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2024: Defense


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The Chiefs had an elite defense in 2023--second in both points allowed and yards allowed--and almost no one noticed. They lost the best player on the defense--L'Jarius Sneed, an outstanding LB--Willie Gay, and one of the best pass rushers to injury--Charles Omenihu. Will they take a step back?

The draft added two late round DB.

4 (133): S Jaden Hicks, Washington State
6 (211): CB Kamal Hadden, Tennessee
 

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  • 3 weeks later...

This article suggests that the defense will take a step back from 2023 because of the loss of L'Jarius Sneed and starting the season against Baltimore and Cincinnati.
https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/kansas_city_chiefs_defense_could_see_a_major_decline_to_start_the_2024_season/s1_17313_40361506

There is no denying that Baltimore (Lamar Jackson) and Cincinnati (Joe Burrow) have two of the best QBs in the NFL. The Chiefs' pass rush is without Charles Omenihu and the secondary is without L'Jarius Sneed. A step back is reasonable. However, Nick Bolton is healthy and Felix Anudike-Uzoma has a year under his belt. We will see how it plays. A step back is reasonable at the start of the season. A major decline is less reasonable.

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Step 1. No more covering WRs with Nick Bolton. That was just a horrible idea. I’m less worried about the McDuffie/Sneed transition, and more about a Watson/Williams picking back up.

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Posted (edited)

DT: We have a lot of depth but only Chris Jones provides pass rush. If we need big ru stuffers we are set.
DE: We lack depth. We have only Karlaftis, Danna, FAU, and maybe Herring. Omenihu is out until Thanksgiving Day
LB: Great front three--Bolton, Tranquill, Chenal. Only ST players for depth. Chenal is an important pass rusher.
S: Reid and Cook are as good as any pair in the league. Conner is a good third S. Rookie Jaden Hicks looks custom-made as a dimebacker.
CB: Trent McDuffie and a list of others. Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson made an impact as rookies in 2022. Kamal Hadden is a highly rated but injured draft pick

Pass rush is a concern. Karlaftis and Jones provided 21 sacks in 2023. However, Omenihu is out for most of the season. Danna had only 6.5 sacks and the next DL maxed at 2.0. Chenal picked slack later in the season, finishing with 3.0. Tramquill was better with 4.5 but that is not his role. Hopefully, FAU can pick up a bunch of slack. I wanted to prioritize DE in this draft.

 

Edited by onejayhawk
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  • 3 weeks later...

The Chiefs officially re-sign Malik Herring, giving considerable depth to the DE chart. 

Should we include Leo Chenal? He's light for a DE at only 255 or so, but he has proven to be an efficient pass rusher and I can envision him opposite Karlftis in some sets.

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1 hour ago, mayanfootball said:

Trent Mcduffie getting some recognition. #2 CB in the NFL. But we already knew he was good-now maybe "great"........

https://www.chiefs.com/news/trent-mcduffie-ranked-as-the-no-2-cornerback-in-the-nfl-by-pff

Sneed also made the list at #12.
https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2024/6/4/24171286/chiefs-news-2-on-new-list-leagues-top-32-cornerbacks

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2 hours ago, mayanfootball said:

Doesn't matter to me. Only current Chiefs players please.

OK

I won't tell you that Charvarious Ward made the top 5. 

Two points. The Chiefs are very good at training young talent and pass rush matters a lot.

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Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, onejayhawk said:

OK

I won't tell you that Charvarious Ward made the top 5. 

Two points. The Chiefs are very good at training young talent and pass rush matters a lot.

Two points. I really don't care about Ward and he was a lousy player for us as far as I'm concerned. Good riddance.

Edited by mayanfootball
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8 hours ago, mayanfootball said:

Two points. I really don't care about Ward and he was a lousy player for us as far as I'm concerned. Good riddance.

He started in 16 playoff games, including three Super Bowls, and made the 2023 Pro Bowl.

You may not be impressed but it is not hard to find people who disagree. 

 

 

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22 hours ago, onejayhawk said:

You may not be impressed

Management wasn't all that impressed with Ward either, apparently. He left for San Fran.

Ward was too "grabby", was called for Pass Interference  way too often. He also refused to turn his head around and look for the football.

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6 hours ago, mayanfootball said:

Management wasn't all that impressed with Ward either, apparently. He left for San Fran.

Ward was too "grabby", was called for Pass Interference  way too often. He also refused to turn his head around and look for the football.

In 4 seasons here, Ward committed 24 penalties. In the same number of seasons, Sneed committed 28, most notably having 10 this year when he played more outside than in the slot. Bashaud Breeland committed 20 penalties in 2 years here. Joshua Williams has 8 in two years as a depth boundary guy.

That's literally like what they coach the guys to do on this team. They get aggressive with contact under the philosophy that they aren't going to call it all the time, and they're going to call it even less in the postseason. We trade a high number of penalties from our outside CBs for much stickier coverage than most teams get on the boundary. We've been top 10 in DPI penalties every year under Spags. Typically, top 3.

We also pretty definitely don't really prioritize INTs, either. Stick with the WR first, get in the way of the ball second, make sure you can secure the tackle if they do get it third. Catching it is lower priority than just forcing the incompletion or stop. We haven't really had a CB who got INTs since Marcus Peters. And he was famously pretty boom or bust compared to what we've had since. Mathieu and Sorensen had some solid INT years, but that was from middle of the field zones, which is very different from getting INTs in man on the boundary.

These are silly things to criticize Ward for, because they apply to basically all of our CBs under this defensive coaching staff. At a certain point, when you keep getting the same results, both good and bad, across different sets of players, it's a team thing, not an individual one.

Letting him leave also doesn't mean they weren't impressed. We're an excellent team at scouting and developing talent. A lot of good players are going to leave when that's the case. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Chamari Conner has become a popular break-out candidate among the media. This is a Ron Kopp article with lots of video support.

Last season Conner and Mike Edwards stepped into the hole created by Bryan Cook's injury and both performed well. Cook is back but Edwards has gone on making playing time available. The staff also like Conner's ability to play the slot. 
https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2024/6/20/24181597/sophomore-spotlight-what-to-expect-from-chamarri-conner-in-year-2

Edited by onejayhawk
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