last year he was at the game in a suite watching the festivities because he was holding out I think that it all adds up to the Chiefs having a slightly better defense all right special teams who do you have I'm I'm going to take the Ravens here and it's mostly because Justin Tucker is the greatest kicker of all time right and and now Harrison bucker is quite good in his own right but I think between that and you got Hardy who is a really good return guy and this is another one of these elements that we just kind of don't know like that opening kickoff might be really interesting because if it doesn't if haris and bucker do bang the ball out of the endzone who knows what that thing is going to look like so that's going to be an interesting element to it um Hardman also a good return guy for the Chiefs the fact that he's back I mean he also has this speed element you know not necessarily known for catching it as well as uh Hollywood brown or Xavier worthy either so I I would give the edge there to the Ravens mostly because of Justin Tucker yeah and I'll apply this caveat from yesterday because we played the clip of him talking about the incident from last year prior to the AFC Championship when he was out there getting in the pregame workouts of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and Kelce threw his helmet and threw the little tea and threw the balls and as long as he CU he was a little cheeky and a little like I'm saying what they're expecting me to say as long as he doesn't stir things up again I'll go with Justin Tucker but one of the realities with the kickoff and what I've done peel back the curtain a little bit for tomorrow night's pregame show I'm trying to get a comprehensive understanding of what we can expect with this new kickoff and I've spoken to many coaches Executives Etc to try to figure this out and one of the concerns that was raised to me along with film clips that I have on my phone one of which is scary you better be careful with your kickers because because they kick the ball and they've got the ability to run up to where everyone else is and one of those blockers comes free and there's a clip of a Titans kicker getting blown the F up in that play So that's going to be one of the things to watch we heard about the possibility of teams using other players like Justin Reed possibly being the kickoff specialist for the Chiefs because then he can run right up into The Fray and be an extra tackler that hasn't come to fruition in part because I don't think you can trust a non-kicker to consistently put the ball between the goal line in the 20 and not have it squirt out of bounds before it gets to the end zone which puts it on the 40 or we'd hear that someone was doing it now maybe somebody's got secret weapon who isn't who isn't a kicker that they're they're saving for week one but I think they'd at least test that guy out in the preseason in a game setting you know some of the things they're going to do we won't see until regular season if you're going to have somebody other than your main kicker I think we would have seen it preseason but the bottom line is this Justin Tucker Harrison buter be careful once you kick off and run down toward where everyone is because there's going to be somebody looking for you and I've seen the clips of some kickers getting hit pretty damn hard in the preseason well that's a little bit of a concern I mean that well that but that's part of why and you know you've been making the argument that if they really want this to be a thing they got to change the Touchback from the 30 to the 35 if that's also a part of the risk of it then as a head coach you know I'll I'll just take the 30 and like let's go play Because all it needs is one to just really pop off and somebody to do something really creative if you're the the Dolphins and you got all these speed guys and you do something really creative and then you you see that as a like I don't want to risk any of that like especially because usually I think the the um the return average was something about the 28 28 and a half in the preseason if that's the case then just give me the 30 and like let's just go play defense I don't I I if I'm a head coach I don't know if I want to deal with that it was the 288 for all kickoffs and the 28 for all kickoffs that were actually returned the benefit is and the term that you're going to hear if you watch the pregame show tomorrow night is risk reward because that's what keeps coming back to you know you're you're trying to do an analytical formula with no data but that's the hypothetical that they're looking at what is based on the circumstances of the game what's the risk and what's the reward and one of the risks that you need to factor in is the possibility of your kicker getting blown up when he runs down the field eager to try to make a special team's tackle all right so I'll say ravens as well but it's very close and I think for both of us it's very close between ravens and Chiefs better coaching between a couple of future Hall of Famers I think they both both get in at some point Harbaugh has been around since 2008 Andy Reid has been coaching every year in the NFL since 1999 he's a no-brainer walk right into the upper room Hall of Fame and may catch bill bich is the greatest coach of all time especially you know if he continues to be joined at the hip with momes and he keeps going for another five or six years who do you have right now as the better Coach and let's throw in the entire staff as well yeah I mean I first of all it kind of comes down to Rings you you know and if if that's the case then it's got to be Andy Reid but you know we've been sort of talking about this too I mean the the edge between spag noo and or I mean just experience-wise got to go to spags I mean Matt naggie versus um Todd monin I mean you also have the experience Factor there in terms of just being uh an NFL coach before so I would kind of go with naggie there although I really like what Todd monin has done with that offense with the exception of the way he called it in the AFC Championship game so I would go with the Chiefs but I don't again like any of these it's kind of like man it's not like I'm trying to knock the Ravens here because the Ravens are a great staff they got really talented players but when you're going against the Champs you're still going against the Champs and the Chiefs right now they're the two-time defending champs yeah I think across the board the better coaching staff again this weird dynamic that Steve spagnolo never gets seriously mentioned as a potential head coaching candidate he had that very short disastrous tenure with the Rams which really wasn't all his fault I'm not making excuses for the guy but the Rams were about as dysfunctional as any team has ever been during that period of time that Spagnola was the head coach so I don't know whether it's that or you know there's a general bias I think against defensive head coaches because you want a quarterback Guru to be the guy that that takes your Young quarterback if you get a franchise guy potentially in the draft and you want to go forward but yeah spagnolo doesn't get mentioned naggie had his stint with the Bears which wasn't a complete disaster but those guys are sticking around at one point Dave to the Special Teams coordinator was mentioned as a potential head coaching candidate those guys have stayed in place that gives the Chiefs the better overall staff in the edge there so it looks like we're both going to what a shock we're both going to pick the Chiefs to win tomorrow night should have learned last year though and it was too late to change the pick but I will say this last year when the Lions came out to take the field I was just like they seem upset like there's just there was just something in the air that was like somebody didn't give them the memo that this is Chief's celebration night and the Lions obviously went on to win the game okay you have a chance to win $1 million in the NBC sweep Stakes on Yahoo fantasy just download the redesign Yahoo fantasy app or go to nbcsports.com fantasy million for additional details what are you waiting for hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk