Kansas City Chiefs: Steve Spagnuolo is not right hire for Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are in search of a new defensive coordinator and the latest name to emerge as a favorite for the job is former Giants assistant, Steve Spagnuolo. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted this out Wednesday morning.

Steve Spagnuolo has old ties to Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and the late Jim Johnson, as he served as a defensive assistant under both back in Philadelphia from 1999-2006. In January of 2007, Spagnuolo was hired by Tom Coughlin to become the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants and it was a smashing success.

As we all know by now, Spagnuolo orchestrated one of the greatest defensive game plans to shut down that New England Patriots team in Super Bowl XLII. Tom Brady had an MVP season, leading what was at the time, the highest scoring offense in league history. Spagnuolo’s defense sacked Brady five times that game and held that defense to just 17 points and leading them to one of the greatest upsets of all time.

He followed that season up with another top ten defense and helped the Giants to a 12-4 record.

In 2009 he signed on to become the St. Louis Rams head coach, were he would spend three seasons, only to be fired in early 2012 for an overall record of 10-38.

Where things start to get really sketchy on him was his time in New Orleans, where he led one of the worst defenses in league history. Sean Payton hired him to run his defense while he served a year-long suspension from the bounty gate scandal. Spagnuolo would only hold the job for one season as his defense surrendered the most yards EVER in a single season in league history.

He was brought back by the Giants to be the coordinator the following seasons and he once again finished last in total defense in 2015. Over the last seven seasons, Spagnuolo has spent time with 3 different teams and has a defensive average of 25th overall.

Spagnuolo traditionally runs a 4-3 hybrid defense that brings a ton of blitzes from all over the field. As an understudy of Jim Johnson, his style is very aggressive and it’s lead to some very up-and-down results, as listed above.

Hiring him would mean that the Chiefs would need to start building the defense as more of a 4-3 base style which is fine but, would most likely mean they walk on a guy like Dee Ford this off season, rather than franchise tagging him.

There are so many better candidates out there for Andy Reid and this feels like a “safe” hire and lateral move. It feels like Reid would replacing Bob Sutton results WITH Bob Sutton results. With names like Rex Ryan, Brent Venables and Kris Richard still floating out there, hiring Steve Spagnuolo just feels like a lateral move.

Kris Richard is a 39 year old candidate who certainly has future head coaching written all over him. There is a slight possibility that Reid could pluck him away from Dallas, assuming they haven’t promised him the head coaching gig once they decide to move on from Jason Garret. Richard seems like a bit of a stretch but he would be the dream hire for most Chiefs fans.

Rex Ryan is a name that would bring a ton of flash and personality to a defense that has been relatively soft the last few years. If nothing else, Ryan would help light a fire under the players and would prove that Andy Reid is willing to step outside of his comfort zone a bit. Ryan hasn’t been a defensive coordinator since 2008 when he was in Baltimore but there is no denying he is a bright defensive mind.

It’s so imperative that Andy Reid gets this hire right and based on Spagnuolo’s track record, he doesn’t seem to be what the Chiefs need right now. Obviously things had gone stale between the players and Bob Sutton so hiring a younger candidate, or, a fiery candidate like Ryan seem like the bolder move.

All our optimism about firing Sutton will quickly vanish if Andy Reid hires this guy. It will for me, anyway.