Vance Walker and backup NT
 

I never really understood this whole playing Walker at NT thing the Chiefs are doing. I know it's one preseason game, but many people are commenting how Walker was kind of poopy.

Bob Sutton had pretty much the same thing to say in today's press conference:

“Vance, we had to move out to big end—he’s played inside. And that’s part of this camp too. We got to develop some depth here and some games we don’t take as many D-linemen in the game so somebody has got to be able to play multiple positions. So, they’re playing similar positions but I wouldn’t say they’re the exact same positions.”

So Walker IS going to play end primarily. Jaye Howard was listed as a NT for much of last year even though he didn't play a down until the final San Diego game. He's been playing end for us, and while he made one or two impressive plays, he was no more effective against the run than Walker was.

So we've got great rotational depth at DE with all kinds of options and still not much at the nose except on 3rd down when we shift a smaller guy inside. The same problem as last year.

Can anybody else wrap their minds around this? If we're playing Walker at nose just for the time being so they can get experience playing all positions, then who is our real backup NT? I'd like to hope it would be Howard, but the Chiefs seem to still think that guy is an end. And when the final roster comes out, we've got these bodies we need to fit in:

DeVito
Poe
Bailey
Catapano
Walker
Howard

That's 5 ends and no true backup NT. Unless we keep 7 guys, and it would be kind of unfortunate to keep around a worthless dicksack like Kyle Love instead of a promising lineman like Frenchie or a core special teams player.

What do you think?

Poe cant do it all by himself like he did last year, he will be wore out right about the time we give him 60 million bucks.

Why cant Catapano or DeVito swing into NT? they are both 300+ yea? They don't have to be world beaters, just need to eat up space for a few plays while Poe rests~

If they cant do that, bottom man on the chart goes and we can sign a scrap heap guy for 1 year until we get our shit together.

I was confused with Walker at NT. Glad to hear it's just for depth.

Catapano is supposedly up to 290 while DeVito lost a bunch of weight and is now under 300.

I have no clue what Howard weighs, but kcchiefs.com is listing him at 6'3 301 and Walker at 6'2 305. I doubt either of those numbers are accurate.

In any case, we can put any of those guys in the middle on 3rd downs. The problem is that we need one of them to not suck at NT for as many as 3-4 straight plays so Poe can get some rest once or twice in a game. Poe just played way too many goddamn snaps. We need to reduce his total snaps by at least 30 or so from where he was last year. Just subbing Poe out on 3rd downs isn't going to be enough, and nor is it going to be the best lineup-- he's one of our best pass rushing defensive linemen.

What about Bailey? 300+ lbs and he's got the pure strength.

He's never seemed squatty enough for NT to me, too high.

I think Walker will be a back up 3-4 DE and play in a couple of different nickel packages. I think he gives us some good versatility and will allow Sutton to give some different looks. I bet we will see a standard nickel package with four defensive linemen this year at times. We'll have Walker and Poe at DT and some combination of Ford, Hali, and Houston at DE. This formation will also put Ford in a comfortable position to succeed. I think Walker will be our best role player on defense when it's all said and done.

Also I wish we'd go ahead and sign Ryan Pickett to be the back up NT for a year. I keep thinking maybe his old ass is waiting until training camp is almost over to sign somewhere.

theyre playing Walker at NT because theres a logjam at DE and they have to get a guy on the field they are paying 12 million to somehow

hes not better than Jaye Howard or Catapano and Walker was our "biggest offseason" FA get.

Thats my problem with it, they had depth at the position that either all the DEs they were skeptial about showed up to camp and surprised the coaches or ? because they could have spent that money on any other position like safety, corner, WR, oline etc

what about kyle love? i know he's a big NT but haven't heard much on him in camp and he was 3rd on the depth sheet.

They have had Walker as the back up NT since OTAs...that's the back up NT....always has been.

You nailed it. This is exactly what is going on.

When I saw that KC had signed Walker, I wasn't happy. I thought he'd provide a pass rush from DE that KC hasn't had since transitioning to a 3-4.

Playing him at NT makes no sense to me.

it's the only way to get him on the final 53 without having to cut one of the other DEs.

I am not for cutting Howard, Cat, Devito, Bailey, etc. And that's more than enough at DE. He makes the roster listed as the backup NT because we have nobody else.

The problem is a lot of us thought he was paid to get starters snaps or the Tyson Jackson insurance policy and it's clear he might not even sniff the field with all the other lineman rotating in.

I would take a combo of Poe + Cat or Devito or Bailey or even Howard in nickel pass rush situations. Hell even slide Hali down to get Ford out there over playing Walker at this point the way all these other lineman look.

Also add onto the fact that Bob Sutton has yet to figure out what button to press to give Poe a breather, maybe he figures that out this season (probably not).

He was brought in to give a pass rush from the DE spot. Have the other guys really shown so much that he's not making it on the field in that spot? I find it hard to believe he can't offer more of a pass rush than Devito, even with Devito slimming down.

So they were skeptical about all the DEs, but believed in all the DBs?

They're a bunch of ****ing idiots then.