The Steve and Andy Show

 

The Steve and Andy Show

by Laddie Morse | May 7, 2019

 

No one was happier than me when the Kansas City Chiefs severed ties with Bob Sutton. His replacement as the Defensive Coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, was a great hire and that hire set off a Tsunami of changes in the defense. Now that the team appears to have “the” DC they’ve long longed for and a Head Coach who is also an avante garde savant architect of offensive schemes, it’s time to take a look at what we can expect from the Steve and Andy show come September.

 

Before venturing off into the wild blue yonder of Andy Reid’s current and future schemes, let’s wander first through the characters of his own Game of Thrones coaching tree. The following trees are offered by Yahoo Sports and are the best representation I have come across, saving me hours of time re-creating my own diagrammatic disasters (besides, their graphics are truly awe-inspiring):

 

 

 

 

 

I have to confess, I do watch Game of Thrones, which means I’m going to poke Reid’s opponent with the pointy end of Arya’s stick and show you Bill Belichick’s coaching tree as well… and well, you can judge for yourself if you think Andy or Bill’s excellent adventure into spawning coaches is superior (here a blunt end of the stick hint: rhymes with cAndy):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another hint as to which tree is the better tree, which made me smile a tad, and since AO is all about passing on the smiles…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To avoid having to do the Jack and the Beanstalk trick of climbing through the rubble of either of these trees, let’s focus pocus on the offense we’ve come to love in Kansas City. One criticism of Andy Reid’s offense is that it’s too complex and that perhaps the Chiefs might better serve the talents of their players by going to an older and simpler scheme… like the Sid Gilman approach. While Gilman’s technique of throwing the ball downfield to stretch a defense is sound in many respects it does so while placing limits on the short passing game. That’s where Reid’s offense incorporates both schemes and places greater pressure on the defense by making them respect the long game while taking advantage of the spaces that open up underneath as a result.

 

When the Draft season rolls around I cherish hearing the pressers of coaches and GMs — because they say the darndest things — but there’s one interview that sticks out in my mind with Brett Veach. So often a GM, or coach, reveals something that is mentioned in passing but it turns out to be a telltale sign of things to come: Veach stated that he was entering Reid’s office to pitch him the latest information on a prospect when Reid was sitting there entrenched with a pile of new 3×5 play cards — new plays he was creating for the new season — of course, and he held up his hand and showed how big the pile was by spreading his tall finger and his thumb apart to indicate the size of the stack of cards (see picture to the left). Veach was meaning to bring attention to the process that he goes through in bringing a prospect to the attention of the head coach, but it’s the stack of cards that stuck in my mind.

 

 

 

 

The Chiefs 6th round pick, Darwin Thompson hit on the transition taking place in the league, and which Reid is at the forefront of:

 

 

“When I got to Utah State, it was the same offense that the league [the NFL] is really transitioning into — the spread. I think you’ll see a lot more value in the running back position as that gives running backs more running lanes; even more in the NFL with the hashes being so close.”

 

All those cards that represent new plays for the Chiefs this fall means the playbook will be getting larger, not smaller, nor simplified. A year ago, in a piece for the Washington Post by Mark Bullock called, “Grand Schemes” with the byline: “From run-pass options to the West Coast offense: Breaking down all 32 offensive schemes in the NFL.” They correctly note that Reid is a pioneer in the league at incorporating the newest college game plays into his offenes. Bullock reveals:

 

“The Chiefs were one of the NFL’s most innovative offenses last year, embracing what had traditionally been considered college concepts. Coach Andy Reid, who is a direct influencer of many of the league’s leading offensive minds, succeeded by combining things like run-pass options and jet sweeps with traditional West Coast concepts. The play shown here is a traditional four verticals concept, but it is adjusted to include a jet sweep fake (3), which allows the running back to run free up the seam (2). The Chiefs ran this in their 2017 season-opening win over the Patriots, and it was soon copied by play callers across the league. New quarterback Patrick Mahomes II can also throw over the middle to star tight end Travis Kelce (1).”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs offense was:

 

• #1 in the league in total yards per game.
• #3 in Passing yards per game.
• #16 in Rushing yards per game.
• #1 in total points per game.

 

Although fans may scoff at the rushing yards per game, a short pass is like a running play to Andy Reid.

 

Andy Reid is preparing the team for maximum unpredictability. How is that possible? By re-designing and running plays others have never seen before. You see, he steals… er, takes, these college plays, throws them into his blender (his brain)… and then pours them into is new playbook each year for his players to digest. Also, Chiefs fans should get it ingrained in their thinking that when the organization sends area scouts out to do a deep dive on the character and background of a prospect, they’re also asking those scouts to pay attention to, and gathering information about, the best plays across the collegiate scene that are helping those teams to become more successful. Until now, the college game has been Andy Reid’s private diamond mine. Now, the rest of the league is beginning to catch up. Look for Reid to up his game and start attending high school football games… just kidding… but who knows for sure.

 

 

What About Bob… uh, I Mean Steve!

First of all, Steve Spagnuolo is in Andy Reid’s tree. With that out of the way, it’s refreshing to know that Steve Spagnuolo is planning on the Chiefs defense not ranking in the bottom third of the league so I don’t need to recite the sad facts of the 2018 Chiefs defense to you. Just know that those days are now a bygone era. Safety Tyrann Mathieu points to the way Steve Spagnuolo will be doing things in K.C:

 

“I’m overly excited. I can’t wait for the world to see how coach is going to use me this year. I think it’s everything people want to see me [doing]. This is how they want to see me play football. They want to see me blitzing, get close to the ball and wreak havoc.”

 

Steve Spagnuolo is 59 years old Sagittarian who has had 20 jobs as a coach in his tenure that began in 1984 and of those coaching jobs he’s had, 18 of them were on defensive. The other two were Head Coach and Interim HC. His most notable coaching stint was 2007-2008 as the Defensive Coordinator for the NY Giants when they beat back the nearly perfect NE Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

 

While most fans are excited about the switch that Spags is bringing to the defense, going from a 34 to a 43, fans should also be aware that calling the Chiefs defense a 43, is a misnomer of sorts. It only means that it is the base-defense used on many, perhaps not even a greater percentage, of plays. The reason I’m excited about the switch to the 43 is that it brings in the personnel to run that effectively while also allowing the defense to run a 34. The ability to run the 34 when needed, will make hte defense as a whole much more potent.

 

 

Another markedly different approach to running this defense is, the daily approach is going to be much more vocal. BJ Kissel points out what I had already noticed:

 

 

 

 

Without beating a dead horse… what is the lasting image you have of Bob Sutton? Standing motionless along the sidelines, right? We’ll this staff is much more animated:

 

 

Defensive Line Coach: Brendan Daly

While praising the acquisition of DC Steve Spagnuolo we should not leave out the excellent addition of Brendan Daly who spent the last 5 years with the New England Patriots, four of those as their DL Coach. Yes, that means he has a couple of Super Bowl rings to flash if he so chooses and that should go a long way towards getting and holding the attention of the defensive linemen he’ll be working with as well as impressing upon them, that if they do as he says, they to can tote a ring one day. Nothing gets attention like success.

 

Steve Spagnuolo also brought in Matt House to serve as the Linebacking coach. House was with the University of Kentucky for the past three years and the last two he was Defensive Coordinator/Insider Linebackers Coach helping them to 3 straight bowl games. Perhaps the biggest upheaval in the defensive staff changeover was at the Defensive Back Coaching position where long time coach and player Emmitt Thomas was asked to walk. To replace him is Dave Merritt who was drafted by the Dolphins in 1993, a career that lasted 5 years. He’s been a coach ever since 1997. Merritt was also with Steve Spagnuolo as a DB coach when the Giants won it all in 2007.

 

Steve Spagnuolo was with Andy Reid from 1999 to 2006 and that’s the reason you’ve heard Reid talk about a smooth transition, because they already know “how each other rolls.” Although Reid is just two years older than Spags, if Reid was to win a Super Bowl in the next couple or 3 years, I could see Spagnuolo taking over as the Chiefs next Head Coach. It’s hard to tell if that dynamic is at play in the background of this relationship but, one can only speculate.

 

It looks like the presence of Steve Spagnuolo has given GM Brett Veach another voice to pay attention to, especially when it comes to free agency, the draft, and in trade possibilities. Veach has received a good deal of praise this offseason for the moves he’s made to restock the team but a lot of that may have been because he has another very focused voice in his ear: Steve Spagnuolo.

 

In any event, it’s clear that this is more than a one-man band with Andy Reid playing all the instruments. Now, it’s the Steve and Andy Show.

 

 

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

 

 

 

 

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