The Cupboard Was Bare: How Chiefs
Secondary Problems Became Primary
by Ransom Hawthorne | December 29, 2018
It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that the Kansas City Chiefs had a decent secondary. What happened? Last Sunday, against Seattle, Andy Reid was so desperate for improvement, he forced his Defensive Coordinator Bob Sutton to try the rookie CBs, over veteran starter Orlando Scandrick, and an injured Kendall Fuller. He also benched Safety Ron Parker. Understand, a selling point for defensive guys, of working for Andy Reid, has been that he’s hands off. The fact that he finally got involved is quite the indictment of Bob Sutton, but, in any case, it didn’t really help. How did the Chiefs secondary get this bad? It was a process.
Draft Duds: Since 2013, Chiefs have drafted five CBs in the first three rounds: Phillip Gaines, Marcus Peters, Steven Nelson, KeiVarae Russell, and Eric Murray. Peters looked absolutely fantastic, in 2015, and Nelson looked like a quality starter in 2016. Then, in 2017, the wheels fell off. Not a single CB from the 2016 class panned out, Gaines continued to be awful and Peters did so much freelancing, and so little tackling that Chiefs would trade him the next year, leaving only Steven Nelson, out of all of the draftees still playing CB for the Chiefs.
Tracing The Decline: Any time you want to know the source of a problem, it helps to trace the origin. While some may be tempted to blame the departure of Peters, it made a relatively small impact. From 2017 to 2018, Chiefs went from 29th, in passing yards per game, to 31st. It’s a decline, but not a drastic one. On the flip side, the 2017 Chiefs had dropped 11 spots in the rankings, from the previous year, when they were ranked 18th. Then, if you go back to 2015, Chiefs were 9th, in the league, in passing yards per game. So if we’re looking for the source of the secondary woes, it seems like losses from 2015 to 2017 probably played the biggest role.
Going Generic: In 2015, Sean Smith was Chiefs #1 CB, with Peters as the #2. In 2016, that changed to Peters and Nelson. In 2017, Steven Nelson dealt with injuries, and Terrence Mitchell ended up with more snaps, making him your de-facto #2. Chiefs went from two former first round picks at CB… but in 2018, two 3rd round picks and a washed up vet. What’s more, their entire depth chart, at CB is comprised of guys who were taken in the 5th round, or later. Compare that to 2015, where your 4th and 5th CBs were Steven Nelson and Phillip Gaines. CB isn’t the only spot where Chiefs got seriously worse, though.
The Bottom Line: the Chiefs lack of DB talent came about through age, poor drafting, and cheaping out, in FA. I believe that Kansas City’s original plan was to trade up for a first round CB Mike Hughes. This would have given them a DB group of Nelson, Hughes, and Fuller, with Amerson planned as depth. Turned out, the price to trade up was too high, and Amerson didn’t have anything left in the tank. That left GM Brett Veach going out and snagging Orlando Scandrick at the last minute and then trading for Charvarius Ward. Not surprisingly, since both guys were picked up at the 11th hour, they’ve struggled to pick up Sutton’s complex coverage schemes, leading to frequent, and maddening, blown coverages, that the Chiefs coaching staff has yet to fix. K.C. has made much better efforts at safety, but rookie Armani Watts, unfortunately, got injured, Eric Berry took forever to show up (but now he will likely miss Sunday’s game), and Jordan Lucas, despite great promise, remains on the bench, for some reason (and only Sutton knows why). On Sunday, it took the head coach stepping in to get 31 year old Ron Parker off the field.
The Fix: Kansas City can’t keep relying on 3rd round picks, or late round luck, to fill their DB needs. It’s too much of a gamble. Nor can they bank on finding a cheap, quality veteran, on a prove it deal every year. The Chiefs need to start spending first and 2nd round picks on CBs, and 2nd and 3rd round picks on safeties, until they’ve got a better group. Beyond that, they need to sign at least one competent safety, in free agency, and a starting quality outside CB. With some big contracts coming due soon, the Chiefs may be forced to let some of their other players go. At the end of the day, if you have to trade Dee Ford, or cut Justin Houston, to facilitate the overhaul of the secondary, you do it. A pass rush is no good, when the secondary can’t cover for two seconds, or make a tackle, on a screen pass, on 3rd and forever. The magnitude of the problem is too big for a single approach. Throw resources at it until it’s fixed. If you end up with too much talent, you can deal with that later. That’s what I’ll be looking for, from Brett Veach in 2019. For now, get healthy on offense, and hope for the best. Go Chiefs.
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