Sam Madison was a starting CB for the Dolphins forever, he was the other guy when Surtain was there.

He was really good.

and he was the sort of guy that usually makes a good coach. Not all that physically gifted; he got by on being smart and fundamentally sound. he was the 'Kevin Ross' to Surtain's 'Albert Lewis'.

Why not. Fresh guy that's motivated to be a great coach. We need that to teach our guys. Give them a damn attitude.

I just want coaches and players that hate losing as much as Mahomes does. I think if we find those guys everything else will work out.

Houston and Berry say the right things, but they've been on so many one and done teams and now crappy defenses that they seem to be content with just playing out the string. We need a Ray Lewis type with endless motor who's not afraid to jump on guys for taking plays off or giving a crappy tackling effort.

Agreed 100%.

And you can't have some guy out there yelling at everyone and then turning around and playing like shit; that isn't going to work.

:clap: Well said- excellent comparison.

Merritt coaching safeties and Madison coaching corners. Sounds good to me.

Indeed

If all these hirings flesh out, there will be a level of accountability on the defensive side of the ball not matched in years. It will challenge the offense and Reid too, which isn’t a bad thing. Reid can get comfy, and the late-season and AFCCG playcalling was not his best work of the season. Hopefully Spags can light a fire and keep Reid focused on how teams can attack his tendencies. I expect a talent infusion on defense, and an urgent mindset in reaching the Superbowl considering how this early offseason has materialized.

I wish they would announce our coaching staff. There can’t be that many more spots to fill

What I've read has Merritt as DB coach and Madison as his assistant

https://247sports.com/college/rutger...129132724/Amp/

Another D asst gone Jay Valai spent just one year in KC coming from Georgia. Was DA/QC last year heading to Rutgers to coach CBs

Harris was with the Eagles early in Reid’s career there (early in playing career) and of course Spags was there with them. Harris spent 2011 on IR with the rams in Spags last year of being HC there. 2012 Harris gets coaching internship with the Dolphins and Their HC then Joe Philbin. Safe to assume Spags could see that coming (Harris getting into coaching). Possible that it’s set up as:

Dave Merritt DBs
Al Harris Secondary/CBs
Sam Maddison Defensive Asst/QC

Just because they are both corners doesn’t mean they both wouldn’t fit together. Merritt has a background more with safety. And Spags will heavily influence that group the most. Madison is pretty lacking of having much coaching experience so I’m not so sure they would give him asst DBs right off the bat. Probably D/QC first and let him work his way in to coach with CBs. More entry level and not skipping any steps

Here’s what is left with the old staff on D:

Harris-like I say, could go anyway staying or going. From a past experience with both Reid and Spags I would say he probably has good odds. Or someone like the bengals who are having trouble finding a DC to take their job could hire Harris to their main DB job like Merritt just got in a KC.

Terry Bradden is the current QC coach, one of them last year on D. He came from Bethune Cookman and was a really young Florida HS HC before that. Maybe he follows Sutton to Atlanta. He had a QB/offense coaching background before coming to KC. Might move him to offensive QC if there is a need. Plus to my knowledge he had no Reid, Sutton, or any ties to the chiefs before getting hired. Neither did Jay Valaii coming to KC from Georgia.

Adam Whittingham, his dad Kyle is the longtime HC at Utah. Kyle and Reid are great friends. This Defensive asst role and title he has is entry level and his first coaching experience. He was a special teamer and snapper so he could get slid over to special teams QC or whatever under Toub. Maybe even the personnel dept something like old Ried friend and coach Juan Castillo his kid was a DB at Iowa and UDFA spending the whole camp with KC before final cutdown. Few years later now Reid gets him in personnel to college scouting coordinator, pretty much entry level. Brad Childress’ son Kyle once held the same job in KC. But in Adam’s case I see Reid finding a spot for him somewhere just won’t force it to have him on D if Spags prefers someone else.

Then of course Britt Reid. If I’m Andy I simply want him to humble himself and also praise his growth as he has done a pretty good job. I’d have him assisting both DL and LB with the title of Defensive Asst/Front Seven or whatever just don’t give him the title of asst DL and make it look like a demotion. There’s a big benefit to letting him split time working under Daly and House honing his DL skill even more and starting to learn LB. Either or both of Daly and House could be short term stays to potential promotions out of KC after just one year. In that case it’s very handy to have Britt to go to on the DL or if he’s taken to it and there’s confidence he’s ready for the LB job in the case that House leaves. It would be more of a learning year and not doing as much coaching and not running his own meeting/film room but it would be great for his career and show that he’s unselfish. Something like that is what I’m guessing but like anything else you never know.

That’s the last 4 coaches on D. With no announcements so far and today’s news of Valaii headed to Rutgers I can see Reid giving Spags full control over D staff hires with the agreement that anyone they don’t want to retain they will keep them on the team website looking like they intend to retain them while behind the scenes they are doing this to make them look better while they urge them to search quickly for their next job and don’t have to get fired.

It’s getting closer to the official announcement I would think but that’s my thoughts on what’s holding things up.

I think they’re waiting until all the coaches are signed then they will announce them all at once

I'm hoping DB's will be taught to understand when the ball is in the air, it is as much theirs as it is the receivers'. As such, if they turn to see the ball, they might make a play on it and might not get flagged nearly as often. That will also cut down on back shoulder throws to receivers they are covering. It's so basic and so frustrating to watch the Sutton clown show year after year. Also, as the smallest players on the field, try tackling below the knees. Watch some film of DJ and EB. There's no upside to tackling above the waste. Take out their legs and be done with it. There's also nothing wrong with more than one guy making a tackle. Watch Ravens film for details.

Our defense has been so soft, so poorly coached for so long it seems impossible they could ever become a good defense again. The "bend but don't break" philosophy is passive and weak. The goal is to get the ball back to your offense as soon as possible. How did Sutton not get this? All three phases of the game are meant to be played in attack mode. Sutton seemed to think his defense on the field losing time of possession was a good thing.

When they finally announce the new staff, I hope it will reflect what Veach said last offseason-- that an aggressive mindset would be brought back to the defense. Credit to Clark for putting up the money and credit to Reid for hiring over his son for a new DL coach-- we now have an absolute stud.

It's all on Veach now. The QB is in place and the coaching staff is in place. It's all about the roster.

I like this post. A lot!

Great post! It honestly makes it that much more exciting to see who we land in the draft and free agency.

Wellbye

Magnificent post. As to the first point, they can also watch any Chiefs defense film from the 1990's and learn the same lesson, and I hope they do. Back in the day, if it wasn't a straight man on man situation down the field, EVERYBODY was getting a piece of that ass. In addition to making sure that the opponent was going nowhere, there was also an element of punishment to be meted out. We need more of that.


As to point #2, I've been saying that for months and it's precisely what I mean when I say "we haven't been playing Chiefs defense for 9 years". Peeholi did a LOT of short and medium term damage to this franchise. The 3-4 and Romeo Crennell were his "long term masterpiece", and **** that fat clown in his m00bs for it.

I feel some big breaking news nearing. Not sure why - just a feeling I have.

Agreed. Suttons read and react crap is for losers. He didn't game plan worth a damn or have much of one at all. Gotta give different looks and disguise formations, blitzers and run some stunts. Sutton was so blahhh and weak. No attitude from him at all and that reflected to the players.

I hope you are right. Are you sure it's not the after-effects of Mom's delicious home-cooking? Because I remember those photos, and I would certainly feel VERY good after eating a plate!

I would feel beyond nice.

Haha - no I'm doing low carb - as are my parents. Her cooking has been reduced to crustless quiche'

Well, whatever the case, I'm sure it's exceptional. :)

I think Watts will fit in Spags defense very nicely

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I can&#39;t wait to see <a href="https://twitter.com/GGPR_BANGER5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GGPR_BANGER5</a> at full health. Already had a sack on this drive and was one second away from another one <a href="https://t.co/sWGboZxTLJ">pic.twitter.com/sWGboZxTLJ</a></p>&mdash; Daniel Harms (@D_Harms19) <a href="https://twitter.com/D_Harms19/status/1097126740923699206?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The player that’s going to benefit the most here is going to be O’daniel.

Johnathon Cassilas and Kawika Mitchell are LBs that played the Will for Spags and saw big rises in production under him. I feel like O’daniel is gonna be a great fit for that Will spot thanks to his closing speed.

I'll see you O'Daniel and raise you a Hitchens.

See also: Breeland Speaks.

And possibly saving the career of a Tanoh Kpassgnon. There is still great physical potential there, and while trying to learn OLB for 2 years probably has only helped things like lateral movement, he was not an OLB.

I can definitely see Hitchens. He was great in a 4-3 in Dallas, and I’d like to see Speaks start as the strong side DE (I’m not for sure on if Spags designates and flips his DEs) opposite Ford, with Houston playing the Sam.

I think Kpass will improve but won’t see the field much, but I think O’Daniel will really come on and be extremely productive.

I think the guy you could have more potential at possibly saving the career of would be Ragland if he can learn how to play both the Mike and Sam as a rotation guy.

I thought Spags corners like to drive up field then release. Mostly cover 2/cover3/cover1 zone concepts? Like Corey Webster and Aaron Ross for the Giants.

Though you could be a little more physical in 2007 then you can today at the position.

I don't think there's any way we're able to line up with Houston and Ford both here in 2019.

Depends on if Houston agrees to a restructure. I’d prefer to keep Ford over Houston though and then we could figure out the Sam position in the draft.

I'm interested to see how much time they're going to spend processing and evaluating players like Kpass, Speaks, and Hitchens before deciding to roll or cut bait. The tendency in the past has been to hold on to things for too long or for no good reason. I'm hoping this staff has the ability to ascertain sound and correct decisions quickly, and then to act on them quickly.

There’s a guy that may fall to us in the 2nd that I think would be a good fit at that Sam Spot. Brian Burns from FSU.

Me too. Speaks is a natural fit. Kpass is a natural DE; let's see if he can just play without having to learn a bunch of coverage shit.

Hitch isn’t going anywhere due to his contract. Speaks too due to his cheap salary and draft position.

KPass might get dealt in camp if he continues to underperform.

I know this is a conspiracy theory, but I still feel like Andy Reid was building toward someone else's defense. Either he had confidence Sutton could run a 4-3 similar to Jim Johnson's. Or he was hoping someone like Spags, McDermott, Rivera would become available. Hitch, Speaks, O'Daniel are better fits for this type of defense vs Sutton's. The coaches complaining about Sutton misusing Kpass says something too. Feel like 2018 was supposed to be a transition year for the D. They just never expected the offense to be this damn good so fast.

I know this is a conspiracy theory, but I still feel like Andy Reid was building someone else's defense. Either he had confidence Sutton could run a 4-3 similar to Jim Johnson's. Or he was hoping someone like Spags, McDermott, Rivera would become available. Hitch, Speaks, O'Daniel are better fits for this type of defense vs Sutton's. The coaches complaining about Sutton misusing Kpass says something too. Feel like 2018 was supposed to be a transition year for the D. They just never expected the offense to be this damn good so fast.

Nibiru, yellowstone ?

Dude, I've had that same feeling. But then i just kept thinking to myself, nah, Bob Sutton is a god damn moron.

There was obviously something at play. You don't draft or acquire personnel suited for a 4-3 unless you're planning on heading that way. I'm thinking that Reid and Clark probably had some serious talks about the defense during the 2018 off season and probably decided that new blood was going to be a priority if Sutton didn't start trending back upward in '18. But I think more than anything that Reid's #1 priority for the upcoming 2018 season was to get to work with his Uber-QB and begin putting together a complete vision for his offense with Mahomes as the centerpiece. And with that in mind, he probably DIDN'T want to transition in 2018 and have to juggle TWO massive undertakings in one season.

Clark and Reid probably both agreed that a switch back to a 4-3 would be a more copacetic tandem with Andy's vision for the team, and that BDB had proven itself a road to nowhere for the Chiefs.
My best guess is that Andy, with Clark's blessing, began a dialogue with Spags and maybe some of the other names you mentioned probably around February or March of 18, just trying to get a casual feel for who might have interest. And armed with enough feelers to move forward, instructed Veach to start acquiring the talent necessary. Even if those players might struggle or could only be used effectively in certain packages for the time-being, they would be in the house, signed, and have a full season as Chiefs under their belts in preparation for what was coming down the pike.

So they got players that didn't fit scheme and wasted a whole season?

Eh I think it’s pretty obvious that they could have drafted guys with the switch to a 4-3 in mind. Our entire first two days looked like it.

If that was at all true they would have switched last year if they thought it would have been a wasted year anyways.

If that's how you choose to look at it. I don't think that's quite accurate.

i do think that it does appear that there was a pretty major groundshift happening with both the offense and the defense; and that perhaps Reid didn't want to completely change both in the same offseason, preferring to manage the offensive change with Mahomes-and nobody thought he was going to be THAT good THAT soon.

I don't think they were talking to other coaches behind Sutton's back or anything, but I think a change to the 4-3 was something they were thinking about last offseason.

You keep coming back to that but as I've already said, the players wouldn't have been intended to be a straight-up waste of resources. Maybe the whole notion of giving Sutton a last chance is false and they had already decided to put the wheels in motion. Maybe Spags was Andy's guy all along but wanted to take a year off. Maybe Andy encouraged him to take that year off after not taking one for himself when he had a chance, who knows?

Or maybe Veach is a moron who wanted to put square pegs in to round holes? Yeah, I buy that even less.

THANK you.

Not if they thought( like everyone else under God's sun )that 2018 was going to be a transition year for the offense, hmm???

And when you look at it from THAT perspective, the only reasonable perspective available at the time, it's makes PERFECT sense.

There is no one in all of mankind who expected the Chiefs to come out swinging gangbusters with a first year starter at QB. Only by the time time pre season is wrapping up could you have anything resembling some certainty that things MIGHT be better than you anticipated, but even then it's not a given.

FWIW Mellinger was on The Border Patrol after the playoff loss and talked about this. Said they thought each of those guys were extremely scheme versatile.

Speaks wasn’t as bad as people thought as OLB. Nnandi was really good at NT and DE and DOD fit the money backer position extremely well aka be a LB sized safety.

Then they grossly underestimated themselves and might have costthe team a super bowl.

Maybe one player that fit the scheme better makes a play to win the afccc.

They should've traded up a couple more spots and taken a db instead of speaks.

man, you're right. We should totally just fire them all.

Yeah. That's not what I said at all.

They made a mistake imo. That's it.

So the first three years of mahomes was one where he sat on the bench, the second a transition year for the offense and the third a transition year for the defense. If that's true then that is absolutley disgusting

well, you know...

I mean, how often do you lay out a plan, and then proceed with it..and it goes exactly how you planned it?

Not ****ing often, right?

And how often when it goes differently than you planned, is it worse than you figured?

****ing usually, right?

Now-how ****ing often does the plan go so far beyond your wildest hopes that you can't believe your good fortune?

****ing never, right? **** me. Looka that. Kid threw 50 ****ing TD's and no look passes and ****ing left-handed shit, what the ****. Holy shit.

Well, you shrug and laugh and roll with it.

My thoughts exactly.

And then you look back and say "damn maybe we should've tried harder to fix that d this year" while watching the patriots win another super bowl.

What are you, Eric Winston?

You really think it would've been wise to completely change both the offensive and defensive systems in a kid's first year as starting QB?

You're dithguthting.

Because it's Madden and you can fix everything all at once.


They didn't think Mahomes was going to be THAT GOOD. NOBODY DID.

They didn't think the defense was going to be THAT BAD.

it is what it is, but it's pretty hard to second guess the management and head coach when they just drafted and produced a second year NFL MVP QB because they also didn't completely revamp the defense simulataneously.

I mean that's pretty silly, really.

The defense wouldn't have been worse this year if they did

That's how I see it. And it's not even about the kid, it's about Reid saying "no way in **** am I overseeing that while trying to get this kid coached up, ready, AND work on this play book".

in retrospect, perhaps.

I think it's clear they weren't expecting it to be that bad. So you're all correct in that mistakes were made; we can disagree on what they were.

And the 4-3 switch is all speculation, there's no inside information. It sure does look like a switch was in the works, though. It would explain a lot.

But who knows.

And would be a year ahead in the transition

Pretty much. I'd love to know why we kept Sutton around another year instead of just jumping into the deep end if the transition to the 4-3 was on the docket this while time.

you ever notice how a lot of the shitty teams in the NFL stay shitty for like decades even though they get the top draft picks?

You ever notice how they operate? They careen wildly from one change to another; QB's last a year, coaches maybe 2, totally different schemes, overhaul everything on the fly and then do it all again next year because it didn't work this year.

There's something to be said for being measured, and careful, and consistent.

Spags was available last offseason, too. Reid didn't hire him. He didn't even bring him aboard with some weirdo title like, "special defense projects coordinator" or whatever it was that Childress and Chris Ault were for the offense a few years ago.

That has no relevance to this conversation at all. Shitty owners wildly flail like that because they don't have a plan in place and end up miring their team in mediocrity at best. Absolutely no reason we had to keep Sutton and his scheme around another season for the sake of being "measured, careful, and consistent." That shit clearly didn't work, and it never did work when it came time for the playoffs.

It's absolutely relevant when they knew they were starting a first year QB in a revamped offense built around him. To have BOTH sides of the ball in disarray could potentially have been disastrous.

So if the plan was-let's get Patrick a year in this offense, see what we've got, and we'll look at a defensive overhaul next year.

In fact, I remember seeing somewhere that Veach had said they were re-building the defense and that it was likely a 'two year' rebuild. so here's year 2.

I think A)you guys are still just reacting emotionally to the let-down of being so close but still no SB and B) reacting in a pre-PM2 mode. This was year ONE of Patrick Mahomes. you can't really complain because the plan was emphasizing putting Mahomes in the best situation to succeed. Yeah the defense sucked. So they'll go fix that now. You really can't have total chaos on both sides of the ball. Changing one completely and then the other the next season makes a lot of organizational sense.

I'm done arguing about it; I'm not going to convince you, you just see what you want and don't consider anything else. But who cares? Think what you want.

Who gives a shit if it was disastrous? You're writing off the season with your logic anyway. "Let's look at a defensive overhaul next season." You're implying that there's clearly something fundamentally broken with your defense, enough that you need to completely overhaul it, you've acknowledged it, and yet you're holding off a year because of the new offense and QB? What?

Don't forget the panic over "not getting a SB before the rookie contract runs out"(!)

Man it's terrible to have such problems, isn't it?

nobody publicly acknowledged anything as far as scheme or coaching staff. Veach said somewhere something about a 2 year rebuild but I don't remember context.

doesn't matter, I'm glad you don't run the team, get off my shit.

You believe what you want to, man.

Wut

look.
It's all speculation. I don't know anything more than anyone else.

If you don't think that organizations have plans in place for several years out...well, I don't know what to tell you. There's only so much you can do in one offseason and in one season. I'm sure there was a plan; I don't know for a fact what it was. Whatever it was, it got the team 6 ****ing inches from a SB and a 23 year old MVP QB.

So you can complain about it if you want, but you sound pretty stupid.

Unless you want to mortgage the future, you can't really do a defensive rebuild in one year; it's gonna take a couple of drafts. I don't give a **** who you are or what scheme you want to run; if you're making a scheme change, it's probably going to be ugly for a year at least until you can get enough pieces in place.

Belichick himself switched from a 3-4 to a 4-3; not because his defense was totally shit, just because he felt it was becoming more difficult to get players to fit the 3-4 with half the league running it.

so this extreme idea that they KNEW the defense was going to be historically bad and ignored it doesn't hold water. It was worse than they thought, it didn't go to plan. I'm sure they thought Berry was going to be healthy all year too. Shit happens.

They didn't know Mahomes was going to be THAT GOOD. They didn't think the defense would be THAT BAD. They knew they needed some more bodies on that side, and knew it would take another draft to get there. That's just logic, man.

But you think what you want to. You're not going to change your mind even if there was factual evidence to the contrary. I have an opinion; it's theory and conjecture. You have an opinion, and you're not changing it no matter what. So whatever. Do your thing.

Having a defense that sucked didn't put mahomes in the best position to succeed.

Yes, well, as we've already been over....and over....and over...

clearly, things didn't go according to plan.

They ****ed up the moment they decided to retain Sutton for another year. ****ing despise that useless sack of shit on Pioli levels.

I'm no fan.

I'm not really into the 3-4 at this point in time in the NFL anyway; I think you need LB'ers that can cover and in the 3-4 your LB'ers have to take on too many OL so your ILB'ers at least tend to be bigger and not cover guys. So I like the 4 man line as it allows you to play smaller faster cover-backers, which makes more sense to me with the way the league's going. Also- with teams playing so much nickel, it makes more sense for your base personnel to be closer to that anyway. You're only switching one guy to go to nickel, and the skillsets of your other LB'ers already match.

And I hated how Sutton never made adjustments; and I hated that he insisted on doing dumb shit like having Kpass and Speaks try to cover Rb's in the flat; and Nelson and Scandrick one on one deep with no over the top safety help. And if they safeties just didn't know they were supposed to be there, well, that's the coaching staff's fault too.

so yeah. **** Sutton. **** the 3-4.

Well when your plan seems half assed i'm not sure what is expected.

well, do your plans always work out?

This one came within six inches.

That's pretty close.

I mean, shit happens.

With that personnel, I don't think they should've been that bad. There's a lot of #1's, #2's, and #3's on the field. It's not bottom feeder talent.

Clearly, they misjudged somewhere.

Mahomes had one of the five or so best seasons that a QB has ever had in the NFL during this first season as a starter. No one could foresee that.

Also telling of just how atrocious the decision to keep Sutton around was. Mahomes had a season like that and his defense failed him at the end.

As it worked out, yes.