Kansas City Chiefs: Three reasons for defensive success in 2019
By Kole Berrey
Overhaul of Player Personnel
We can take a step back again and look at a few more of the Chiefs offseason activities. It was clear the defense needed to change, and ton of credit needs to go to Brett Veach for being as active as possible to make that happen. He didn’t sit on his hands and say “Well, we were one offside penalty from the Super Bowl, let’s run it back.”
Much like when the Chiefs front office recognized that the Chiefs offense wasn’t going to win under Alex Smith, and then traded up for Mahomes, Veach realized this defense wasn’t going to get the job done. So he went to work.
After hiring Spagnuolo, Veach worked closer with the new defensive coordinator to highlight what he needed to make his defense work.
Enter Tyrann Mathieu.
Mathieu was viewed as the key piece in revamping this defense. His ability to cover tight ends at safety, but also wide receivers as a corner, rush the passer, play the run, and cause turnovers was sought after by Spags. He wanted to use Mathieu all over the field, unleasing him on offenses week in and week out. They didn’t stop at the Honey Badger, either.
After releasing Justin Houston and Eric Berry and trading away Dee Ford, the Chiefs had draft capital and cap space. They turned that into a monster Frank Clark trade and extension, an underrated signing in Bashaud Breeland, and the drafting of Juan Thornhill.
They had a few smaller moves as well, like bringing in Damien Wilson at linebacker and Morris Claiborne at corner. Then they went and signed Alex Okafor at defensive end and swung a trade for Emmanul Ogbah to continue the shift of player personnel.
This resulted in a staggering eight new starters all along the Chiefs defense. Chris Jones now got to play next to a stud in Frank Clark. The Chiefs secondary went from having Josh Shaw and Eric Murray at safety to Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill.
All over the field, there were new names along the Chiefs defense, and they were ready to re-write a narrative that they had all heard so many times before, “If only the Chiefs had an average defense….”