Knile Davis' Emergence Allows Chiefs to Be Patient with Jamaal Charles' Recovery

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid announced Monday that star running back Jamaal Charles has a high ankle sprain. Charles is unlikely to play with the injury Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, leaving second-year running back Knile Davis to start in his place.

Charles is easily the Chiefs’ most valuable player, so losing him even for one game is a significant loss. Losing him for multiple games—as may be the case—would be even more damaging but would be acceptable if he could return at full strength.

Having an emerging young backup running back like Davis with upside allows the Chiefs to be patient with Charles’ recovery. In the long term, that’s going to be best for everyone.

"These things take time, but it doesn’t look to be a real severe one," Reid said Monday via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. "What does that mean? We’ll see."

Severe or not, high ankle sprains have been known to linger, and it appears that Reid knows it could take Charles some time to heal. Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 4 of last season, and he blamed it for his down season.

“I think we just had an obstacle in the road when I got injured in Week 4,” Spiller said of the high ankle sprain, via Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com. “It kind of hindered some of the things that we were able to do with me. When you keep coming in and out of games, it’s hard to really get a guy going like that.”

Spiller’s rushing numbers were down because his average carry went from 6.0 yards to 4.6 yards, but his production in the passing game is what really took a hit. Spiller averaged just 5.6 yards per catch last year compared to 10.7 in 2012. Catching passes is a big part of what makes Charles so valuable, and he averaged 9.9 yards per catch and led the team in receiving last season.

The Chiefs have to be cautious with Charles and may even need to protect him from himself to preserve his production. He isn’t off to a great start in 2014, and he’ll probably want to get back in there as soon as he can. That actually might hurt the team, because a healthy Davis might be better than Charles if he's at something a lot less than 100 percent.

According to the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society’s website, high ankle sprains typically take six weeks to heal but can take longer. Spiller didn’t miss any games with his high ankle sprain, and it limited him. Spiller is and was also part of a two-back system with Fred Jackson.

Even if Charles can make it back sooner, Davis should continue to share the load for the time being. It might make more sense in this case to let Davis carry the full load until Charles is 100 percent. Unlike Spiller and Jackson, Davis and Charles are more similar than they are different.

Davis took over for Charles last week and had similar production. Like Charles did often last season, Davis led the team in receptions with six and scored the team’s only two touchdowns. Although Davis’ averages weren’t what the Chiefs would like them to be, neither were Charles’ before the injury.

"I don’t think it will change much from what you saw (Sunday)," Reid said of Davis' role via Teicher. "He was involved in a lot of different areas. I’m not saying number of carries or anything, but you saw him going in and playing a few different ways."

One of the areas where Davis has really improved is his running vision. On Sunday against the Denver Broncos, he had a 25-yard run and two touchdowns because he did a good job finding a cutback lane away from the flow of the defense.

On his long run, Davis recognized that Denver’s defense had choked off the front side of the play even though it had one less man. However, the design of the play occupied all the backside defenders, and Davis found the cutback lane.

GameRewind

Had he pressed to his right harder, he might have run himself right into a tackle. Try to find the hole too early and the linebacker might recognize it and leave his coverage assignment to make the play. It was a well-designed play by Reid, but Davis still has to have the vision to execute it.

On his first touchdown, Davis sees Broncos defensive end DeMarcus Ware slip inside of left tackle Eric Fisher. Davis uses his quickness to bounce the play outside and around Ware and easily dives into the end zone from there.

GameRewind

He is processing what he is seeing quickly, and that’s enabling him to use his quickness to make big plays for the Chiefs. On his second touchdown, Davis demonstrated this ability.

GameRewind

So far, Davis has a knack for the big play, and he should get better about making routine plays with a full workload. He might not create something out of nothing quite as much as a healthy Charles would, but he’s shown he can be productive behind a lackluster offensive line.

Davis hasn’t been great about gaining yards after contact, but that’s also never been one Charles’ strong suits. He is a bigger running back than Charles is, so the expectation is that he’ll break more tackles, but that’s not necessarily required, because he has the same ability to avoid contact as Charles.

If there is one concern with Davis, it’s ball security. He fumbled out of bounds just before his first touchdown Sunday, and it’s been a problem for him going back to college.

Fumbling hasn’t become a huge issue yet this season, but Davis needs to make sure it doesn’t become one by making ball security a priority. If he is turning the ball over too often, the Chiefs will be more inclined to rush Charles back. But if Davis can hold on to the ball consistently, he may be able to do enough over the next few weeks to earn carries even after Charles returns.