Blame Game: Who’s Responsible
For Chiefs Defensive Woes?
by Ransom Hawthorne
Not long after the Kansas City Chiefs first loss, the overreactions came out. Usually, just people assigning blame to their favorite punching bag. “Fire Sutton!”… “Veach hasn’t given him enough to work with!”… “Berry and Houston are never available, get rid of them!” Such statements tend to obliterate nuance, oversimplifying things, to a fault, but is there any truth to them, and is someone to blame that fans aren’t looking at? Let’s look into the blame game and see who’s responsible for the Chiefs defensive woes?
Blaming Bob Sutton
Imagine the Chiefs offense, without Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, do you think they’d perform well? Eric Berry is the QB of the defense, and Justin Houston is still their most complete OLB. He was sorely missed when Patriots were snowplowing Ford, in the run game. Sutton also doesn’t have a lot to work with elsewhere on the defense, with a retread CB, the perennially average Steven Nelson, and a hospital ward full of safeties. Any DC will struggle in that situation. That said, Sutton doesn’t get off Scott free.
Chiefs scheme has been very bland, and Sutton still refuses to let CBs roam. He actually left Josh Shaw, a recently acquired, pedestrian, safety, to cover TE Rob Gronkowski 1-on-1. Contrast that with all the attention Patriot’s were sending Kelce’s way, with double coverage, and chips from the OLBs. While Sutton hasn’t had a lot to work with, he’s got a couple of players, in Hitchens and Fuller, who played a lot better, for their old teams. To my eyes, players are having to do too much thinking, on the field. Hitchens is at his best attacking gaps, or making jarring hits, in zone coverage. Sutton keeps putting him in man, 1-on-1, with much faster RBs.
Another problem I have, with Sutton, is his reluctance to put rookies in, even when the veteran starters aren’t great. After Jordan Lucas’ breakout game, players on defense said they weren’t surprised, because he’s been flying around the field in practice. Huh. Here’s a thought, maybe, if your safeties are awful, and can’t tackle, and there’s a recent addition to the team, who looks good, and CAN tackle, maybe, just maybe, TRY PUTTING THAT GUY ON THE FIELD! With all Chiefs struggles, at ILB, you’d think they might try Ben Niemann or Dorian O’Daniel, but neither can seem to see the field. Before, I thought they must not be doing well in practice. After Lucas, I’m wondering if Sutton is just sitting them, due to lack of experience. Which, in my opinion, is foolish.
Blaming Brett Veach
Sutton’s lack of talent on defense, is not in his control. Brett Veach is the guy who signs the contracts and drafts the players. If the roster isn’t good, it makes sense to blame the GM right? Not exactly. If you want to blame Veach for something, the Hitchens signing makes the most sense. You can argue that Hitchens is used poorly, but he was signed to play in Sutton’s scheme, so that could, logically, fall at the feet of Veach. Outside of that? Veach, without a first round pick, drafted two guys who are contributing, nicely, right now on defense. Breeland Speaks had a few hiccups, but, overall, looked much better, than expected, against the Patriots. Derrick Nnadi has also been a solid contributor. You generally only get contributions, right away, from two guys, even when you have a first round pick, so that’s great.
More than that though, Veach has made savvy moves, within the structure of the cap, to improve the Kansas City defense. Orlando Scandrick has been excellent. Xavier Williams is Chiefs leading tackler, on the DL. Kendall Fuller, part of the Smith trade, has been an excellent slot CB, and adequate, on the outside. Jordan Lucas, who looks like the best safety, on this roster, with Berry out, was acquired for a future 7th round pick, which is looking like a massive steal. Ron Parker hasn’t been great, but he’s filled a necessary role, and Chiefs are paying him a lot less than they used to. Veach isn’t a miracle worker, but he’s performed pretty well, especially for a first year GM. There was simply too much work to do, to the roster, and not enough picks or cap space to fix it all, in one season. You can blame Veach for one LB spot, but he’s done an admirable job, otherwise. The lions share of the blame, definitely goes elsewhere.
In case any of you were thinking of blaming Veach for shipping Peters off, I have a question: who was Peters screaming at on the field. It wasn’t Brett Veach. It was Bob Sutton. The Chiefs made a conscious effort to change the culture of the locker room. If you think Sutton didn’t have a hand in that, I don’t know what to tell you. Still, if we take the Chiefs at their word, and this was purely a salary cap move, then maybe someone else is to blame…
Blaming John Dorsey
Some look at the fact that Dorsey’s already gone, and say you can’t blame him for the state of the team now. I think the fact that he IS gone, shows that Chiefs already felt he was culpable. K.C. entered the off-season with nearly 16 million in dead money. They currently rank 9th, in the league, in dead money. The teams ahead of them, on that list? The Bills, Giants, Cowboys, 49ers, Cardinals, Browns, Jets and Saints. Not very many good teams on that list, mostly because it’s tough to field a quality roster when you’re wasting an elite player’s worth of salary cap.
Perhaps you’re fine with blaming Dorsey for some of the salary cap woes, but you’re still mad at Veach, because not all of his draft picks have panned out yet (impatient bunch sometimes, aren’t we?). Here’s a look at all the picks Dorsey spent, on defense, from 2013 to 2017:
- 2nd Round Tanoh Kpassagnon (4)
- 5th Round Ukeme Eligwe
- 6th Round Leon McQuay III
- 2nd Round Chris Jones
- 3rd Round Kievarre Russel
- 4th Round Eric Murray (3)
- 6th Round CB DJ White
- 6th Round LB Dadi Nicolas
- 1st Round Marcus Peters
- 3rd Round Steven Nelson (2)
- 4th Round Ramik Wilson
- 5th Round DJ Alexander
- 6th Round Rakeem Nunez-Roches
- 1st Round Dee Ford (1)
- 3rd Round Phillip Gaines
- 4th Round Nico Johnson
- 5th Round Sanders Commings
- 7th Round Mike Catapano
Bolded (#) = total players still on Chiefs active roster.
18 picks. How many started their first year and went on to be good? Two. Peters and Jones. Now Nelson improved in his 2nd year and Kpass looks to be on his way, but still, overall, a pretty sorry group, right? While Speaks and Nnadi aren’t likely to ever be as good as Peters and Jones, it’s still impressive that Veach, in his first five picks, has already found two immediate contributors, which Dorsey did, over the course of five years. Time will tell whether his picks develop, but when I look at the list of picks Dorsey spent, on defense, vs Veach’s list, I know who I blame more for the state of the roster.
The Sum of All Blame
Defenses don’t get this bad because of one person. Veach’s miss on Hitchens, Sutton’s stubbornness, Chiefs injury troubles, and Dorsey’s legacy are all to blame. In the end, I think I place the most blame on Dorsey, followed by Sutton, injuries, and finally Veach. The good news is, most of Chiefs dead money comes off the books next year, Berry and Sorenson should be back soon, and Sutton might be more creative, as players gain experience, on defense. Going forward, though, I think K.C. needs to take a long, hard look at Sutton, and ask themselves, if they can’t do better at DC? For now, my hopes are pinned on healthy wind blowing and a dominant Berry returning. Go Chiefs.
A Bonus Thought
Brett Veach has done an amazing job with the OL depth. If I told you, before the season, that Chiefs would be without Morse, and LDT, against the Patriots, you would’ve been worried. When Erving got an extension, most of us were angry. That extension looks like a bargain, Erving’s been fantastic. On Sunday, Devey performed admirably, as did Wylie. Still, not content with that, Veach has brought back Jeff Allen. The depth chart is stacked with quality blockers, protecting Chiefs biggest investment: Patrick Mahomes and Veach pulled it off with minimal investment. Well done.
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