Introductions are in order:
Please welcome new writer, David Beck, to ArrowheadOne. David was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri and loves anything and everything K.C. sports. He went to Rockhurst High School and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where he studied accounting. He got married right out of college in the fall of 2017. His wife wasn’t much of a sports fan when he met her, but after taking her to many Royals, Chiefs, and Sporting KC games, he says he’s starting to turn her around. David also shared, “After all, she climbed all the way to the top corner of the stadium (legit the 2nd to last row up in the corner) for the Divisional Round last year against the Texans while she was 7-8 months pregnant and I couldn’t have been more proud of her!” They had a daughter in February, and in his words, “Life has been pretty great this year considering all that’s going on in 2020.” Being born and raised a Chiefs fan and spending his entire childhood, “Rooting for a team that was either absolutely terrible or fell apart in the playoffs,” Beck says, “Made this past season that much sweeter! I will never stop being a Chiefs fan, and I look forward to sharing that love with each of you!” Please help me welcome David Beck! – Ladner Morse
The Chiefs Defense Will Be Even Better in 2020 – The Chiefs defense underwent a major transformation between the 2018 and 2019 seasons. A new coordinator, new scheme, and a whole lot of new faces. The move from Bob Sutton’s 3-4 to Steve Spagnuolo’s 4-3 was not as smooth of a transition as most Kansas City Chiefs fans would have liked. For the first half of the 2019 season, it seemed as though we were in for another rough year defensively. Then in week 11, things turned around, and ever since that four-interception night in Mexico City, Spags’ new-look defense was on fire and never looked back. Now, it’s time to look ahead and discuss how this new defense of ours is going to fair in year two under Mr. Spagnuolo and company.
Personally, I believe that the Chiefs defense is a huge reason that they are the favorites to repeat as Super Bowl champions in the 2020/21 season. For starters, they are returning a vast majority of their starting lineup this season. The most notable departure was DE Emmanuel Ogbah, who was out most of last year due to injury. The depth is there, and will continue to be throughout the year as we head into year two under the new defensive format. I’m looking to see some major improvement from other young players such as Damien Wilson, Rashad Fenton, and Juan Thornhill, who was having a Defensive Rookie of the Year type season before a season-ending injury (a torn ACL) at the end of the regular season.
The mid-season addition last year of Defensive Tackle Mike Pennel proved to be an extremely valuable pick up, and I think Taco Charlton will fill in nicely for Ogbah.
The defense last year had a few unlikely heroes that stepped up big when they were thrust into the spotlight. Coming out of that 2018 AFC Championship Game loss at home, every single Chiefs fan was vastly aware that K.C. needed help at the cornerback position. In comes some relatively unknown and untested players to fill the team’s biggest void:
- Charvarius Ward was the team’s #1 CB and many people thought he might not be up to the task
- Bashaud Breeland quickly exceeded all expectations as the team’s #2
- Possibly the biggest surprise of the year at the position was the breakout of Rashad Fenton. He might not have had the reps to grant him a #1 or even #2 corner spot, but he provides some serious depth at a position that is growing more and more important as teams look to the air for a bulk of their offensive production
- Kendall Fuller was having an abysmal season at the slot corner position, but turned it on late to be one of the most valuable players in the Super Bowl
- Safety Tyrann Mathieu provided a vast amount of help by playing slot corner on around 40% of his defensive snaps
One year removed from the 31st ranked defense, the personnel and coaching is there to see this much-improved squad continue that improvement, exponentially.
Year two under Steve Spagnoulo’s new defensive scheme is going to be a BIG one. There will be no rust to knock off, no transition period to learning a new defensive format. The Chiefs D will be going out there in week one with the knowledge and confidence of being, well… Super Bowl Champions. So, I expect to see the Chiefs defense to come out with a bang to start the season, and I predict the Chiefs to have a top-10 defense – again — at the end of the year.
David Beck — ArrowheadOne
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