Thoughts on state of the Defense

[Chris Meck]

So,

I stumbled on an interesting statistic- 2021 NFL pass rush win rate.

KC was 7th in the league, at 44%. Criteria being that the rusher beat his block within 2.5 seconds.

However, they were what, 29th in sacks? So clearly, not getting home.

We know that Veach had said that defensive line was a priority, and indeed, we added Karlaftis in the first round, but that so far appears to be the only addition. Reason for panic? OR...

Is it the opinion of the coaching staff and front office that a main reason for the lack of pass rush FINISH (meaning sack, batted pass, busted play incompletions, etc) is POOR coverage and poor athleticism in the back 7?

Kind of looks like it, doesn't it?

Mathieu (definitely a down year), Sorenson (good lord, how bad did the guy have to be), Watts, all gone. Ward (not bad, but a mismatch against #1's), Hughes (just too short) gone.

Add McDuffie (get a load of the kid's stats in college!), Williams at CB (excellent size and athletic ability) , bring back Baker, add Lonnie Johnson-and you're still got Sneed and Fenton. This should be considerably better.

Add Reid (bigger, faster, younger Mathieu), Cook (bigger, faster, younger Sorensen) This should be considerably better.

And with Gay in year 3, Bolton taking over at MLB in year two-we added Chenal, who looks to be a really great fit at SAM, with some pass rush juice to boot. And thank the gods, no more ****ing Niemann.

It seems to me that The Chiefs think the primary problem was poor coverage.

Either that, or they know something about Kaindoh and Herring that we don't.

[Kiimo]

Sapho had an almost exact same post about a month ago and I think I saw it elsewhere too. It definitely is interesting. Guys like Page and Danna it’s very possible that the Chiefs believe in them way more than fans

[smithandrew051]

I posted something similar awhile back:

Originally Posted by smithandrew051

Chiefs Defense 2021 (according to Pro Football Reference):

Hurries - 4th
Hurry % - 3rd
Knockdowns - 8th
Knockdown % - 8th
Pressures - 6th
Pressure % - 5th
Sacks - 29th

I think Veach believes the pass rush only needs a bit of a boost and the problem was that the secondary wasn’t holding up quite as long as it needed to.

Originally Posted by smithandrew051

Yeah, Chiefs we’re 8th in Blitz Percentage.

However, the top 7 in Hurry % all had a Blitz % of at least 23%.

It’s not until you get to the Eagles (8th in Hurry %), that you find a team with a significantly lower Blitz % (16.4%).

So basically, the Chiefs Blitz % is in line with the other top teams in Hurry%, Pressure %, etc, but far lower in sacks.

For whatever reason, the Chiefs pressure didn’t result in sacks like other teams at the top of these lists.

[The Franchise]

I’d be interested to see what the average time the QB had getting the ball out when facing us.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

I’d be interested to see what the average time the QB had getting the ball out when facing us.

This.

There's a key piece of information missing here when trying to have this conversation.

[Kman34]

We let the Qb slip though our hands more than any team I've seen.. Need better tackling from the first guy on the Qb.. Lot of missed sacks due to that..

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by Kman34

We let the Qb slip though our hands more than any team I've seen.. Need better tackling from the first guy on the Qb.. Lot of missed sacks due to that..

This is also true.

[smithandrew051]

Originally Posted by Kman34

We let the Qb slip though our hands more than any team I've seen.. Need better tackling from the first guy on the Qb.. Lot of missed sacks due to that..

Is there a stat for this somewhere? There has to be I would think.

I’d be shocked if we weren’t near the top of the league.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by Kman34

We let the Qb slip though our hands more than any team I've seen.. Need better tackling from the first guy on the Qb.. Lot of missed sacks due to that..

Absolutely this. If you are on the QB, let alone hands on the QB, BRING HIM DOWN! PERIOD!

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by Kman34

We let the Qb slip though our hands more than any team I've seen.. Need better tackling from the first guy on the Qb.. Lot of missed sacks due to that..

.

This! So Frustrating

[chiefzilla1501]

We need to be patient. Spags defense takes a really long time and even veterans were confused by it. We need our offense to carry a lot of water early on. Like so many of spags seasons I expect a tough first half followed by a decent second half. Id like to be optimistic that it will all eventually click but I think this defense is much more of a multi year project than we would like it to be.

[dannybcaitlyn]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

We need to be patient. Spags defense takes a really long time and even veterans were confused by it. We need our offense to carry a lot of water early on. Like so many of spags seasons I expect a tough first half followed by a decent second half. Id like to be optimistic that it will all eventually click but I think this defense is much more of a multi year project than we would like it to be.

I’m just not sure how long we can have this kind of patience year and year out. Last year we really thought they would really click after a lot of players being in the third year of Spags system. Instead they started out with a historic bad defense. So bad it derailed Pat and the offense. This year the AFC teams have really loaded up. Another slow start like last year puts us in a deep hole and tremendous amount of pressure on the offense that only has a Kelce and Hardman as the only guys who really know the offense.

[TRR]

Originally Posted by dannybcaitlyn

I’m just not sure how long we can have this kind of patience year and year out. Last year we really thought they would really click after a lot of players being in the third year of Spags system. Instead they started out with a historic bad defense. So bad it derailed Pat and the offense. This year the AFC teams have really loaded up. Another slow start like last year puts us in a deep hole and tremendous amount of pressure on the offense that only has a Kelce and Hardman as the only guys who really know the offense.

Good post. The D is going to need to gel much more quickly than in years past. The first half of last season (if not more) was MISERABLE to watch. You listen to Spags press conferences, and you can tell he’s more worried about week 17 then he is week 1…but with how loaded the West is this year, every week is going to be crucial.

I’m confident in the offense coming together quickly. I think Kelce will be featured early, and the run game will be more prominently leaned on as Juju, MVS, and Moore find their rhythm with Mahomes. I also think the element of the unknown will keep opposing D’s guessing at least through the early part of the schedule.

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by TRR

Good post. The D is going to need to gel much more quickly than in years past. The first half of last season (if not more) was MISERABLE to watch. You listen to Spags press conferences, and you can tell he’s more worried about week 17 then he is week 1…but with how loaded the West is this year, every week is going to be crucial.

I’m confident in the offense coming together quickly. I think Kelce will be featured early, and the run game will be more prominently leaned on as Juju, MVS, and Moore find their rhythm with Mahomes. I also think the element of the unknown will keep opposing D’s guessing at least through the early part of the schedule.

I don't think gelling was the problem last year. I think the problem was Spags was trying some complicated coverages and schemes early on that they weren't executing well. Coupled with the bad decision to move Jones outside, playing Sorenson too much, etc. It was a much better defense overnight when they made those adjustments.

[cdcox]

Whether pressure gets converted to sacks has as much to do with the QB as it does with the pass rushers.