Kansas City Chiefs need to stop wasting time at linebacker

For a passing league and the Kansas City Chiefs being a high scoring team, the idea of the Chiefs using valuable assets at linebacker is laughable. In most cases, the Chiefs’ answers are already on the roster.

This offseason the Kansas City Chiefs want to find a coverage linebacker. Now, I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m also not a dummy and I ask you, what in the world is a coverage linebacker?

If your response to that is a safety, you would be correct. The Chiefs are hoping to find a linebacker capable of playing like a safety. Perhaps they should – and sit down because this is going to be wild – the Chiefs should ask safeties and corners to cover because they are better. WHAT!?!?

Two years ago, the Chiefs hoped Dorian O’Daniel was up to the task. He was solid against Cincinnati, who by the way haven’t recovered from that game, and then last year they traded for Darron Lee. They signed Damien Wilson.

None worked out as a coverage linebacker, though Damien Wilson was fine when asked to – you know – play linebacker. He’s not great but, again, at linebacker in a passing league, it’s like worrying about running backs.

If the Chiefs are truly worried about getting ‘coverage’ out of the linebacker position, then they need to ask players that can cover, and they have that on their roster. I’m looking at you Daniel Sorensen. Is he a great safety, no. However, and we saw a bit of this in the Divisional Round playoff game against the Texans, he has good instincts and is a solid tackler when asked to so around the line of scrimmage.

While I’m not his biggest fan, if you want to find a player to ‘cover’ and play that type of linebacker position, he’s a far better fit and likely far more productive than a player that has spent their entire career around the line of scrimmage focusing primarily on stopping the run.

Also, the Chiefs are deep at safety, and that’s a good thing. Armani Watts is solid depth and may be asked to step in early in the season as Juan Thornhill recovers from knee surgery. Tyrann Mathieu can do a bit of everything including play cover linebacker. I’ve highlighted a couple safeties that have the size to potentially step into the position of outside/cover linebacker in a pass happy NFL.

Investing in the safety position should be far more important than linebacker. Find a couple of good, physical middle linebackers and then a bunch of safeties that can help both in passing coverage and run stopping. As the league goes to more open looks, fewer running backs and more receivers, the team needs to look at safeties and not linebackers.

A name in the draft the Chiefs should look at is Southern Illinois’ Jeremy Chinn. Measuring at 6’3″ and 221 pounds at the combine, the small school product certainly has the size to help play closer to the line of scrimmage, but has the quickness (4.45 forty-yard dash) to blitz as a linebacker or cover as a safety.

If the Kansas City Chiefs are going to look at finding someone that plays linebacker, this is where the league is headed.