defensive thoughts...
 

Ok.

I've been wrong; dead wrong about this defense. Unlike some folks, I'll own up.

These players just aren't good enough. Oh, they're fast enough, for the most part; big enough. But they're not SMART enough. They're more aggressive now than under GROB, but in all the dumbest ways.

We need new players. Gunther's a great defensive coordinator, and he's proven that in previous tenures. Gun needs to stay, and we need a talent infusion.

Woods can't run anymore. I've watched him closely the last few weeks, and he'll have the angle only to have the enemy blow right by him.

Wesley can't cover. He gets suckered a lot. Warfield is the only quality starter in that secondary-and he's really best suited as the #2 in a good tandem.

The LB corps is flat out not getting it done. Fujita's the only keeper here. Barber has been a waste, Mitchell's just not catching on, and Beisel is still inconsistent when healthy.

I am ready now to give up on Hicks. He just can't beat his man to the ball. Sims is a bust-he's just a body. NO push, NO rush, NO presence. Dalton is FAR superior, and there's just no way that should be the case. Browning has been a complete non-factor, as has Holliday. Allen is the only bright spot here, and he's still about 20 lbs. away from being an everydown end. Siavii the jury's still out on.

We need a quality #1 corner to pair with Warfield. We need at least one upgrade at safety. We need two quality LB's to pair with Fujita. We need a DE, a stud DT to pair with Dalton, and Allen needs to hit the weight room in the offseason.

The corner will have to come in FA, and he'll have to be paid. A DE will likely have to come there too. At least ONE of the LB's as well. Siavii might be your DT, it's too early to tell.

Just my thoughts.

Chris

There should be some action this off-season...
 

Free agency they have to hope for a MLB, OLB, DT or safety.

DE's and CB's are just too much money for KC to pursue in free agency. The Jets will probably only be able to keep Abraham or Ellis meaning the other guy goes free, but I just don't think the Chiefs will ante up in the bidding war for a key defensive position.

it's possible that we already have next year's "better" players at olb...

caver has been doing surprisingly well and key fox should be coming on after another offseason of adding some bulk and muscle, together with another tc and some more coaching...

That would be fine...
 

i'm not so sure that we need another starting-quality dt...

sims hasn't lived up to expectations, but he is at least serviceable as a dt...

dalton seems solid and with another offseason of coaching, siavii might just turn out to be a keeper...

and either browning or a low round draft pick should be able to handle the other back-up dt's duties...

Hicks, Holliday, Barber and Woods should go immediately. Everyone else gets until the end of next preseason to earn their job.

Young guns...
 

I agree.

I have always liked Woods, but this year he is sucking it up Bartee style. And my team comes before any player.

I had to listen to the game on the radio yesterday. I heard once that Hicks was going off on the sidelines on somebody. Anybody know what that was all about?

Personally, I can't wait until the day comes when we don't have to hear Hicks and Holliday on the postgame reports trying to find a reason for the suckage we watch every week.

We just resigned Hicks, Wesley, and Woods, they aren't going anywhere. We've drafted a MLB and OLB high in the last two drafts, so it seems unlikely that we draft another unless we are able to get a stud MLB in round 1.

What about converting Bartee to safety? He seems to do well in run support. His coverage skills are still a mystery, but they can't be worse than Woods right now.

The scary thing is, we 've got a ton of youth at defensive positions. How many more years can we load up on D players? Sooner or later we're going to need O-linemen and and a FB, not to mention a future QB. If these young D players don't pan out, this team will be screwed. We need guys like Fox, Siavii, Mitchell, Sapp and Battle to evolve into starters. Maybe not stars, but we need to get role players out of some of these guys.

fox seems like a big hitter with speed, he's just a bit undersized and raw...

weight training and coaching should improve fox to the point that he is adequate (which is better than we seem to have now)...

the other reason we haven't seen that much of fox because dv hates to play rookies...

which makes me wonder whether we have any chance of improving on the d through the draft since dv doesn't play rookies... :(

i thought caver did ok yesterday replacing barber and beisel...

iirc, caver was a second round draft pick of the eagles and he has tons of potential...

hopefully he will get better with more playing time over the rest of the season...

wilkerson was supposedly showing a lot of promise last year under the dc not to be named, but has pretty much disappeared this year...

Depends on the size of the signing bonus. If those were not huge, we could cut them pretty easily. Remember, we have $6.5 million of cap space. :D

seems like battle was on the field some yesterday and he didn't get any flags for illegal contact/holding/pass interference, so maybe there's hope for him... i hope...