Chiefs hire Steve Spagnuolo as new defensive coordinator

[TLO]

The #Chiefs are hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator, sources say. The former #Giants DC and interim HC/#Rams HC began his NFL coaching career as an #Eagles assistant under Andy Reid. Now rejoins Big Red in KC.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 24, 2019

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Lol so when the Chiefs actually did what you want you call it getting bailed out?

They signed Williams, a good #2 in Miami, despite already having Ware.

Also, I don’t get some of you guys obsession with Amerson, considering he never played a down for us in the regular season.

Because he was so bad in the preseason. It's just the nature of this place.

Amerson was one of the best CBs in the league before he was one of the worst. He's EXACTLY the kind of guy you sign to a prove it deal and see if he can return to form. It was a great low risk, high reward move which didn't pan out - a lot of them don't. But to act like it was some big boneheaded move is just silly. It was a GREAT move.

The bad move was not drafting somebody behind him to help. Instead when Amerson flamed out, they had to go back to the scrap heap for Scandrick.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Look at the free agent CBs from that year though.

Malcom Butler, Trumaine Johnson and Kyle Fuller were your top 3. They reportedly offered a deal to Fuller and he signed with the Bears.

mcaj just doesn’t ****ing get it dude.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

But they have shown patterns of what you just described....

No contingency plan if it does not work. They just acquire a buy low piece and move on to the next or go months completely ignoring an issue until its too late

No contingency for Amerson
No contingency for Berry
No contingency for Hunt offseason issues. (they got bailed out by a scrap heap signing)

I think we're all over the place in terms of the specific circumstances of each issue, and I don't think any of them are comparable to the Amerson situation. The Amerson thing has to do with filling a gaping huge hole in the starting lineup. Hell, you could even say it had to do with filling a self-manufactured gaping huge hole in the starting lineup.

The team had good reason to believe Berry and Hunt would be fine for the year based on the knowledge they had at the time. And in Eric Berry's case, the team DID spend a 4th round pick on a deep safety and a 3rd round pick on a weird tweener-type who could roam inside the box as a 3rd safety, even if that wasn't his listed position. And then they also did bring in Markus Golden to round out depth with some vet presence, more to bolster the bottom of the depth chart than to provide a suitable starting option in the case of Berry not being healthy. Yeah, they could have brought in one of those cheap veteran safeties with starting experience like Iloka, but they didn't. And even if they did, would you have labeled them an actual legit contingency plan?

And in Hunt's case, the team apparently was confident they didn't need to worry about his legal stuff based on what they were told. And if Hunt's playing status were in greater jeopardy last offseason, what would you propose the team do differently? They had a bunch of vet backups that they brought in and Spencer Ware was also healthy. It would have been dumb to spend big money on a backup RB even if it was looking grim for Hunt in the weeks after the police report in February of last year.

For whatever reason, due to misinformation, misdiagnosis, mishandling of the cap, or other reasons, the Chiefs didn't lock down their depth with known or at least promising guys at safety and RB. That's because they only get so many draft picks and only have so much room in the cap. It's the same problem that EVERY team faces. Yes, even the Patriots. Actually, ESPECIALLY the Patriots-- that's basically EXCLUSIVELY how the Patriots acquire their contingency plans. In any given year at the beginning of the offseason, you look at a Patriots roster and you see nothing but unprovens and question marks.

Those are different situations from the Chiefs depending on Amerson to be good when they decided to pass on CB talent until the 6th round of the draft last year. And it's way different than the Chiefs taking training camp fliers on disappointing young players from other teams and having them ride the bench until they maybe show something good or at least better than what is currently on the roster.

[mcaj22]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Look at the free agent CBs from that year though.

Malcom Butler, Trumaine Johnson and Kyle Fuller were your top 3. They reportedly offered a deal to Fuller and he signed with the Bears.

What about the draft? Breeland Speaks over any secondary player?

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

What about the draft? Breeland Speaks over any secondary player?

Jesus Christ man....that's been mentioned multiple ****ing times. We all pretty much questioned the pick when it happened.

The question becomes.....would Sutton have started him? Look how long it took for Speaks to get any meaningful snaps.

[mcaj22]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

Big text placeholder .

What reasons did they have to assume Berry was going to be 100 percent healthy based on his injury and health history. How is his resume NOT a red flag that screams: better have a contingency plan. Especially when staring safeties sat on the market for cheap. They ended up having to circle the wagons in desperation by signing Ron Parker in the 11th hour. How is that not oversight?

And Kareem Hunt? If youre telling me their good reason to believe nothing was wrong was to take his word at face value as gospel in todays climate and not being able to see the video wasnt a red flag then I dont know. Agree to disagree. They struck gold on a good player there anyway so its moot

Amerson is the biggest joker though. You know you cant win that one. Signed in February. Did nothing in FA or the draft. August rolls around, camp breaks, preseason starts...and its oh this guy is really terrible we cant go into the season like this lets bring in a slighlty just as bad bum in Scandrick cause theres nothing left. That position was a liability all year until it took Ward 4 months to learn Suttons complex playbook of a defense that gets beat like a drum.

They didnt have to end up with Scandrick and Parker but they did. They could have easily avoided that.

[mcaj22]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Jesus Christ man....that's been mentioned multiple ****ing times. We all pretty much questioned the pick when it happened.

The question becomes.....would Sutton have started him? Look how long it took for Speaks to get any meaningful snaps.

Well you cant just say heres 5 veteran CBs as the only options to sign which werent realistic when they also could have ya know, drafted one.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

Well you cant just say heres 5 veteran CBs as the only options to sign which werent realistic when they also could have ya know, drafted one.

Ok what corner should they have drafted?

Not a lot of good starting rookie corners around the league this year either. Truth is, Ward was playing as good as any of them could have those last 3 weeks.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

What reasons did they have to assume Berry was going to be 100 percent healthy based on his injury and health history. How is his resume NOT a red flag that screams: better have a contingency plan. Especially when staring safeties sat on the market for cheap. They ended up having to circle the wagons in desperation by signing Ron Parker in the 11th hour. How is that not oversight?

And Kareem Hunt? If youre telling me their good reason to believe nothing was wrong was to take his word at face value as gospel in todays climate and not being able to see the video wasnt a red flag then I dont know. Agree to disagree. They struck gold on a good player there anyway so its moot

Amerson is the biggest joker though. You know you cant win that one. Signed in February. Did nothing in FA or the draft. August rolls around, camp breaks, preseason starts...and its oh this guy is really terrible we cant go into the season like this lets bring in a slighlty just as bad bum in Scandrick cause theres nothing left. That position was a liability all year until it took Ward 4 months to learn Suttons complex playbook of a defense that gets beat like a drum.

They didnt have to end up with Scandrick and Parker but they did. They could have easily avoided that.

Hey, I agree. It was possible we weren't going to have Hunt and Berry. It was also possible they could get ACL'd. Or a nagging hamstring. Or cancer.

At that point you may as well treat it as, "Why didn't we have good depth behind Starter X, because when he got injured we started sucking!"

Because the NFL, that's why. If it were easy to have backup plans and cheap superstars all over the field that we could pencil in and count on being great from the moment they were acquired, then the Chiefs would have a Super Bowl by now.

Some of them you can prepare for better than others. The safety position had a shit ton of money put into it and we did draft dudes in the 3rd and 4th round. And at RB we had some players we've had success with in the past like Ware, and we also had a platoon of random dudes from other teams fighting it out in camp.

NOT the same thing as acquiring Amerson and then waiting until the 6th round to draft a corner.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Ok what corner should they have drafted?

Not a lot of good starting rookie corners around the league this year either. Truth is, Ward was playing as good as any of them could have those last 3 weeks.

I'm still bitter about Josh Jackson, since from Veach's own draft press conference, his 2nd round draft strategy amounted to basically "Breeland Speaks or bust!" If that was his mentality, then he could have used that strategy to move up for Jackson before the Packers took him the pick prior.

That's what I would have done, but for me it's not even about the Chiefs not valuing the player I wanted the way I did. It's more about the guy they DID value that highly such that they traded up to get him.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I'm still bitter about Josh Jackson, since from Veach's own draft press conference, his 2nd round draft strategy amounted to basically "Breeland Speaks or bust!" If that was his mentality, then he could have used that strategy to move up for Jackson before the Packers took him the pick prior.

That's what I would have done, but for me it's not even about the Chiefs not valuing the player I wanted the way I did. It's more about the guy they DID value that highly such that they traded up to get him.

Yea and I liked Jackson and Davis/Oliver too, but the truth is neither one of those guys were making a difference THIS year. Also, like I said, Ward was playing as good as any of those guys would have been.

Here we are a year later still needing a corner, but if we get one and Ward continues to ascend we will be in really good shape. I don’t think Veach handled the position badly as people make it sound. If we hit on one, then you got 3 good young corners on rookie contracts.

At the time, and in hindsight, I would’ve preffered Jessie Bates or Justin Reid, who were great as rookies.

But with the switch to a 4-3 I like the Speaks pick a lot more than I did when we made it. We now have a postion that is perfect for him as opposed to one that doesn’t make any ****ing sense. I firmly believe this was the intention when we made the pick and I’m cautiously optimistic that it looks a lot better in 2019.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I'm still bitter about Josh Jackson, since from Veach's own draft press conference, his 2nd round draft strategy amounted to basically "Breeland Speaks or bust!" If that was his mentality, then he could have used that strategy to move up for Jackson before the Packers took him the pick prior.

That's what I would have done, but for me it's not even about the Chiefs not valuing the player I wanted the way I did. It's more about the guy they DID value that highly such that they traded up to get him.

We may have lucked out on Jackson. In college, he played WAY more zone than man. It remains to be seen if he can play man at a high level in the NFL and with Spags, man corners are going to be an absolute must.

[The Bad Guy]

I'm glad Spags is getting rid of just about all defensive assistants. We haven't really developed a ton of talent on the defensive side and I think the mistakes these players repeatedly make can be attributed some to the coaching.

I'm ready for fresh new ideas on that side.

[Chargem]

I think people who found the Speaks pick totally baffling are stuck in hindsight. The Chiefs went into the draft having dealt with an injured Ford, an injured Houston and giving Frank ****ing Zombo snaps in critical games. Another pass rusher in the 2nd round was totally fine.

It was also sort of fine that he was a project, the Chiefs didn't expect Mahomes to blow the top off the league. They thought this was a learning year and they could do a 2 year rebuild of the defense, so a project was fine.

I really don't agree with the trade up though. The Chiefs could have found value in multiple areas, so I have no idea why they didn't just wait it out and improve the defense elsewhere if Speaks went before their pick.

The crazy one for me was Maurice Hurst. Why do you not take him in the 4th? He was a high first rounder with a question mark due to a heart issue, that's 100% worth a punt with your 4th rounder just in case you get a 1st round talent out of it.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

I think it's smart, really. I think you have a better chance of getting a talented but underachieving player on the right track than turning late round talent into a frontline starter. As I've said in regards to Spagnuolo's defensive rankings, sometimes a situation just isn't a good one. Change of scenery can be all the difference.

In theory it's smart, but the vetting and execution need to get better.