KC Chiefs: Reasons to be excited for 2019 season
By Mike Norris
As shown in the picture above, Andy Reid and new KC Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo go way back. It remains to be seen how good “Spags” will be, but it’s hard to imagine it will be any worse than his predecessor, Bob Sutton.
No, the KC Chiefs defense won’t suddenly morph into the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, but it upgraded immediately after Sutton was fired the week after the AFC Championship loss.
This isn’t to pile on to the man who led the Chiefs defense the past six seasons. By all accounts Sutton is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But we have yet to see a correlation model between being nice and keeping the ball out of the end zone.
The fact remains Sutton was in charge of the defense when the Chiefs set a franchise record by blowing a 28-point, second-half lead in the playoffs to the Indianapolis Colts in January 2014. After finishing that regular season ranked 24th in yards allowed, the defense finished a more than respectable seventh the next two seasons.
But they were back to their old ways the past three years, finishing 24th, 28th and 31st respectively, per Pro Football Reference. And of course Sutton was there again this year when the Chiefs lost five games despite averaging 36.2 points in those losses, never scoring less than 28.
They set a NFL record, for God’s sake, when they became the first NFL team to score at least 50 points in a regular season game and lose, when they dropped a 54-51 thriller to the Rams in Week 11.
Once his 4-3 defense allowed the Patriots to convert three consecutive third-and-10s during overtime en route to their game-winning drive, Sutton was a goner.
Enter Spags, who last coached in 2017 as the New York Giants defensive coordinator and interim head coach. He also spent three years as the Rams head coach from 2009-11, compiling a disastrous 10-38 record.
Luckily for the Chiefs, Reid is the head man, and he knows Spagnuolo well. While Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles Spagnuolo was a defensive positions coach from 1999-2006.
Reid, in an article from Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star, believes Spagnuolo’s “leadership skills and teaching abilities, combined with his scheme, will be a great fit for [the] team as [we] move forward.” That’s about all Reid will give you, but the fact remains he likes “his guys,” and he could have done a lot worse.
Spagnuolo has an up and down resumé as a defensive coordinator, with his teams ranked in the top-ten of yards allowed three times, and 31st or worse, three times, per Pro Football Reference.
With any hire outside of Nick Saban or Bill Belichick only time will tell how good it is. But it was time for the Chiefs and Sutton to depart no matter who the organization was looking to bring in. And now it’s time for the 59-year-old Spagnuolo to prove he can do just enough to make sure the offense’s 30-plus points per game is enough to reach the Super Bowl.