by Laddie Morse | May 20, 2019
If you’re a fan of any professional sports team, or college, or high school, for that matter, you expect turnover from year to year. In sports, it comes with the territory. In Kansas City, the Chiefs have taken re-building to a whole different place because to many, the word re-building is a dirty word but in K.C. it has been a heart-transplant… a liver transplant… and a new right leg operation… on the defensive side of their universe. The offense may still have Mr. No-Look-Pass, but on the Defense, it’s the new, new, new, new look Chiefs.
If I were to ask you who the “Face of the Franchise” is, 101% of you would say Patrick Mahomes II (unless you were living under a rockslide and ended up brain damaged). Next, you might say TE Travis Kelce. After that things get fuzzy for a number of reasons but if you were hard pressed to choose a defensive player you’d probably opt for Chris Jones first but after that you’d have to say the name of someone we haven’t even seen play a game in the red and gold yet: Tyrann Mathieu is getting a lot of facetime on Twitter. Frank Clark is still trying to get some separation from an unwanted reputation. Darron Lee is the newest of the newbies and there are plenty of those to be found on this D.
So, let’s take a look at the new faces of this defense devised by Steve Spagnuolo. Here are the players who will be rotating in on the defensive front.
I placed these players in order in terms of how secure I think their jobs are with the team. Consequently, Xavier Williams and Tanoh Kpassagnon are the players whose positions appear to be in the greatest jeopardy heading into the offseason programs. Kpass, and his presence on the roster, still surprises me the most. Yes, he was a 2nd round pick two years ago under John Dorsey, someone who was drafted on his “freak athletic ability.” However, with Dorsey gone, and ex-DC, Bob Sutton, using him on less than 10% of the defensive snaps in 2018, there must be some reason why the current coaches are keeping him around. Maybe he will be a fit for the new 43 and maybe this is his breakout year. One can only hope.
When I look at this core group of defensive linemen, it’s hard for me to see them ranking in the bottom half of the league. The only reasons I think this D would suffer against the run might be the Linebackers. However, the Linebackers just got better so, let’s take a look-see at who this group is composed of:
With the trade for Darron Lee, the Chiefs Linebacking crew just got better against the pass. Lee was ranked 3rd among all LBs vs the pass in 2018. So, the question then becomes, “Will the Chiefs 2019 pack of backers be better against the run?” I would say, unequivocally, yes. To begin with, the 43 is designed to place larger bodied lineman in each gap and then setting those Linemen free to shoot their gap and also maintain it so it doesn’t become a canyon for RBs. Sure, the Chiefs were very good last year in sacking the QB but their 2 smaller bodied OLBs meant the DL could only place three larger bodies across the front and that became a problem the Chiefs rarely had an answer for vs the running game.
With four bigger boys in the 43 up front holding back the wave of blockers, the LBs will also be freed to go get em… play the run downhill… and shoot through any of the gaps that do open up for a RB. Consequently, the Chiefs defense should not only be better against the pass in 2019 (from a LB stand point), but the run as well.
With both Damien Wilson and Anthony Hitchens coming from a system in Dallas that used a 43, they are likely the happiest guys on the roster when it come to the switch away from the 34. When people talk about the weakest link on the defense they probably have been referring to the Linebackers but, that is likely not going to be the case. Could it be the Cornerbacks?
While some are thinking the Cornerbacks will be the greatest area of need from now until September, I can understand why the brass might think otherwise. When Bashaud Breeland played for Green Bay last year, the second part of the season was when he began to excel. He didn’t get on the field until week four and only played in 30.9% of the defensive snaps for the season. According to Pro Football Focus, when Breeland did get on the field, he was misused:
“Breeland played 187 snaps in the slot compared to just 89 out wide after playing the vast majority of his snaps out wide in the first four years of his career. … Breeland has a 70.0 coverage grade when lined up out wide. That drops all the way down to 49.3 when he moves inside to the slot.”
Also, Pro Football Focus points out that in the last 7 weeks of the 2018 season, Breeland was 2nd best in the league over that period in passer rating allowed:
With Breeland manning one outside CB position, Charvarius Ward will start at the other outside position. If anyone is going to question this group, it would have to be the overall experience level of Ward. Although Ward saw his first action with the Chiefs in week 4, he only started the last two games of the regular season but once he did, his play was stellar. I have nightmares of him intercepting a pass from Tom Brady, to send the Chiefs to the Super Bowl… only the play was called back (you know, a Ford was parked in the neutral zone thingy).
Kendall Fuller will be very good in the slot, where he did his best work while in Washington. He was ranked #30 in the NFL by PFF in 2018 but had the 3rd most coverage snaps in the league with 777. Keith Reaser has yet to prove he can hang with the big boys in the big boy league but was one of the best corners, if not the best, in the AAF. In any event, all the Chiefs corners will be better this year simply because of the support they’ll be getting from a much, much improved Safety crew.
Tyrann Mathieu will be better than Eric Berry… at least better than that day-to-day Berry we got last year. Don’t forget, Brett Veach was convinced Mathieu had the best FA Safety evaluation. Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated said this about the Mathieu signing: “He’s an ideal fit for new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.” While Mathieu is not only a great piece for Spags new D, he’s also an excellent leader.
I predict that 2nd round pick Juan Thornhill will start next to Mathieu and make an immediate impact. Armani Watts, Jordans Lucas, and Daniel Sorensen (if he’s still with the team in September) make a healthy and hugely improved unit over last year’s bunch.
There you have it. The new, new, new, new look Chiefs D. Are you as excited about this group as I am?
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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