Kansas City Chiefs: The run defense will see a major improvement in 2018
By Chris Clark
The “Alabama Hammer”
General manager Brett Veach provided Chiefs Kingdom with a nice surprise at the beginning of the 2017 season by bringing in a young, talented middle linebacker in Reggie Ragland. The former Alabama linebacker was a name that could have been chosen by the Chiefs during the 2016 NFL draft but was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the second round. In one of Veach’s first moves as GM, he picked up Ragland from Buffalo before the 2017 season started.
As the season progressed it was great to see this 6’2”, 252-pound monster flying around and making big plays, especially when he faced his former team in Week 12. It also worked to Ragland’s advantage that he played next to and learned from one of the Chiefs’ all-time great linebackers in Derrick Johnson.
Where Johnson averaged 3.2 tackles in 15 starts, Ragland averaged 3.1 tackles in 10 starts. Now that Johnson is gone Ragland will look to fill that leadership role in 2018. Here is one of the reasons to believe that he will.
Ragland was withheld from a good chunk of training camp because of a swollen knee. He also missed the first preseason game against the Texans. Many teams will take a conservative approach to the preseason games with injuries, but hopefully, the Kingdom will get to see the Alabama Hammer gearing up in the preseason to improve the run defense.