Chiefs 2020 Defensive Growth Potential – The Kansas City Chiefs are the undisputed favorites before the 2020 NFL season even begins. You can place them at the top of the offseason Power Rankings. Period. Take a look at the top 5, in each of these six popular Power Rankings:
Power Ranking Links:
Can you see a pattern emerging? 😀 First, I’ll rate each defensive player, then explore the potential for growth, at each position.
Strong Safety
Rating: 91
Tyrann Mathieu is an elite Strong Safety with great instincts and the physical speed and quickness to excel.
Growth Potential
Mathieu just turned 28 and is not only in his prime but he’s matured to the point that he’s a vocal team leader on and off the field. The fact that he is entering the second year in Steve Spagnuolo’s defense should make him even better this year. If he strings together five more seasons like the one he just had, he’ll be Hall of Fame material.
Free Safety
Rank: 84
Juan Thornhill was having an excellent year before suffering a torn ACL in week 17 of the 2019 season, his rookie campaign.
Growth Potential
In his first season, Thornhill had 56 tackles, 5 PDs, 3 INTs and according to PFF allowed just 0.22 yards per coverage snap. Playing next to Mathieu was a huge plus for Thornhill and… playing next to Thornhill was a huge plus for Mathieu. Thornhill’s 4.42 speed and ballhawking skills were put to great use and his NFL career is still in the embryonic stages.
CornerBack #1
Rank: 82
Charvarius Ward is an unknown who is underappreciated and undervalued. He’s a good “un”… sorry, just had to go there. He was in the top half of the league among all CBs in run defense while tied for 14th in targets allowed. That means… some QBs have already been afraid to throw his direction. Not so “un”known after all huh?
Growth Potential
Ward had lasik surgery on his eyes this offseason. Which means… he’s been playing with less than perfect vision while covering some of the league’s best WRs. It also means his growth potential is much higher than many fans will be aware of in 2020. It also means Ward has been playing off of the WR’s he’s been facing and using his instincts and physical talent to make a play on the ball. Some may recall his INT off of Tom Brady to presumably seal a bid in the Super Bowl in January of 2019… only to have his play wiped out by Dee Ford’s blunderlust (“Did I line up offsides?”… yes, he actually said that afterwards). To which Ward is known to have quipped, “It is what it is. I’ll make up for it.” What a great attitude! I expect great things from Ward in the coming year and I hope Veach can re-sign him sooner than later.
Cornerback #2
Rank: 79
Bashaud Breeland is an enigma. Of such is the case for a young man who seemingly has yet to mature. However, he has been good on the field and even very good at crunch time.
Growth Potential
From Pajama party at the training camp of 2018 to his eventual INT and Super Bowl victory, the journey of Bashaud Breeland has been a Long, and Winding Road. At 28 years old Breeland should be entering the pinnacle of his career but, he could be maxed out, something like Morris Claiborne. The second year in Spags defense could be a big help for Breeland, who already faces a 4-game suspension for violation of the substance-abuse policy (marijuana) and then was arrested this past April for resisting arrest, having alcohol in a motor vehicle with the seal broken, possession of 28 grams or less of marijuana (or 10 grams of hash), and driving without a license. The new CBA has a reduced suspension policy for substances but the other violations are problematic. When he does return, we can only hope he’s clean and straight. I’m not getting my hopes up. If he gets his act together, he could be one of the league’s better CBs. He has that potential.
Slot Cornerback
Rank #66
The Chiefs didn’t really have a slot CB last year. Kendall Fuller was supposed to be that guy but it never really worked out and consequently, Tyrann Mathieu often had to fill in, among others.
Growth Potential
With a number of players up for the position, I have to believe Brett Veach and Steve Spagnuolo had one of the new players in mind to take on this role: Antonio Hamilton, L’Jarius Sneed, or Bopete Keyes. Other candidates include players who were with the team last year including both Alex Brown and Rashad Fenton. While Fenton is likely to get more snaps as a backup CB for Breeland as he serves his suspension, and it should be noted that he had a very promising 2019 rookie year (in a169 defensive snaps). ProFootball Focus (PFF) gave him a 78.4 in coverage and that’s well within the top half of the league, among all CBs. Now, Veach has signed Safety Tedric Thompson and he may have the ability to play the Slot. While he is not a speedy Safety, he certainly has the ball skills.
Middle Linebacker
Rank: 62
Anthony Hitchens hasn’t lived up to his contract or his on-field expectations.
Growth Potential
Hitchens ranked 81st by PFF among all Linebackers in 2019. To get a better idea of what that score means, all Linebackers are lumped together at PFF, so you have to divide that by three to get a more accurate picture of a LB’s rank. That still leaves Hitchens at #27 in the league. That’s bad. While Hitchens has led the team in tackles in each of the last two seasons, he can often be seen making a tackle 5 or more yards down field. He takes bad angles, isn’t very good in coverage, and worst of all, he has bad play-recognition and vision. The only hope I can see for Hitch right now is… this year is the first time in his career that he will get to play in the same defense two years in a row. Crossing all fingers and toes for him.
Note: the MLB (the Mike) in the 4-3 defense needs to be a thumper and rookie WIllie Gay Jr., at 6′ 1″, 243 lbs., may end up taking over this role, However, I wouldn’t expect that to happen on opening day.
Strong Side Linebacker
Rank: 70
Damien Wilson was better than Anthony Hitchens last year, but… that’s not saying much.
Growth Potential
Wilson ranks 70th among all Linebackers by PFF, which works out to the 23rd best. As you can tell, that’s well into the lower half of all LBs at his position. He doesn’t seem to show much in the way of instincts but is faster than Hitchens and better in coverage. Once again, I’m hoping that a second year in the same system will help him and give him an advantage in 2020.
Weak Side Linebacker
Rank: 76
Willie Gay Jr. would have been the highest rated LB in the 2020 draft if: a) he played the whole season last year, and didn’t have any red flags, plus, b) Isaiah Simmons wasn’t receiving all the attention.
Growth Potential
Gay has a ton of potential. He may start out at 76 (the score I’m giving him) but end up much higher. He certainly will be in the running for rookie of the year for the Chiefs (with Clyde Edwards-Helaire being his primary competition). While Gay’s 40 time is a 4.46, don’t forget that one time Chiefs great, Derrick Johnson, had a 40 time of 4.52, and he was considered fast for a LB as well. So, if Gay has some Linebacker instincts and vision, he certainly has the speed and physical strength to play any of the Linebacker positions.
Note: Ben Niemann was the best LB on the Chiefs roster in 2019. While Hitchens and Wilson each had just over 700 snaps, Niemann had 409 and ranked as the league’s 55th best LB by PFF, which figures to the 18th best overall. A much better score and rank, than any other Chiefs LB last year. I’d expect Niemann to play a bigger role in 2020.
Left Defensive End
Rank: 86
Frank Clark was one of the best Defensive Ends in the NFL, down the stretch during the 2019 season.
Growth Potential
Since Clark had a pinched nerve in his neck early in the year last season, but battled through it anyway, we know he has a warrior’s heart. Once he got well, he was a man among men. If you take the 8 sacks he got in the 11 games he started, and add those to the the 5 sacks he got in the 3 playoff games he started… that’s 11 sacks in 14 starts. That is probably the best indicator of his potential in 2020. I’m actually as excited to watch him (and Chris Jones) as much as I am the offense this year.
Left Defensive Tackle
Rank: 76
Derrick Nnadi and Mike Pennel helped to make this position next to Chris Jones, a dangerous one at times — and as the year wore on — especially against the run.
Growth Potential
Any and all interior defensive linemen, including Khalen Saunders, should be even better in their second season in Steve Spagnuolo’s defense but not just because it’s their second season in Spags defense. Nnadi progressed in his sophomore campaign and should do so again. Mike Pennel is 29 years old now and should be even better. Khalen Saunders should follow a natural progression in his second year like Nnadi. Plus, any player playing for DL Coach Brendan Daly should count themselves blessed. He’s a 4 time Super Bowl champion coach now, and deserves everyone’s respect as the DL had a lot to do with the Chiefs Super Bowl LIV victory.
Right Defensive Tackle
Rank: 92
Chris Jones is an elite player and the best interior defensive tackle in the NFL… when it comes to getting after the QB.
Growth Potential
You heard me right. The fact that Jones used less snaps (in 2019) to create a sack than any other interior defensive lineman to generate a sack means one thing… “he’s the best interior defensive tackle in the NFL when it comes to getting after the QB.” Here’s the breakdown of snaps it takes for Jones to generate one sack vs. the snaps it takes for Aaron Donald to generate a sack:
It took Jones 49.8 snaps in 2018 to generate one sack so his output has remained in the excellent category. It took Aaron Donald 44.7 snaps to generate one sack in 2018 so, Stone Cold remains right there with the best of them. The question with Jones will be if he can stay on the field. He has started 41 of 64 possible games in his four-year career.
Right Defensive End
Rank: 72
Alex Okafor started nine game in 2019, had 5.0 sacks and was in on 22 tackles.
Growth Potential
Alex Okafor has 8.0 sacks in 12 starts during his second season for Arizona in 2013 (pretty darn good and his best year). He had 2.0 sacks the next year in 13 starts (his worst year and not so good at all). The question is: which kind of Defensive end is he going to be in 2020? He’s only started 16 games once in his 7 years in the league and that was the year before he came to K.C.. He’s capable of putting up 10-to-12 sacks in a year… if he can stay healthy.
Enter Taco Charlton. While Charlton was brought to K.C. on a one-year prove-it deal, he may not get another chance after this year since this is his third team after being drafted 28th overall by the Cowboys in 2017. There’s also Tanoh Kpassagnon who the Chiefs selected as a 2nd round pick, in the 2017 draft, which also means, this is a contract year for KPass. A contract year usually means… we’ll get a player’s best efforts. Odds are that Okafor, KPass or Charlton… one of them will ball out and have a big year. I sure hope so.
What do you think? Would you have rated any of these players, or positions, higher or lower?
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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