Film Room: Jamaal Charles is underused and underappreciated in Kansas City

Andy Reid is a complicated man. He’s created the Kansas City Chiefs' offense to center on Jamaal Charles’s skills, but he doesn’t give him the ball enough.

Charles is a talented running back. His coin-slot style is nearly unstoppable. He drops in and out of gaps and weaves in the open field, cutting around defenders by way of cutback lanes, which don’t exist until he tap dances all over the line of scrimmage. For most running backs, it’s a bad thing to do, but not for Charles. He doesn’t have a choice. His offensive line isn’t good and his coach gives him 13 carries a game, the lowest since his second season, so he makes the most of them.

In the season opener, he had seven carries and, afterward, Reid immediately said he neglected Charles. He knew he was wrong to. That’s why in Week 4 against the New England Patriots, after Charles came back from a high ankle sprain that he suffered in Week 2, Reid turned in 18 carries for the 27-year-old, who ran for 92 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 5.1 yards a pop.

A week later, Reid seemingly drifted away from Charles again. He gave him 15 carries, which is more than seven but also not enough. Still, Charles rushed for 80 yards, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. He danced around the San Francisco 49ers’ physical defense and set up blocks for himself. At one point, he flipped field position on his own.

The Chiefs had the ball on their own 42 with first-and-10. Charles was eight yards in the backfield, behind a fullback. The 49ers had an eight-man box, expecting run. Neither team hid their intentions.

Charles cross-stepped to his right and ran at the heels of the fullback, showing off his speed with ease. His right guard down-blocked a defensive end, who peeled back into the A gap. Charles saw him and stabbed his cleat into the same gap. Thinking Charles would cut to the back side, the end stopped altogether. That allowed the right guard to get in between the end and the sideline to wall him off. Instantly, Charles bounced back, gave a shoulder fake and kick like a kickboxer would, and effortlessly sped up again.

As Charles turned into an alley between the right guard and fullback, he saw an outside linebacker on the edge, leaning into the alley. He bobbed his head and pointed his shoulders to the sideline. The linebacker turned his shoulders, too, and Charles snapped back inside, making himself skinny as he ran through the defender’s weak arm tackle.

He ran into the open field, where he typically finds fools to contort their body in every which way possible to come up with a realistic angle to tackle him. They couldn’t here, until he ran to the 49ers’ 32.

Charles is a relatively skinny 199 pounds. He doesn’t appear to pack much power. But when he’s given the ball, he breaks tackles. He narrows his frame to center his power and kicks his feet up, cutting through arm tackles like blades through grass. He’s forced seven missed tackles this season (per Pro Football Focus), when he’s gotten the ball, when the defense has caught up to him.

If there was a statistic for cutbacks, Charles would be near the top. He’d have dozens. It’s partly his line's fault he often cuts back, partly his vision. He sees lanes that others don’t. Lanes that other running backs, who are more north-south runners than he is, don't see. Lanes that other defenders, who aimlessly run from the back side, aborting their responsibilities to help their teammates out in the hunt, don't see.

In Week 7 against the San Diego Chargers, Charles ran a season-high 22 times, ripping off 95 yards, including a 16-yard score in the second quarter.

The Chiefs faced second-and-6. Reid could have passed, but he stayed committed to Charles. He called a pin-and-pull stretch play, with the center leading the way.

Charles quickly followed him, long striding past a crashing end, toe-poking into a gap between the center and tight end. That held the filling strong safety. Charles then strode long again, burst outside, shook off a shoelace tackle before he squared his shoulders downfield, where the center folded the strong safety in half. He had one defender in between him and the end zone. Instead of lowering his shoulder, Charles stamped his right foot and looked left to a cutback lane.

He crossed inside. Two more Chargers defenders, both from the back side, were there. They were both grinding their cleats to slow down, only to be left watching Charles’s No. 25 from behind. Charles crossed inside the 10, accelerated past his own teammates and dove past the goal line. The Chargers defenders stood with their hands on their hips.

Charles is dangerous with the ball in his hands. His Olympic speed is unmatched in the open field, where he’s liable to cut and swerve past defenders at any moment. Combined with his vision and ability to make himself skinnier than he already is, he’s the NFL’s most dangerous runner in space, as the St. Louis Rams found out in Week 8.

On his 13th carry at the start of the fourth quarter, Charles took a handoff from I-formation similar to the one against the 49ers.

As he approached the line, Charles cut off of his left foot past an end and squared his shoulders. A linebacker flew in and missed, too, when Charles made himself skinny. A third Rams defender, an incoming, run-filling safety, looked to have a good angle up to when Charles weaved outside, past a blocking receiver. He ran down the right hash, turned on the jets and was gone.

It was his last carry of the game.