Kansas City Chiefs: How new safety Tyrann Mathieu fits into defense

Let’s start this off by being absolutely clear about something; Tyrann Mathieu is an absolute dog.

Mathieu has been a personal favorite of mine, and he was atop of my free agent wish list for the Chiefs last year. Instead, he opted to to sign a one year, $7 million deal with the Houston Texans. That ended up being a steal for the Texans, as Mathieu ended up playing 99% of the teams defensive snaps.

According to PFF (as indicated by the tweet above), last year was Mathieu’s third highest grade out of his six overall seasons. That is important for a few reasons.

Firstly, the Chiefs signed Mathieu to a three-year deal. Any rapid decline in play would’ve been alarming due to the length of the contract.

Secondly, the Chiefs need help everywhere, and with Mathieu having a high grade while also playing 300+ snaps at three different positions, he can be plugged in all over the defense and have a high impact. That will be priceless considering how much help the Chiefs need on that side of the football.

Mathieu is obviously still producing at a high level, and it seeems as if Veach valued him more than both Thomas and Collins because of his versatility. This is key, because the elephant in the room is that the Chiefs still employ safety Eric Berry.

Can these two coexist? That is the million, or rather 14 million, dollar question.