Kansas City Chiefs: Steve Spagnuolo feels like safe hire
The Kansas City Chiefs hired their next defensive coordinator and they chose Steve Spagnuolo to take over the job. Spagnuolo is most known for his time spent with the Giants as their defensive coordinator.
After parting ways with Bob Sutton on Tuesday, the Kansas City Chiefs had a decision to make when it came to who their next defensive coordinator was going to be. They went with Steve Spagnuolo (see tweet below) and it feels like a “safe” hire.
Yes, Spagnuolo had a nice career early on in his stint with the Giants. His defense in the 2007 season helped get the Giants a Super Bowl and that’s what most Chiefs fans are going to point to when discussing their excitement for this hire.
That’s all fine and dandy, but as KC Kingdom’s own Josh Michaels wrote about a few days ago, however, it was mostly downhill from there with Spagnuolo.
The #Chiefs are hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator, sources say. The former #Giants DC and interim HC/#Rams HC began his NFL coaching career as an #Eagles assistant under Andy Reid. Now rejoins Big Red in KC.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 24, 2019
Josh wrote in his post,
"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."
It’s hard to to disagree with Josh there. There were certainly better options out there on the open market, but the Chiefs seemed like they wanted to get this vacancy filled as soon as possible and went with maybe the biggest name, but not the best name.
As I mentioned earlier, Chiefs fans are going to immediately use the Giants’ Super Bowl win in the 2007 season as a reason why fans should be excited about this hire. For one, that was 12 seasons ago and a lot changes in 12 years.
After Spagnuolo left New York, he didn’t fare as well. He failed as a head coach with the Rams (back when they were in a town called St. Louis), was in charge of one of the worst defenses in NFL history while with the Saints, and things didn’t go as well during his second go-around with the G-Men.
I understand the optimism from Chiefs fans, I really do. Anyone is better than Bob Sutton, but Steve Spagnuolo hasn’t been this lethal defensive coordinator in over a decade. Is that really someone that Kansas City Chiefs fans want to hand the defense over to?
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These next few years while Patrick Mahomes is in his rookie contract are the Chiefs’ best shot to win a Super Bowl and their defense has to be better if that’s going to happen. Their defense failed them in 2018 and if it doesn’t improve in 2019 or 2020, the Chiefs might not get to the pinnacle while Mahomes is still on the cheap.
So, Chiefs Kingdom, I want to hear from you. How do you feel about this hire?