Kansas City Chiefs: Anthony Hitchens is a steal at 9 million per year
By Chris Taylor
The Kansas City Chiefs started Tuesday morning with a bang. They add a hard hitting, young and versatile linebacker in Anthony Hitchens.
With the Kansas City Chiefs releasing Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson, who were mainstays of the Chiefs defense, the addition of a linebacker was inevitable. Brett Veach understands this, as he is bringing in Anthony Hitchens from the Dallas Cowboys. At a reported five years at 9 million per season, the Chiefs are getting a solid weapon on defense.
Hitchens may not be a household name, and Chiefs fans may not have heard of him, but he has an amazing future ahead of him. Hitchens spent his college career at Iowa, where he totaled 270 tackles. His junior year he racked up 124 tackles to lead the Big Ten Conference.
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Hitchens was drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 draft by the Dallas Cowboys. In four seasons at Dallas he has 304 total tackles, 3.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and an interception.
Versatility is one of his strong suits as he can play any linebacker position. He has spent time at the middle, weakside and strongside positions. His other strong suit, he’s a hard hitter. Hitchens doesn’t affect the pass rush so he is most definitely in Kansas City to play next to Reggie Ragland in the Chiefs 3-4 scheme.
He is only six feet tall, but my goodness he is strong. As seen in the video below, he is a straight up tackler and has a good eye for where the ball is.
Depending on what the Chiefs do with the rest of free agency and the draft, they have taken care of a need. He is an upgrade from Kevin Pierre Lewis, and that’s no knock on Kevin.
From this point the Chiefs can focus on the safety and cornerback positions, as well as Tamba Hali’s replacement at outside linebacker. With an offense that looks like the next big thing, the Chiefs are putting the pieces of the puzzle together to have a formidable defense as well.
Brett Veach didn’t keep Chiefs fans waiting, and he isn’t done yet.