Kansas City Chiefs: 3 questions for Steve Spagnuolo

Why are players constantly out of place?

From what we know, Steve Spagnuolo runs a very complicated defense. However, it would appear to be to the team’s detriment. Every game it seems there are a handful of plays where an offensive player is wide open and that there was some sort of miscommunication.

For example, go back to Marquise Brown’s touchdown in the third quarter of the Chiefs-Ravens game. There was no one within 10 yards of Brown and cornerback Charvarius Ward seemed to second guess himself mid-play which allowed him to get as open as he was.

That type of play seems to happen to the Chiefs very often.

Furthermore, many attributed a lot of the defensive confusion in week 1 to not having Tyrann Mathieu who is the pseudo secondary coordinator, but even in week 2 when Mathieu was back in the lineup, there was a lot of not knowing where to be.

That’s a red flag.

There are some new players in this defense, but there’s no excuse for the veterans still having miscues in year three under Spagnuolo. Whether it truly is on the players or Spagnuolo is putting too much on his guys at the moment, it’s clear they need to simplify the calls and assignments and let the players do what they do best.

Don’t put Nick Bolton in coverage, don’t put Dan Sorenson on an athletic tight end, and let your physical corners play physical. Then, as the players get more comfortable, you can start to implement more of your philosophies.