Kansas City Chiefs: Anthony Hitchens has to play better in 2019

By Josh Michaels | Jul 4, 2019

Anthony Hitchens #53 of the Kansas City Chiefs (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Chiefs had high hopes for linebacker Anthony Hitchens when they signed him to a five-year contract worth $45 million in 2018. Hitchens needs to improve in 2019.

Anthony Hitchens showed signs of being a good linebacker, especially when it came to leading the Kansas City Chiefs in tackles with 135 (81 solo). However, if we’re discussing last season in its entirety, he did not play up to that contract.

Hitchens spent the first four seasons of his career with the Dallas Cowboys, where he played in a modern 4-3 scheme and really made a name for himself opposite Sean Lee. He started in 48 games for Dallas and amassed 312 tackles. His best season was 2017, where he finished second on the team with 84 tackles and the Cowboys didn’t want to see him go.

The story goes that Chiefs General Manager, Brett Veach tried to make a trade for Hitchens during training camp of 2017 season. The Cowboys and Chiefs couldn’t reach an agreement and following that season, the Chiefs aggressively made their pitch to the young linebacker in free agency. Hitchens inked that ridiculous contract and was expected to be the heir apparent to Chiefs legend, Derrick Johnson.

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Hitchens was asked to come into a scheme he had never played in– Bob Sutton’s 3-4 — and help make calls like he had never been asked to do before either. Sutton and the Chiefs had Hitchens out of his comfort zone from the start and rather than reading and reacting, he was being asked to think too much and it cost the Chiefs dearly in a lot of different situations.

Don’t mistake this as me making up excuses for Hitchens either.

The Chiefs paid him a lot of money to play linebacker and he should do it at a high level. However, with the way Veach has signed and drafted defensive players the last couple seasons it was obvious that Hitchens was out of place in that scheme. He was always meant to come to Kansas City and help run a 4-3 defense.

Which brings me to the point that now he’s in Steve Spagnuolo’s new 4-3, he needs to have a much better season in 2019. Hitchens had mentioned in his press conference during OTA’s that he’s way more comfortable in this scheme and it’s a lot less thinking and a lot more running.

"Less thinking and you can just get out there and run. I’m going to take advantage of it and in my eyes, this is going to be my best year yet."

Hitchens is certainly surrounded with a lot more talent in 2019, especially up front with his big guys. The additions of Frank Clark, Emmanuel Ogbah, and Alex Okafor will help bring support in the run game and also allow Hitchens and his other linebackers to run free. The hope too is that Coach Spags doesn’t ask him to cover as much either, especially down the field.

Hitchens was downright awful last season in terms of coverage. His range has got to stay within the line of scrimmage to ten yards off. Anything beyond that is a bad mismatch for the Chiefs especially if it’s man-to-man coverage.

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I’m personally excited to see what Hitchens can bring to the table now that he’s in his comfort zone schematically and things are less complicated.

In order for the Chiefs to reach their Super Bowl goals, players like Anthony Hitchens need to make an impact on this defense. He needs to earn that lofty contract and have a big season in 2019.

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