K.C. Chiefs: Finding Tanoh

The Kansas City Chiefs have a dilemma concerning their second round draft pick this year: what to do with him? They likely drafted him because he’s a known freak athletically but, now that they’ve seen him in camp, they’re not quite sure how to utilize him in Bob Sutton’s system. We’re talking about Tanoh Kpassagnon (Tawn-oh pass-N-yo), also known as Kpass or, “TK” as head coach Andy Reid likes to call him, and he is indeed an athletically gifted football player. At 6-foot-7 inches and 290 lbs. he can get upfield quickly and a 4.83 40-yard dash will attest to that. However, the Chiefs offseason needs for their defensive line was to figure out how to stop the run. While TK may have had 22 career sacks, 37.5 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles over his four year span at Villanova, they may not need another “Chris Jones” clone to get after the quarterback because it looks like OLB Justin Houston is back stronger than ever and his running mate Dee Ford looks ready to take another step as well. Also, 11-year veteran Tamba Hali (this will be his 12th year in the NFL) may not be ready to fill in for Houston or Ford so, there might be an opening there if Kpassagnon is athletic enough to make the transition.

Consequently, TK has been seen practicing at the outside linebacking position for the past couple of days in training camp and first reports in are positive. It’s clear that the Chiefs need someone who can cover the best tight ends in the National Football League, guys like Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates (twice), Rob Gronkowski, and Jason Witten because they’ll face them all this year (Graham in preseason)…

… but in Los Angeles, the Chargers now have a trio of capable tight ends in Gates, Hunter Henry and the bearded wonder (no, not Anthony  Sherman), none other than Sean “I don’t want to play football anymore” McGrath.

While covering TEs is usually not the primary responsibility of an OLB (neither is covering the best WR in the league, like when J. Houston was found chasing Antonio Brown down the field vs. Pittsburgh), but covering running backs is. Since we know that Kpass can get after the QB, the real and only question that needs to be answered about whether or not he can play the outside linebacking position is: can he be consistent in coverage? Or, can he drop into coverage at all. So, if TK can cover RBs out of the backfield, he should also be able to cover TEs because RBs are faster than TEs… usually… and probably a little more shifty. If you’ve never seen Tanoh Kpassagnon then you might question whether or not he is really athletic enough to go from playing a DE to playing OLB. Remember, when 6-foot-3 inch, 275 lb. Tamba Hali was first drafted by the Chiefs he played DE in the 4-3 defense the team was using back them. When a new coach came to town — Todd Haley — Hali was asked to convert to an OLB (in the 3-4 defense) and he has made that transition famously and is now 2nd place among the Chiefs All-time Sack Leaders with 89.5 (behind only Derrick Thomas who had 126.5). So, can Tanoh Kpassagnon make that transition? I would think that if any current Chiefs player could… he can.

So, what’s the big dilemma? Listen to what Seth Keysor of ArrowheadPride had to say about TK after charting his first game snaps and comparing them to Chris Jones performance a year ago.

“The only reason I bring him [Chris Jones] up is that I’ve had more than a few people compare Kpass to Jones when talking with me about him, and I think it’s important we differentiate between the two. Jones was wrecking guys in preseason when he went against second and third teamers. Kpass, though flashing some talent, is not. Jones demonstrated freakish in-game strength and handfighting that allowed him to throw aside OL. Kpass isn’t there yet.”

If what Keysor is saying is accurate, we can assume the Chiefs know it too. That means, from the coaches stand point — just prior to this “decision making” time of year — that Kpassagnon may not be ready to contribute big minutes this season on the DL and consequently they may see him as more of a developmental project who can help down the line.

So, why have him switch to OLB? The coaches may be wanting to stock up the defensive line depth with players who can make an impact this year. We all remember what happened last year when multiple defensive linemen went down and ended up on the Injured Reserve list. That happened during a season when the Chiefs came up 3 points short of having a chance to go the the AFC Championship game and there is the perception that this regime is operating on the belief that they need to make only a few changes to get over the hump. That’s also why many of us who follow the Chiefs closely, questioned the move of drafting Tanoh Kpassagnon in the first place… he looked like he could be a star… of the future.

Now, the coaches are left with the idea that they have to keep a roster spot for their second round pick, when they’d rather be keeping players who can help now. If the coaches have the choice of using TK at OLB this year, or even as a designated-DL-late-inning-hitter on a part time basis, then they not only have a player who fits their model of “position flexibility” but it gives them the choice, on cut down day, whether to keep an extra OLB or an extra DL.

So, who might those players be?

In a piece written yesterday here at ArrowheadOne by Ransom Hawthorne called, “Chiefly Bacon’s Medium Rare Roster Prediction” he projects the Chiefs keeping the following OLBs → Justin Houston, Dee Ford, Tamba Hali, Earl Okine, and Marcus Rush and this list of DLs → Bennie Logan, Allen Bailey, Chris Jones, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, and Roy Miller. If this were the scenario, then the OLBs who would get cut are Frank Zombo and Dadi Nicolas while the DL being cut would be Jarvis Jenkins, Cam Thomas, David King and Ricky Ali’ifua. Now, if TK could be counted as an OLB, then they could keep another DL like Jarvis Jenkins or Cam Thomas and then someone like Marcus Rush or Earl Okine gets cut.

So, who would you rather keep… Marcus Rush or Cam Thomas? Earl Okine or Jarvis Jenkins?

The way Kpass plays as an outside linebacker or as a defensive lineman, from here on out in the preseason, is purely an exercise for the Kansas City Chiefs in… finding Tanoh…. and his real place on the team.

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