Kansas City Chiefs: Who won first week of free agency?

Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid, left, and General Manager Brett Veach, right, introduce safety Tyrann Mathieu in the Stram Theater in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 14, 2019. The Chiefs signed Mathieu to a three-year deal reportedly worth $42 million. (Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images) /

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Interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images) /

Steve Spagnuolo, Reid’s handpicked successor to the ousted Bob Sutton, had immediate success as a defensive coordinator back in 2007 and 2008.

Leading the Giants defense, he managed the stifle the Patriots high-flying, record-setting offense, helping New York emerge victorious in Super Bowl XLII.

Under Spagnuolo in 2007, the Giants finished seventh in yards allowed and 17th in points allowed. The next season, while the team didn’t win the Super Bowl, the defense improved in both categories, finishing fifth in both yards and points allowed. That enabled him to land the St. Louis Rams head coaching gig.

Since then, things haven’t gone according to plan.

The Rams canned him after going 10-38 in three seasons. He lasted just one season as the defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints (32nd in yards allowed, 31 in points allowed).

Two years later, he went back to the Giants, and while his unit finished tenth in yards and second in points in 2016, they were a disaster in 2015 and 2017. After a brief four-game stint as interim head coach (they went 1-3) to close 2017, he wasn’t retained, and sat out all of last year.

But hey: Sutton he isn’t.

Seriously, though, trust Reid. Spagnuolo worked for Reid from 1999-2006 on the Eagles staff, so Reid knows him. Plus, Reid’s smart enough to know that this defense needed a massive overhaul, and quickly, to get them a shot at the Super Bowl during the cheap years of Patrick Mahomes’ contract.

And with what Veach has done so far in free agency, Spagnuolo looks like a winner. Gone are over-hyped byproducts of the former defensive scheme, the 3-4; in are guys who can immediately adapt to the new scheme, the 4-3. Gone is an overpriced, oft-injured safety; in is a well-compensated, less-injured safety. Expect the unit to get even more prime pieces to puzzle in the draft and these latter weeks of free agency.

In short, Spagnuolo is getting everything he needs in order to succeed. In his first year on the job, he couldn’t have asked for much more.

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