Originally Posted by Kiimosabi:
I think you can include Chenal in that, he's going to be a guy who you simply can't leave on the bench in my opinion. He's a play waiting to happen.
Sure. I just am not sure how much they'll be in 3-LB sets, or that he'll earn PT in front of Bolton or Gay in any of the sets. [Reply]
Originally Posted by -King-:
And this has nothing to do with the coaching staff.
We’ve seen the overall defense have growing pains before as it meshes, so I absolutely default to that expectation this season given that it’s not just a number of new defensive players but young ones as well. And I’ll definitely put some of that on the Spags’ defense.
I’d be thrilled if they came out balling but I don’t expect it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Teams have new staff come in every year and don’t take so long to “gel”
I don’t know why the chiefs defense always does but I’m thinking it’s more talent than scheme
I've been checking out highlights from last year's games lately. The lack of pass rush without blitzing is stark, as was watching Ben Niemann and Dan Sorensen get pushed around the field. Our secondary seemed to play pretty well in spite of a lack of serious and constant pressure from our d-line (minus Mike Hughes and to a lesser degree Tyann Mathieu), so yeah, it was absolutely lack of talent at key positions where other offenses knew to attack. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Teams have new staff come in every year and don’t take so long to “gel”
I don’t know why the chiefs defense always does but I’m thinking it’s more talent than scheme
Last year Spags was a fucking moron who valued the gritty slow whiffed tackling of Daniel Sorensen over literally anything else that had a remote chance of not sucking so much.
Originally Posted by RealSNR:
Last year Spags was a ****ing moron who valued the gritty slow whiffed tackling of Daniel Sorensen over literally anything else that had a remote chance of not sucking so much.
I stumbled on an interesting statistic- 2021 NFL pass rush win rate.
KC was 7th in the league, at 44%. Criteria being that the rusher beat his block within 2.5 seconds.
However, they were what, 29th in sacks? So clearly, not getting home.
We know that Veach had said that defensive line was a priority, and indeed, we added Karlaftis in the first round, but that so far appears to be the only addition. Reason for panic? OR...
Is it the opinion of the coaching staff and front office that a main reason for the lack of pass rush FINISH (meaning sack, batted pass, busted play incompletions, etc) is POOR coverage and poor athleticism in the back 7?
Kind of looks like it, doesn't it?
Mathieu (definitely a down year), Sorenson (good lord, how bad did the guy have to be), Watts, all gone. Ward (not bad, but a mismatch against #1's), Hughes (just too short) gone.
Add McDuffie (get a load of the kid's stats in college!), Williams at CB (excellent size and athletic ability) , bring back Baker, add Lonnie Johnson-and you're still got Sneed and Fenton. This should be considerably better.
Add Reid (bigger, faster, younger Mathieu), Cook (bigger, faster, younger Sorensen) This should be considerably better.
And with Gay in year 3, Bolton taking over at MLB in year two-we added Chenal, who looks to be a really great fit at SAM, with some pass rush juice to boot. And thank the gods, no more ****ing Niemann.
It seems to me that The Chiefs think the primary problem was poor coverage.
Either that, or they know something about Kaindoh and Herring that we don't.
The Chiefs looked at their pressure rate and realized they were seventh in the league. But it wasn't equating to sacks. Instead of fixing the pass rush, they are trying to improve the secondary.
Forcing QBs to take a full second longer to throw the ball would theoretically skyrocket our sack rate to the top ten in the league. They seem determined to do so, which is why they drafted five defensive backs, traded for a safety and brought in a dozen or so more guys to camp. They seem determined to fix the pass rush by fixing the secondary. [Reply]