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

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

The chiefs gave enormous trade comp for Frank Clark and obj. Theres no reason to believe kc couldn't offer something aggressive or that Carolina wouldn't entertain it. We stayed disciplined this season because we don't have red fire emergency to win now at all costs. We are in a new world where we can afford to be much pickier.

The Chiefs gave up too much for Clark (1st and 2nd) and appear to have learned their lesson. The Chiefs gave up the equivalent of a 2nd round pick for OBJ.

If you think Burns could be had for a 2nd rounder, several NFL teams would have made that pitch. He's still in Carolina. But, yeah, the Chiefs are at fault for not getting him.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

I'd be interested in knowing what our defensive stats looked like yesterday PRIOR to the first interception (that put them back on the field in denver without much rest).

5 drives, 27 snaps, 65 yards, INT-6, 3 sacks.

[Pushead2]

To be fair, our losses this year have just as much blame on the offense / special teams not executing to put the game away, as much as it does on the defense. Don't get me wrong, I know the defense has it's issues.

Against Buffalo, KC is winning by less than a TD, mid-4th quarter & the offense couldn't convert to put it away on the 1st drive. Defense comes out stops BUF and forces a punt. Again, offense can't convert, but this time the defense couldn't stop BUF & it's 24-20. Mahomes gets picked-off and we lose 24-20.

Against CIN, KC is winning by less than a TD, mid-4th quarter. Defense holds CIN to 3 and it's 24-20. The offense couldn't convert to put it away (Kelce fumble) and the defense comes out & couldn't stop CIN so it's 27-24. Offense gets another shot but ultimately stumble & Butker misses the FG to tie. We lose 27-24.

[Shields68]

Originally Posted by Pushead2

To be fair, our losses this year have just as much blame on the offense / special teams not executing to put the game away, as much as it does on the defense. Don't get me wrong, I know the defense has it's issues.

Against Buffalo, KC is winning by less than a TD, mid-4th quarter & the offense couldn't convert to put it away on the 1st drive. Defense comes out stops BUF and forces a punt. Again, offense can't convert, but this time the defense couldn't stop BUF & it's 24-20. Mahomes gets picked-off and we lose 24-20.

Against CIN, KC is winning by less than a TD, mid-4th quarter. Defense holds CIN to 3 and it's 24-20. The offense couldn't convert to put it away (Kelce fumble) and the defense comes out & couldn't stop CIN so it's 27-24. Offense gets another shot but ultimately stumble & Butker misses the FG to tie. We lose 27-24.

We need to get Kadarious and Mecole healthy. Watson and Sky and to a degree MVS are not really cutting it.

JuJu been good against zones but really need a above average athlete to put a little pressure on teams.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

The Chiefs gave up too much for Clark (1st and 2nd) and appear to have learned their lesson. The Chiefs gave up the equivalent of a 2nd round pick for OBJ.

If you think Burns could be had for a 2nd rounder, several NFL teams would have made that pitch. He's still in Carolina. But, yeah, the Chiefs are at fault for not getting him.

I didn't say the chiefs are at fault for not getting him, now did I. I agree with their decision not to. They are building for the future and aren't as desperate as other teams to fling lots of picks to solve a need for a year.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

5 drives, 27 snaps, 65 yards, INT-6, 3 sacks.

Kind of what I figured. The D was damn good until we put them on the field in bad spots.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I didn't say the chiefs are at fault for not getting him, now did I. I agree with their decision not to. They are building for the future and aren't as desperate as other teams to fling lots of picks to solve a need for a year.

This was the post I was responding to:

"Otherwisw we coiodve easily traded for... Say... Brian burns."

And you responded to my response. That is, literally, the context.

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by Wisconsin_Chief

This is exactly what's happening. Spags is reminding me a lot of Dom Capers his last few years in Green Bay. He helped them win a Super Bowl and the defense was terrific. However, over the years he kept running the same tired scheme as offenses evolved, and eventually the whole thing collapsed.

I don't think Spags is quite at that point, mainly because he has better coaches around him. I think Cullen and Daly can help keep him be a little more innovative, but man, it's just not looking very scary right now.

All the guys on the D should know the scheme pretty well now, and we're headed into the final quarter of the season. Will he show some new wrinkles? I sure as hell hope so, because what we're seeing currently is the definition of the word "meh."

I realize we live and die by the blitz because Jones is the only one that can win one on one, but that almost seems like something Spags should excel at since he designs all these crazy blitz schemes. For whatever reason though it sure doesn’t seem like the blitzes have been very imaginative lately. Everything looks so vanilla on defense.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by crispystl

I realize we live and die by the blitz because Jones is the only one that can win one on one, but that almost seems like something Spags should excel at since he designs all these crazy blitz schemes. For whatever reason though it sure doesn’t seem like the blitzes have been very imaginative lately. Everything looks so vanilla on defense.

Uh, well, we just had 6 sacks and a pick six almost entirely because of blitzes, so i guess I don't know what to tell you.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

Seriously tho,

20+ years in the NFL and he has had a top defense how many times. He makes adjustments, but he DOESN'T adapt his scheme to his players strengths.

That is my biggest issue with Spags. His unwillingness to adjust his scheme to his players.

Giants SB’s and Chiefs 2019.

Any time he’s had a good pass rush he’s had success.

[Chris Meck]

So in other words, what I'm understanding is that a lot of people think Spags sucks, and we should be running a different defense that takes better advantage of the talent on the field, but nobody has any idea whatsoever what that is other than we like Fangio's shell cover scheme. I have great suspicion that several of you have no idea what that even is, but have heard it talked about, so that must mean it's good, and Spags is outdated with his scheme, which you don't really have any idea about other than he blitzes a lot, you know, because that must be it.

Of course, that 'shell coverage' concept only works when you can pressure with four. Which we can't.

So in other words, a bunch of teeth gnashing and complaining with no viable alternative beyond 'FIRE THE SPAGS'.

That's what I thought.

Sigh.

I'll tell you this much, Williams getting snaps is interesting because he requires a double team, and Jones requires a double team, which means we have numbers advantage on the line when he's in there. 5 blockers, four defenders, and two require a double team to reliably block. This should help both against the run AND the pass, as Williams and Jones should at the very least collapse the pocket quickly, which helps the secondary. So that's good. It's possible that even though we can't draft high enough to get a stud EDGE rusher, we MIGHT be able to draft a stud DT as they are generally valued lower positionally and so maybe if we kept Jones and drafted another stud DT we could get by with less at EDGE and be better.

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

Uh, well, we just had 6 sacks and a pick six almost entirely because of blitzes, so i guess I don't know what to tell you.

I’m not a Spags hater. I’m middle of the road on him. I was just making an observation.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

This was the post I was responding to:

"Otherwisw we coiodve easily traded for... Say... Brian burns."

And you responded to my response. That is, literally, the context.

I really don't know what you're arguing about. Youre acting like I'm bitching about it. I'm on the same page as you that we aren't in the desperate mode anymore to fling picks to solve a short term problem. We could have aggressively brought in a receiver or pass rusher if we wanted to go the frank Clark comp route. But we don't need to do that anymore.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by crispystl

I’m not a Spags hater. I’m middle of the road on him. I was just making an observation.

There's nothing vanilla going on.

Vanilla would be rush four, play zone with two deep. That's vanilla.

Spags has blitzed LB'ers, safeties, corners, zone blitzed (that's when you see like Karlaftis drop while like Sneed blitzes) jailbreak blitzes, you name it. Rush 5, 6, from anywhere.

It's risky as ****.

Sometimes it gets your burned, and looks bad when it does.

I don't think that's what anyone, especially Spags would prefer. I bet he'd LOVE to be able to sit back in two deep most of the time. But if we did that now, we would NOT be 10-3 and this close to the #1 seed, I'll tell you that with no question.

We can't get home with 4. This is our biggest weakness. That, or our OT play. Either one of those might be enough to derail us from a SB trophy.

But as we're talking about defense, let's talk defense.

We have a player talent/production problem on the defensive line. We have Jones, who is doubled as much or more than anyone in football, a rookie who's trying to figure it out in Karlaftis, and a bunch of JAGS who can get some pressure here and there, maybe even a sack every once in awhile but cannot win one on one consistently.

This is where the Clark trade still hurts us. He's lousy. He's been lousy most of the time except the 2019 post season. We vastly overpaid in hindsight and it's handicapped us in terms of available resources. It was a fair bet that Veach made, there was no reason to expect the production to fall off of the cliff, but it sure did.

And the problem is, you can't get double digit sack production picking #30 or worse every year.

So we're going to have to try to buy a pass rusher (or multiple) again.

That's it. That's the only thing that makes for a top ten type defense.

[ChiefsFanatic]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

There's nothing vanilla going on.



Vanilla would be rush four, play zone with two deep. That's vanilla.



Spags has blitzed LB'ers, safeties, corners, zone blitzed (that's when you see like Karlaftis drop while like Sneed blitzes) jailbreak blitzes, you name it. Rush 5, 6, from anywhere.



It's risky as ****.



Sometimes it gets your burned, and looks bad when it does.



I don't think that's what anyone, especially Spags would prefer. I bet he'd LOVE to be able to sit back in two deep most of the time. But if we did that now, we would NOT be 10-3 and this close to the #1 seed, I'll tell you that with no question.



We can't get home with 4. This is our biggest weakness. That, or our OT play. Either one of those might be enough to derail us from a SB trophy.



But as we're talking about defense, let's talk defense.



We have a player talent/production problem on the defensive line. We have Jones, who is doubled as much or more than anyone in football, a rookie who's trying to figure it out in Karlaftis, and a bunch of JAGS who can get some pressure here and there, maybe even a sack every once in awhile but cannot win one on one consistently.



This is where the Clark trade still hurts us. He's lousy. He's been lousy most of the time except the 2019 post season. We vastly overpaid in hindsight and it's handicapped us in terms of available resources. It was a fair bet that Veach made, there was no reason to expect the production to fall off of the cliff, but it sure did.



And the problem is, you can't get double digit sack production picking #30 or worse every year.



So we're going to have to try to buy a pass rusher (or multiple) again.



That's it. That's the only thing that makes for a top ten type defense.

Watch the Eagles defense, the Cowboys defense, or even the Titans defense.

There is a clear difference in how the defensive players on those teams play. I am not talking about scheme, I am talking about technique on the defensive line and secondary, and I am talking fundamentals like tackling.

None of Spags defensive units for the Chiefs have ever been good tacklers. And they have never been great at taking the ball away. And until this year, they were never really any good at sacking the QB either.

There is a deficiency in the approach Spags takes to coaching his defenses. His defenses had those issue when he had veteran players all around, so blaming the young players is ridiculous.

Young player have given this defense something we have never had on defense during the Reid era, and that is very good overall team speed on that side of the ball. So maybe they have improvements to make in some areas, they also add value as well.

The common denominator is Spags. And like I said in another post, when people actually start blaming Denver's 4 TDs on Mahomes, instead of holding Spags accountable, you know that the ball washing has just gone too far, and needs to stop.

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