2017 NFL Power Rankings: Where do Los Angeles Rams stand heading into Week 1 preseason?

(Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images)
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14. Kansas City Chiefs

From a defensive side, the Kansas City Chiefs have one of the best units in the NFL led by Eric Berry, and assuming everyone stays healthy, all signs pointing to that happening once again during the 2017 season. Even though there were some questionable performances during the regular season, the Chiefs’ defense stepped it up when it mattered the most, but as last January showed, it’s the offense that’s still in question.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the Divisional Round of the playoffs where Kansas City fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers, despite preventing them from scoring a single touchdown in the game. Holding a high-powered offense like the Steelers to six field goals over a single touchdown is absolutely ridiculous to think about, but that just shows how amazing the Chiefs can be on defense sometimes.

When stuff like this happens, the quarterback is the first one who is going to receive most of the blame, and for Alex Smith, the former No. 1 pick needs to elevate his game to a whole new level to get more out of this offense. Otherwise, it’s only going to hold Kansas City back from making a deep run into the postseason.