CHIEFS Player Focus: Keondre Coburn

Laddie Morse

The year was 2016 and the Kansas City Chiefs selected DT Chris Jones with the 37th overall pick. Jones went on to become one of the best defensive tackles in the league and that was before last season when he could easily be called: The Best. Now, in 2023, the Chiefs once again dipped into the defensive line interior pool in the most recent draft, but not until pick #194, when they took the thick and solid DT out of Texas, Keondre Coburn.

TheDraftNetwork.com summarized Coburn’s assets well in saying:

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“Keondre Coburn is a fifth-year senior defensive lineman who has played in more than 50 games with 45 starts.”

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Coburn is a 6-foot-2 monster who weighs in at 343 lbs.. TheDraftNetwork goes on to say of Keondre:

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“In the run game, Coburn utilizes a quick first step to quickly get into offensive linemen and establish the line of scrimmage. Coburn plays with a low pad level which makes it difficult for offensive linemen to get good hand placement and work to displace Coburn.”

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While Coburn didn’t have a boatload of sacks while at Texas (he had 5.5 sacks in 5 years, plus 14 tackles for a loss)… he wasn’t asked to rush the passer a lot at UT, so the Chiefs may get more out of him than UT did:

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“As a pass rusher, Coburn is most effective on twists and stunts where he can use his unexpected athleticism and lateral agility to work to get to the quarterback. Coburn is a high-motor/effort player who can retrace his pass rush. Coburn also shows to have good pursuit as a pass rusher and will pursue the quarterback until he releases the ball.”

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In a piece by Ed Easton Jr. for Chiefs Wire called: “Chiefs guard Trey Smith praises rookie Keondre Coburn” in which he quotes Chiefs RG Trey Smith as saying this about Keondre Coburn:

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“Yeah, I’ve gone against Keondre a couple of times. I love Keondre.” [He is] amazing. He’s a great dude, fun to be around, extremely hard worker. We only disagree about Tennessee and Texas. Which one’s going to be the real ‘UT’? So we talked about that every day. But [I] love playing with him.”

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With the loss of DT Khalen Saunders (who now plays for the New Orleans Saints) many have been wondering if Keondre Coburn is up to the task of replacing someone as dynamic as Saunders.

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Sportskeeda

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It’s a bit strange that the Chiefs first preseason game opponent is the New Orleans Saints… so we will be seeing Saunders this Sunday as well… but in a piece written for ArrowheadPride by Ricko Mendoza called: “Keondre Coburn is ready to make the most of his first NFL opportunity” he quotes Trey Smith as also saying:

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“He’s just doing a good job doing everything asked of him. A lot of it is he’s a big-effort guy, really good at utilizing his hands, and just being violent when he rushes.”

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Veach Strategy

The strategy that Veach is apparently taking while the team has Patrick Mahomes is to draft young players who can fill in the gaps of those leaving, because with a high percentage of cap dollars being paid out to Mahomes, Veach must hit on players he drafts and sign the right FAs while adding talented UDFAs who can help. ChiefsDigest adds this recent quote by Brett Veach:

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“I think the goal is to obviously, build through the draft, be selective in free agency. [Then] when you have an opportunity to extend the guys that have been here in part of that core foundation to do that.”

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That will allow the Chiefs to stay competitive for the duration of the Mahomes era. The last couple of drafts are a great example of this. With all the rookies who became starters last year, the Chiefs were able to not only win the Super Bowl, but progress to a point where they can still be considered favorites to win it all, all over again. If they can do that, then they’ll become the first back-to-back Lombardi winners in the past twenty seasons.

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Yes, Keondre Coburn is that important to this team. Not so important that the Chiefs can let go of the idea of extending DT Chris Jones. That negotiation may be at a crossroads with each side saying they’ve reached the limit of what they can offer, but it doesn’t mean the Chiefs have anyone who can replace CJ. (7:51).

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I’m now leaning towards the idea that the Chiefs will have to ask Jones to play out his last contractual year (2023) on the deal they already have in place with him. Then… trade him next offseason. Is that anything I want to see happen? –> Not on your life. However, it’s what appears to be the most likely scenario as this point in time.

In the meantime, Keondre Coburn may be the future of the Chiefs Defensive Line interior. Unless he turns into a clone of Aaron Donald, the Chiefs overall defense may be on the decline.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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