I could see lateral movement. But how do they take a step back? We saw the effect DJ left and Mauga came in and was trash. Now, hopefully Mauga isn't on the field as much. Addition by subtraction right there.

Duuuuuuuuuuude

Why ya gotta be a meatball all the time?

I'm of the opinion that they overachieved last season.

Overachieved yet finished dead last in takeaways? That won't happen again.

Bullshit. You don't keep every team under 30 pts and not allow a 300 yard passer over the course of an entire season by overachieving. This defense has a shit load of talent and a very good scheme that fits to that talent.

They were dealing with some pretty serious patch working at times. Two ILBs (Mauga and JMJ), a CB (Fleming), a S (Parker), and a DE (Howard) who ended up getting significant playing time when they weren't expected to.

Your whole premise depends on everyone playing as well as they did last season when some are almost guaranteed to regress. Houston will likely still be great but I'd actually be amazed if he recorded 18 sacks this season. Sean Smith, who had a borderline All-Pro level season, will be out for almost a quarter of the season and he can't read rivalry be expected to perform as well as he did last season anyway.

Poe was great at times but he did get pushed around a lot last year.. Look at Austin Frekin Howard a backup guard push the big fella around

https://vine.co/v/OJD7PlLbWzK

Why so pessimistic? You say some will regress yet won't mention how some will progress... Not to mention as I said, this defense was dead last in takeaways. They had terrible luck last season in getting the ball back for the offense.

Ok, so Sean Smith regresses. Houston only has 16 sacks. Poe misses 3 games.

Yet we're improving the #2 CB. Safety depth improves. ILB improves. Bailey continues to progress.

And you ignore those points? Think about everything, not just the negative things.

And so it begins...

:hmmm:

Good. If he's going to play on 89 percent of the defensive snaps again he needs to rest.

Dontari Poe will miss camp due to back injury
 

Because I'm pretty sure most of these guys overachieved. We had a bunch of role players and cast-offs play out of their minds for most of the season.

You have to go into this season fully expecting our three best defenders in Houston, Poe and Smith to regress. Our returning ILB is 33 coming off of an Achilles tear. Tampa Hali is another year older and likely less effective.

Outside of those guys, aside from Bailey and Abdullah who are solid, our defense is full of a bunch of unprovens. Are Ron Parker and Jaye Howard as good as they showed last season? Can Branch last a full 16 game season? Will Devito be effective? Peters, Fleming, Gaines, Catapano and Ford are pretty much brand new to the league.

I'm hoping we can post top 10-ish numbers in PPG allowed but I think top 3 two years in a row with so many possible issues is a bit much.

We've got a ton of talent but rarely in my time as a Chiefs fan have things just fallen into place.

I thought DeVito was penciled in as a NT on the depth chart?

Poe was def overused but he must have injured his back working out in the off season.

Why would we expect that? They're all young. Houston only getting 16 sacks doesn't mean he regressed - it means he didn't have the fantasy numbers he did the year before.

There's no reason to expect him to be any less effective rushing the passer...