How Leo Chenal Impacts the Chiefs’ Defense

How Leo Chenal Impacts the Chiefs’ Defense by Laddie Morse

Leo Chenal was drafted 103rd overall by the Kansas City Chiefs in the recent 2022 draft. Chenal just finished his Junior year at Wisconsin, and although he’s coming out early his last year, there was stellar. With  115 tackles and 18.5 tackles for loss, in addition to 8 sacks and two forced fumbles, Chenal was selected as an All-Big 10 performer at middle linebacker. 

When second-year LB Nick Bolton isn’t on the field (he played on 60% of the defensive snaps in 2021)you can expect the 6-foot2, 250 lbs.  Chenal could move into the middle and play there as well. His 4.52 speed allows him to make plays sideline to sideline. To put his 40 time into perspective, Derrick Johnson’s 40 time was also 4.52, and he was the Chief’s all-time leading tackler. 

Leo #45 and brother John 44 played together for the Badgers!

SBNation has this to share about Leo Chenal:

“Chenal is a plus-sized linebacker, has trimmed down to 249. Freaky explosiveness athletically. Elite play strength. Very physical. Knockdown tackler. Impressive range sideline to sideline. Effective as a Blitzer and on stunts. Shows great anticipation for the snap count on blitzes. Has shown the ability to create issues when lined up on the line of scrimmage in the A-gap.”

While those aspects include his strengths, his weaknesses include coverage issues (because he wasn’t asked to do that much at Wisconsin), and his playing weight has fluctuated from 265 to 249. However, in a recent interview, Chenal said he was sick the last week before the bowl game they played in following his Sophomore season and so he decided to keep the weight off for his last year at Wisconsin. Drafting Leo Chenal was a wise choice because his performance was top-shelf last year.

It’s curious that when Chenal lined up in the A gap vs OC Tyler Linderbaum, who was drafted in the first round by the Ravens, he dominated Linderbaum every time. 

NFLDraftBuzz revealed that:

“Chenal had an elite season in 2021 logged 558 snaps… while missing two games of the season due to COVID-19.”

Steve Spagnuolo brought Willie Gay along slowly in his rookie year playing in just 25% of the defensive snaps. I’d expect Chenal to play somewhere between the number of snaps Gay and Bolton played in during their first seasons which means Chenal should be in on about 42% of the snaps. 

In 2021 the Chiefs kept 5 LBs including Hitchens, Bolton, Gay, Ben Neimann, and Dorian O’Daniel. Since O’Daniel and Neimann have both not been re-signed, that leaves two openings beyond Chenal. 

I expect either Jack Cochran or Mike Rose to fill one of those slots but likely not both. They will have to make a name for themselves on special teams, and that’s likely their path to the 53. 

PFF said of Chenal:

“Chenal is going to thrive in man blitz-heavy schemes. He packs a punch as a downhill player and can light up offensive linemen with ease. His 94.1 run defense grade wasn’t too far behind Micah Parsons’ (94.8) college record. 
The part of that quote I missed when reading it before is that Micah Parsons set a college record… and that’s what Leo Chenal nearly matched. 

Chenal has been called “a remarkably well-rounded athlete” By SBNation, and his RAS fully highlight that fact. 

I expect big things this year from the Chiefs linebacking unit, and Leo Chenal will have a huge hand to play in that. 

Laddie Morse  —  ArrowheadOne