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It’s Time To Take Off – Spags New Defense

MIchael Rose May 31, 2019 No Comments

Michael Travis Rose | June 1, 2019

The purpose of this article is to introduce the new Kansas City Chiefs defensive coaching staff to Chiefs Kingdom. However, before we do that, we must address the elephant in the room — Bob Sutton. Sutton was fired just two days after last seasons AFC Championship loss to the New England Patriots in overtime. Many Chiefs fans and the media blamed the loss on Bob Sutton and his defense. We are not going to address that here.

Rather, let me just say that I am appreciative of the six seasons that Sutton served as the Chiefs defensive coordinator. While we acknowledge that he presided over the 31st ranked defense last year, lets not forget that the Chiefs also finished in the top seven in scoring defense in each of Sutton’s first four seasons, ranking second in 2014. Bob Sutton is gone. End of story. We wish Sutton well in his new role as a senior assistant with the Atlanta Falcons.

So, we move on…

Steve Spagnuolo was hired to replace Sutton as a defensive coordinator on January 24 of this year. Spagnuolo has a history with Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. He started his career under Reid’s previous team, the Philadelphia Eagles, serving in various positions – as a defensive assistant, defensive backs coach, linebackers coach: from 1999 to 2006.

After his stint with Reid and the Eagles, Spagnuolo earned his reputation as a defensive genius after being named defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. With the Giants, Spagnuolo implemented his “Four Aces” scheme that utilized four stud defensive ends, Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Jason Tuck, and Mathias Kiwanuka.

In this scheme, Spagnuolo monopolized not only the speed of the four defensive ends, but also took full advantage of their athleticism, discipline and technique. The Four Aces scheme allowed Spagnuolo to implement complicated blitz packages which wreaked havoc in the NFC East.

So successful was Spagnuolo, it helped catapult the Giants to the 2007 Super Bowl, where the Giants defeated the previously unbeaten New England Patriots to become World Champions. The Patriots defense averaged 38.6 points per game that season, but the Giants defense, with Spagnuolo at the helm, held them to a paltry 14 points. Chiefs fans, please note and delight in the fact that our new defensive coordinator knows how to, and can, beat the New England Patriots. That just might be significant in the not-too-distant future.

After his time as the Giants defensive coordinator, Spagnuolo took over as head coach of the St. Louis Rams. His three seasons as Rams head coach can only be described as pathetic. During his tenure there, Spagnuolo compiled a 10-38 record overall. Chiefs fans should not be overly concerned with Spagnuolo’s abysmal tenure as Rams head coach, however. Great defensive coordinator… does not always translate to… great head coach. Insert Gunther Cunningham here.

After his unceremonious departure from St. Louis, Spagnuolo has held various roles with: the New Orleans Saints, the Baltimore Ravens, and the Giants as defensive coordinator, senior defensive assistant, and assistant head coach/secondary coach.

New to the staff are, Brendan Daly, the run game coordinator/defensive line coach, linebackers coach Matt House, Dave Merritt as the defensive backs coach, and Sam Madison, defensive backs/cornerbacks coach.

Brendan Daly served under Spagnuolo as the defensive line coach with the Rams from 2009 to 2011 after three seasons in the same position with the Minnesota Vikings. Daly was also part of the Patriots coaching staff that won Super Bowl LI over the Atlanta Falcons.

Matt House, the Chiefs new linebackers coach, comes to us from the University of Kentucky where he served as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Prior to that, House served as an assistant for both the Rams and Carolina Panthers.

Dave Merritt has been an NFL assistant coach since 2001. Head coaches whom he served under include Spagnuolo, Herman Edwards, Tom Coughlin, Ben McAdoo, and Steve Wilks.

Sam Madison: this is Sam Madison‘s first stint as an NFL assistant. He is a Pro-Bowl cornerback who won a Super Bowl ring with the Giants (under Spagnuolo) in 2007. He retired in 2009.

Holdovers from the Sutton staff include Alex Whittingham, a defensive assistant, Terry Bradden, a defensive quality control coach, and Britt Reid, a linebackers/outside linebackers coach.

Reading one’s resume/dossier can be dry stuff and a real chore. I know, I had to write it! However, I think that the background is important as we need to know who we have, and where they’ve been, in order to speculate where we’re going. From Nate Taylor at the Athletic:

“With the Chiefs just ending their 2nd week of OTAs… the players on the team’s new-look defense aren’t just learning new D coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s new playbook, but they’re learning about each other as well.”

I am often ridiculed for my steadfast belief that the Chiefs defense will be ranked in the top ten this year. I understand. After all, we are making huge changes, from moving to a 3-4 defense, the loss of defensive stars such as Eric Berry, Justin Houston, and Dee Ford. Add to this (even under Bob Sutton), although we ranked 31st in defense last year, we were tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers in sacks at 52. Additionally, the Chiefs were tied for 9th in Interceptions with 15, and were 6th in the Giveaway/Takeaway department, with +9.

However, I firmly contend that the 2019 Chiefs defense will be a top ten defense. It is certainly from some of the offseason additions such as: Frank Clark, Tyrann Mathieu, Alex Okafor, along with draft picks Khalen Saunders and Juan Thornhill. However, I am most optimistic because we have Steve Spagnuolo running the defense.

Look, Spags made sweeping changes in New York, and helped the Giants secure a Lombardi Trophy with an offense 14th-ranked his first year by shaking things up. Coming off of a ranking of 31st, the Chiefs defense is in bad need of a shakeup. Spagnuolo brings that. Also, Steve Spagnuolo is having an impact on the Chiefs (soon-to-be) defensive studs. Tweeted rookie Thornhill, “My new goals are set. Now it’s time to take off‼️”

Spagnuolo is a cerebral guy, but he is all about physical, smash-mouth defense. He is the yin to Reid’s and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s yang.

Bonus Fun Fact: Steve Spagnuolo has only tweeted 35 times, total. His last tweet was on November 27, 2011.

 

 

 

Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne

 

 

 

 

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