Categories: Kansas City ChiefsPaul Pulley

How Worried Should We Be About the Chiefs Defense in Game 1

How Worried Should We Be About

the Chiefs Defense in Game One?

by Paul Pulley

So what is the Chiefs defense going to look like Sunday afternoon against the Chargers. If repetition and continuity are needed to have success, then the Chiefs defense might be struggling for a while. While new starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the offense have gotten the lions share of attention, the questions surrounding the defense are making me a little nervous.

Is Eric Berry healthy enough to play? Apparently his heal is still too sore to practice and this is after several weeks of no activity. If he misses games (plural) to start this year, this would have to be seen as a major concern. Unfortunately, because of Berry’s recent mega-deal, moving on from him is very cost prohibitive, cap wise, through 2020. I guess we can hope that “day to day” means he will be good to go on Sundays, a la Hali.

Another player to be concerned about is Allen Bailey. I can’t recall any mention of Bailey on an injury report, but he hasn’t seen the field since the first preseason game.

If we are expecting continuity to help this defense gel, then they are sorely lacking. Looking at the projected starting defensive players and the amount of work they each got in the pre-season games.

Starting with the projected defensive line starters:

Chris Jones played 13 snaps in game 1, 30 snaps in game 2 and only 6 snaps in game 3.
Xavier Williams played 14 snaps in game 1, 23 snaps in game 2 and nothing since.
Allen Bailey played 16 snaps in game 1 and has been out injured since.
Chris Jones may be the one and only player on the defense that we don’t have to worry about. Jones is coming into his third year of defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s D and he will be at his best all year.
Allen Bailey has me a little worried. Bailey hasn’t played since the first pre-season game, so on Sunday it will be a full month since he was on a field with someone other than his own teammates.
Xavier Williams is in his first year as a Chief and on Sunday, it will be over three weeks since he has seen playing time.

On to the projected starting linebackers:

Justin Houston played 5 snaps in game 1, 7 snaps in game 2 and 11 snaps in game 3.
Dee Ford played 5 snaps in game 1, 18 snaps in game 2 and 11 snaps in game 3.
Reggie Ragland played 33 snaps in game 3.
Anthony Hitchens played 43 snaps in game 3.

I think Houston will be fine and the plan for the pre-season was simply to keep him healthy. It seems that a lot of Houston’s snaps came from the right side of the defense and I didn’t think he looked his best there but with a total of 23 snaps, the sample is too small to make any kind of conclusion.

Dee Ford’s health was being protected also, even though he got a little more work than Houston in the second game. If Ford’s back holds up all season, we might see him return to his best, but I still don’t think Ford will be a fit for GM Brett Veach’s idea of a team moving forward.

While Ragland is starting his second year as a Chief, Hitchens is new to the team and both have been battling injuries throughout training camp and pre-season. They finally got on the field in game 3 but it seemed obvious they will need some playing time together in order to gel and this shouldn’t be unexpected.

Now the defensive backs. The Chiefs defensive backfield is absolutely crazy to start the season. I only mentioned the starters on the front seven but I feel we should talk about all ten of the DBs. The Chiefs are starting the season with five safeties and five corners.

The Chiefs Cornerbacks:

Kendall Fuller played 19 snaps in game 1, 37 snaps in game 2 and 42 snaps in game 3.

Steven Nelson played 7 snaps in game 2.

Tremon Smith played 24 snaps in game 2, 19 snaps in game 3 and 42 snaps in game 4.

Orlando Scandrick played 25 snaps in game 3.

Charvarius Ward was signed on August 31st.

The Chiefs Safeties:

Eric Berry has not played in a pre-season game.
Ron Parker was signed on September 2nd.
Eric Murray played 37 snaps in game 2 and 42 snaps in game 3.
Armani Watts played 19 snaps in game 2, 20 snaps in game 3 and 64 snaps in game 4.
Jordan Lucas was traded for on August 31st.

Three of these guys, Parker, Ward and Lucas, were not even on the team until after the last pre-season game was played. On top of that, Orlando Scandrick has only been a Chief a little over 2 weeks having signed on August 19th. Not to mention Eric Berry hasn’t played or practiced for almost a month and still may not be ready to go. Add to that Nelson suffered a concussion early in game 2 and has just been cleared to resume football. While Fuller looks like the real deal at corner, he is just starting his third year in the league and his first as a Chief. Plus we need to consider that not only are Smith and Watts rookies but so is Ward. By process of elimination, that leaves Murray as one of our most experienced and better defensive backs. Now I realize that Parker has played in Sutton’s defenses for several years, last year included, and he may be able to pick up where he left off, but without Berry on the field with him, Parker’s play was less than inspiring last year.

While I believe that there are some really good pieces on this backfield to build on, I also think there are going to be some bumpy roads early on this season.

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