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eague in sacks among outside linebackers with 14.5 Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys 2019 , but don’t tell that to Kansas City Chiefs outside linebackers coach Mike Smith.He wouldn’t care. As a matter of fact, Smith said Thursday he doesn’t even know the sack totals for Chiefs starting linebackers Dee Ford and Justin Houston. And that is a good thing.Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images“It’s funny,” Smith said. “I can’t tell you how many sacks Justin or Dee have, or really anybody in the room. What I look at every week, I look at pass-rush productivity, Fraz (Mike Frazier) does a good job of that. It’s hurries, hits and sacks with the number of snaps. That’s the most important thing. And so I look at anything above 250 snaps, where are they at? Dee has 75, Justin has 45. That’s both top five. Going into last week, they were one and two. To me, it’s important if you’re affecting the quarterback. So that’s the thing that we stress in our room. That’s the thing that we keep track of. We don’t even keep track of sacks.”To be clear, Ford and Houston still get to the quarterback. They have a combined 19.5 times in 2018, but the idea from Smith is nothing new—it’s a point we have heard defensive coordinator Bob Sutton stress before. Obviously, a sack is only recorded when a player takes the opposing quarterback down. But the key the Chiefs preach is to affect him in any way possible, and that message has gotten through to the room.Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images“You want a sack, but you’re not going to get a sack every play,” Ford said. “You can’t rush with the mentality that I want a sack every play because you could be hurting the defense, so getting pressure on the quarterback is disrupting the timing of his throws. He can’t step through on certain throws. That takes different types of rushes and it takes you know how do that every play ... Sacks are going to come but it’s key times of the game—if the ball is going to come out quick, all we can do is disrupt that throw. That could lead us getting off the field, giving the ball back to the offense. Boom, we could win the game. All we needed was one stop against the Chargers and we could have been wearing hats that night. You know what I mean? I don’t like to talk about the past, but this is the mindset, this is what we’re looking toward and you can’t get caught up in things that are pretty much distractions.”As the Chiefs make changes to their secondary ahead of the playoffs Juan Thornhill black jersey , getting any kind of pressure helps—no matter who the team opts to play.“When you’re getting after the quarterback, that’s one of the top things we want to do, especially in passing situations,” Smith added. “That’s what we want to do. That’s our main goal, is to affect him. You start affecting, like I said, the spot, he can’t get to his second and third read, there’s a lot of things that affect the quarterback. He can’t step up—I think that’s a great job that our inside guys are doing.”Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesSoon after rookie Breeland Speaks was drafted, the thought was that he would be able to help the Chiefs “on all three downs.” And although that has happened at different times this season due to injury, Speaks has had trouble finding the field for much time since Week 13. We learned Thursday that this has much less to do with Speaks than it does with the veterans in front of him—Dee Ford and Justin Houston.“He’s making progress,” Smith said of Speaks. “I think right now obviously he’s not getting a lot of reps. Justin’s full-go, Dee is full-go, and to be honest, it’s hard to get them off the field. It makes you smile. Last game I said, let’s get you a breather, they said, ‘Don’t take me off this field.’ Both of them are playing really well. With Breeland, he’s still progressing.“When you’ve got two of the best in the league, especially some situations we’ve been in the game, closer games, I’m going to make sure my best guys are out there. Right now, that’s them Juan Thornhill Jersey Mens , but it’s nothing against Breeland.”Speaks has had just 23 snaps over the course of the last three games, to be exact. Second-year outside linebacker Tanoh Kpassagnon has had eight, and he was even inactive for the game against the Los Angeles Chargers.But not to worry. With limited reps for the young players, Smith has found other ways to evaluate their progress.“It goes with practice, it goes with meetings,” he said. “It goes with when [Speaks] turns in his test [Thursday] after the meeting, where is he at? Is he getting and understanding the formations, the defenses? Even the [nine] snaps he was in the game last week. Where is he going from there? Not as much as when he’s playing 60 snaps a game you can do it, but that’s just kind of how you do it. That’s kind of where we’re at with them two (Speaks and Kpassagnon). It’ll be the same thing when Breeland is a main guy.”“Film study’s picked up,” Speaks explained. “It’s just more so knowing the situations that’s picked up and just becoming an all-around player. Just not trying to go out there and get sack. Just knowing who I have on certain drops, knowing what I have to do in certain situations—that’s been my job, just to master that.”Speaks says he is growing as a player regardless of time on the field.“I feel like I’ve done pretty good,” Speaks said. “I talked to Bob (Sutton) the other day. He was like, ‘Never thought you learn this much football in a year, huh?’ I really didn’t but it’s amazing what I’ve learned since I’ve gotten here and what I’ve continued to learn.”In a perfect world, Speaks would be on the field—but the Chiefs are right to admit he is not their top option right now. And although that will likely change next season, it is what it is.“You look around the league and I get the snap count every week, very few guys come off the field,” Smith said. “Look at Von Miller’s snaps. Look at (Bradley) Chubb’s snaps. Look at these guys around the league, that’s just how it is. You try to get a handful here and there, probably need to do a better job at that, but at this level, your best players better play. I get you’ve got to take a couple snaps here and there Bashaud Breeland Jersey , but especially when guys are playing well. They are a big part of this defense.”The Chiefs hope the continue to play well against the Oakland Raiders Sunday afternoon, when they can clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a win. LOS ANGELES — Sean McVay has looked up to Andy Reid for years. The Los Angeles Rams‘ young coach constantly studies video of his Kansas City counterpart’s offensive sets during the season, marveling at their intricacies and ingenuity.“Every single week they do something where you say, ‘That’s pretty good,'” McVay said with an understated smile. “I’d be lying if I said we haven’t stolen some of their stuff this year.”McVay gets a close-up look Monday night in one of the biggest games of the regular season and a possible Super Bowl preview.The Chiefs (9-1) are visiting the Rams (9-1) in a game originally scheduled for Mexico City before poor field conditions at Azteca Stadium prompted the NFL to move the game to California on six days’ notice.Instead, the Coliseum will host a meeting of two prolific offenses masterminded by coaches separated by 28 years of age, but shoulder-to-shoulder on the cutting edge of offensive football.“He’s done a phenomenal job,” said Reid, a Los Angeles native who lives in Orange County in the offseason. “He came up through a good system. He’s put his own flair to it. He’s a smart kid. I am proud of him for the job he’s done.”Two offenses averaging 33 points per game have never met this late in a regular season, and the game is only the fifth meeting since 1970 between two one-loss or unbeaten teams in Week 11 or later.Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL in yards passing; the Rams’ Jared Goff is second. The backfields contain Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt, last season’s NFL rushing champion, and Todd Gurley, the current runaway leader in the category.Offensive fireworks seem inevitable in a matchup tailor-made for prime time, even if the late venue switch caused logistical hurdles for television, fans and the teams themselves. Both teams expressed disappointment about the game being moved out of Mexico City, though McVay said it was “clearly the right thing to do” given the field conditions.“We’re certainly not going to complain about getting the chance to play at the Coliseum in front of a great atmosphere,” McVay said.This will be the first “Monday Night Football” game at the Coliseum since 1985, and the Rams’ first there since 1979.ON THE MOVEThe late change of venue ruined a big night for thousands of Mexican fans and thrilled Rams fans who will get an eighth home game to cheer, but it had little effect on either team’s preparation.The Rams planned to spend the week in Colorado Springs to prepare for Mexico City’s altitude, and they decided to stay anyway — partly because several players and coaches wouldn’t be able to return to their homes this week because of wildfires surrounding the towns near the Rams’ training complex.The Chiefs merely altered their travel plans to take them west instead of south. “We really haven’t had to change much, other than going to a hotel in Los Angeles,” Reid said.GETTING HEALTHYThe Chiefs should have WR Sammy Watkins (foot) and LB Anthony Hitchens (ribs) on the field against the Rams. Neither played last week against Arizona, though Hitchens was active in what Reid called “an emergency situation.” Undrafted rookie Ben Niemann got the start in Hitchens’ place and performed reasonably well.Watkins is returning to the Coliseum Anthony Sherman Jersey , where he spent last season as the Rams’ deep threat before getting a huge free-agent deal with the Chiefs.MAHOMES MOURNSMahomes spent part of the week mourning the death of his longtime girlfriend’s stepfather. The man had a medical emergency during their game against Arizona last Sunday, and Mahomes learned after leading Kansas City to a 26-14 victory that he had died. The Chiefs were off Tuesday and Wednesday, giving Mahomes time to spend with family, but he did not miss any practice time“They’ve got some things organized and settled down from that side of it,” Reid said, “so he can do what he’s got to do.”OLD FRIENDSRams cornerback Marcus Peters spent his first three NFL seasons with Kansas City, making the Pro Bowl twice and establishing himself as an elite defender with 19 interceptions.But the Chiefs traded Peters to Los Angeles last offseason, and Reid has been reluctant to talk about why the organization gave up on the talented, occasionally volatile cornerback. Peters has generally played well in LA, although he acknowledged that he struggled two weeks ago when the Rams went up against the NFL’s other dominant offense at New Orleans.The Rams haven’t had any evident problems with Peters off the field, either.“He’s got a good feel for the game,” McVay said. “He’s passionate about it, and I think that I’ve been able to learn some things from him and enjoy being around him.”PROTECTING PATThe Chiefs allowed five sacks last week against Arizona, the first time all season that their hodgepodge offensive line has struggled that much. That’s not a good sign when the next opponent has NFL sacks leader Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh on the defensive line.The Chiefs have been playing without center Mitch Morse (concussion) and right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (broken leg), forcing them to shuffle things around.“You know,” Reid said, “I thought it could be a positive for us. That group hasn’t played a bunch together, and so (the Cardinals) did a couple of things in there that will help us down the road here and we can learn from.”100<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:View from the sidelines: NFL cheerleaders 2018Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports | Raj Mehta