Film Review: Taco Charlton's Chance for Redemption Starts in Kansas City
As a special guest to Arrowhead Report, Seth Keysor (@RealMNChiefsFan) breaks down new Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Taco Charlton and evaluates the possibilities for Charlton's future with the Chiefs.
By Seth Keysor
Taco Charlton has had a rough start to his career. The former first-round pick, selected 28th overall in the 2017 draft, hasn’t had a season in which he collected more than five sacks. Despite possessing an excellent combination of length, functional playing strength, and surprising straight-line athleticism, Charlton has been a non-factor for most of his career. He’s been signed to a one-year deal by the Super Bowl Champion (that never gets old to type) Kansas City Chiefs with a clear “the chances are running out to become an impact player” vibe looming over his career after three disappointing seasons.
Emmanuel Ogbah also had a rough start to his career. After being selected with the 32nd overall pick in the 2016 draft, Ogbah hadn’t had a season in which he collected more than 5.5 sacks. Despite possessing an excellent combination of length, functional playing strength, and surprising straight-line athleticism, Ogbah had been a non-factor for most of his career. He was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs with a clear “the chances are running out to become an impact player” vibe looming over his career after three disappointing seasons.
Anything sounding familiar so far?
Ogbah’s story unfolded excellently in Kansas City, as the big defensive end was on his way to a career year before going down with a season-ending injury. Steve Spagnuolo’s defense frequently put Ogbah in a position to succeed, and he took advantage of the opportunities he was given.
Ogbah capitalized on a strong start to last season by signing a two-year, $15 million contract with the Miami Dolphins this offseason. Now, Chiefs fans can look at Ogbah’s career path and success in Kansas City as a blueprint for how the Chiefs will utilize Charlton.
To be clear, Charlton and Ogbah are not the same player. Charlton isn’t as strong as Ogbah and doesn’t have that same “heavy hands” trait when engaging with opposing offensive linemen. He’s also more athletic than Ogbah, and more comfortable changing direction or trying to utilize speed and finesse moves.
However, despite their differences, there are some similarities in both their paths to Kansas City and the way they can be best utilized. Before coming to the Chiefs, Ogbah was often at his most successful when asked to execute stunts and other defensive line movement up front.
Ogbah’s surprising straight-line speed and decisiveness when executing this sort of play put him in a position to succeed multiple times with the Chiefs, as he was able to work well with fellow defensive linemen and execute stunts without wasted space.
Charlton was rarely utilized in this manner in Miami but has shown, throughout his career, that he’s capable of the basic sidestepping and acceleration to keep relatively clean and make these stunts work.
One of Charlton’s advantages over Ogbah is his superior athleticism, which should allow this sort of movement to come more naturally to him. Charlton is also able to recover when he encounters some mess along the way and still shows enough quickness to at least apply pressure despite being delayed.
It’s worth noting that it’s not easy to find “win” snaps for Charlton as a pass rusher, so these snaps shouldn’t be taken to imply that Charlton is going to be a terror for Kansas City. In reality, Charlton has some real work to do in order to be an impact player. He allows opposing offensive linemen into his pads and is unable to shake them far too often, and he lacks the brute upper body strength of Frank Clark, Alex Okafor or Ogbah to break free once engaged. He also needs serious work on pass rushing with a plan and stringing moves together.
The key for him will be his ability to close and finish faster than expected at his size. This is where the Ogbah comparison becomes most relevant. Because Charlton should, in theory, be tasked with a variety of stunts and twists up front, he’ll have the opportunity for free runs at the quarterback more often than he has with other teams, provided he learns the timing. And Charlton can close and finish well when given a straight-line shot, even in space.
Here, Charlton is faced with a tough combination of blockers at the snap and gets completely stonewalled. It’s obviously a less-than-ideal start to the play, but his superior athleticism allows him to finish strong when the quarterback, an athletic Dak Prescott, breaks the pocket in an attempt to scramble for the first down. Charlton is able to put on the brakes and change direction quickly enough to avoid being left behind, but the more impressive part is how quickly he ramps up to top speed and chases down Prescott, finishing the tackle to prevent positive yardage from being gained.
Ogbah gained a fair amount of notoriety among Chiefs fans, some of whom (wrongly) began referring to him as their best edge rusher. While that’s not an accurate reflection of his time in Kansas City, he did execute Spagnuolo’s movement well and utilized his closing speed and finishing ability in order to take advantage of his chances. That’s precisely what Charlton will need to do if he wants to make an impact in Kansas City, and he does have the skillset to do so.
When meeting with the Kansas City media, Charlton praised the Chiefs’ defensive scheme.
“I like how much they let the guys attack,” Charlton said via Zoom. “They let them go and pass rush the passer and they’re sending blitzes. It’s a fun, exciting and attacking defense. Coach Spagnuolo does a lot of moving [players] around and creating the mismatches. I’ve been able to play in two completely different schemes, so I feel I can adjust and play whatever defense you ask of me. I’m able to stand up or able to get into a three-point [stance].”
Charlton hasn’t shown much ability to win one-on-one without being schemed to success throughout his career, and that will be tough for the Chiefs to deal with if he can’t turn things around in 2020. However, there have been times his combination of length, strength and athleticism made him appear capable of being a player who can generate pressure on his own.
The issue for Charlton is that he hasn’t developed as a pass-rusher since his rookie season, at least not in a way that’s appreciable on film. His moves don’t appear to be much more refined or planned out and he doesn’t appear to be any stronger than he was at that point. It will be seen whether that’s because he hit his ceiling as a player, was failed by coaching, or failed by his own ability to hone his craft. With Brendan Daly coaching the defensive line and Spagnuolo’s scheme fitting Charlton’s traits, along with Chris Jones, Clark and Okafor present to draw the attention of opposing blockers, Charlton will have very little excuse if he cannot take a step forward in Kansas City.
Charlton’s run defense will also be a factor to watch, despite that being a less-important aspect of defensive success. Spagnuolo has favored ends who can hold up the edge with little trouble, or even dominate when asked.
Charlton has the requisite size and length to fit into Spagnuolo’s scheme but isn’t as consistently strong at the edge as Clark and his fellow edge defenders were asked to be in 2019. He certainly has the tools, so that will again be a matter of whether he develops his hand placement and awareness in those situations. I was once told by a former player that run defense up front is mostly a matter of “want to,” and hopefully Charlton is motivated to show out in this area as well.
Charlton has no guarantees to make the roster in Kansas City. His $825,000 deal isn’t going to prevent the team from moving on if they believe he can’t contribute. However, as Terez Paylor often says, the contract year is undefeated. Furthermore, Charlton is surrounded by talent and is now in an ideal system for his skill set. Much like Ogbah in 2019, he has a chance to earn a sizable payday if he can seize what he’s been given. Listening to him, he certainly believes he will.
“My foot is on the gas in this one — all effort,” Charlton told the media. “God led me here, and I feel like this is the best situation for me to succeed. That’s why I wanted to come here. It’s definitely a chance for me to prove myself. I’m still confident in my abilities.”
If the Chiefs can get any production out of Charlton, it will be a bonus for a defense that brought back most of its contributors from last season. If they don’t, they’ve taken no risk in acquiring him. General Manager Brett Veach has become known for these sorts of “rehabilitation” signings of former high draft picks, and Charlton fits the mold. The situation lines up excellently for Charlton, but he’ll need to show significant improvement from his first three years in the league. It will be a steep hill to climb, but Kansas City is likely Charlton’s best bet to get his career back on track.
For more from Seth Keysor, follow him on Twitter @RealMNChiefsFan.
