Late night bullshit: Safety depth.

[Direckshun]

This team needs a lot of different pieces in the draft, but one place that it's particularly hurting is for depth behind Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis. My desire for Mark Barron in the draft notwithstanding, this is a damn good starting safety combo, but safety is always an injury prone position.

Add into that the prevalence of the Chiefs' subpackages, and extra safeties are necessary.

The backup safety position on this team is atrocious. Donald Washington and Rashard Langford will stay alive on this roster only by blowing shit up on special teams, and not by staying on the field during defensive snaps.

Jon McGraw is a serviceable guy because of his decent-enough instincts, but only at the less-physical position of free safety, and only in bits and pieces. He remains incredibly popular in the locker room, and I'm willing to accept that.

Now, safety is one of the weakest positions in this draft, but let's use this thread as an opportunity to talk about some of our favorite mid-to-late round safety prospects, since we can expect the Chiefs to pick up at least one in the draft.

[kcbubb]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Three favorites of mine at SS in case Berry goes down:

SS Winston Guy, Jr., Kentucky -- super productive, good sized safety with limited athleticism. great instincts in diagnosing the play, has a rare nose for the ball in Kuechly-like fashion. may not even get drafted due to his awkward athleticism, but I think he could be a late round steal.

SS Tony Dye, UCLA -- injury-laden career nonetheless gave way to some brilliant, hard hat play. he is a safety with limited athleticism, but loves mixing it up in the box. is a natural read-and-reacter in the Romeo Crennel mode. would be a great run defender a la Kurt Coleman

Sean Richardson, Vanderbilt -- Chiefs were scoping out Vanderbilt not too long ago, Richardson is a 220-lb behemoth built for punishing in the box, but is a liability in coverage. I love how Richardson hits, though -- he has a Pollard-propensity to sacrifice the safe tackle for the big hit

Langford and Richardson are both Vandy guys. Langford is better. Both in coverage and tackling. No upgrade there.

[O.city]

Some of you are upset at taking Kuechly because he would replace a young ascending player in Belcher, but are ok with doing it to Lewis?

[shammus]

Noticed this group of safeties still on the FA market -

Jim Leonhard
OJ Atogwe
Melvin Bullitt
Sean Jones
Chris Harris
Chris Hope

Leonhard might not be available to start the season but most of the guys on this list are, at minimum, borderline starters with Atogwe and Bullitt being the best of the group. Considering our depth last season consisted of McGraw and Sabby, I'd consider it a pretty solid upgrade if we signed a guy or two off this list.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by O.city

Some of you are upset at taking Kuechly because he would replace a young ascending player in Belcher, but are ok with doing it to Lewis?

It wouldn't be replacing Lewis. Both he and Barron would both be on the field more than half the time.

Drafting Kuechly takes Belcher off the field except for special teams.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by BossChief

It wouldn't be replacing Lewis. Both he and Barron would both be on the field more than half the time.

Drafting Kuechly takes Belcher off the field except for special teams.

Probably so.


I just think Kuechly could be an all around great ILB. He could play in all sub stuff if needed.


I wouldn't be upset with Barron at all, but we could grab Kuechly and Harrison Smith in the second as well.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by O.city

Some of you are upset at taking Kuechly because he would replace a young ascending player in Belcher, but are ok with doing it to Lewis?

maybe its because Lewis is a FS who can't man-to-man cover and it looks like Crennel is going to more man with the Routt signing.

[BossChief]

Taking Kuechly at 11 would be worse than taking Decastro there.

JMO

[O.city]

I've just come to realize the fact that whoever we take at 11, if we can't trade down, it's gonna be someone to upgrade a spot.


We aren't really in need of an immediate starter at any one spot outside of the obvious spot.

We have a chance to really add depth and actually good depth this draft.


There are gonna be good players around in the 4 and 5 round that can really help this team.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Laz

maybe its because Lewis is a FS who can't man-to-man cover and it looks like Crennel is going to more man with the Routt signing.

Then wouldn't you wanna do the same with a LB that can't cover at all?

[prhom]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Taking Kuechly at 11 would be worse than taking Decastro there.

JMO

I realize it's bad form to take a guard that high, but he seems like a better prospect than Kuechly. There's little chance that DeCastro will bust or disappoint, but Kuechly isn't a sure thing. We'll need a good guard next year and could use one this year. Let's get ahead of our needs and take the future all-pro guard now.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Taking Kuechly at 11 would be worse than taking Decastro there.

JMO

I saw the stats you posted for tackles and forced fumbles for Kuechly in another thread, but the stat that I would be interested in would be the number of tackles for loss he made.

[ForeverChiefs58]

I also wonder which sure thing top ten guy that everyone thought would go early is going to fall right to us. Really wonder what they would do if that happened to be Richardson? Although that is probably what it would take to get a trading partner, it would be very tempting.

[Chiefnj2]

Originally Posted by milkman

I saw the stats you posted for tackles and forced fumbles for Kuechly in another thread, but the stat that I would be interested in would be the number of tackles for loss he made.

12 which doesn't put him in the top 90 college players.

http://www.cfbstats.com/2011/leader/...21/sort01.html

[ForeverChiefs58]

Originally Posted by milkman

I saw the stats you posted for tackles and forced fumbles for Kuechly in another thread, but the stat that I would be interested in would be the number of tackles for loss he made.

Meh. In 3 seasons he had 35.5 tackles for a loss. To put it in comparison, look at another good tackling ILB, who also is good in coverage. Patrick Willis in 3 seasons at University of Mississippi had 32 tackles for a loss.

Here are the numbers for Kuechly's 3 seasons versus Patrick Willis' 3 seasons as a starter in college:

Player - Willis- Kuechly
Games Played - 32- 38
Solo Tackles - 231- 299
Assisted Tackles - 104- 233
Tackles for Loss - 32- 35.5
Loss Yardage - 148- 97
Forced Fumbles - 5- 2
Interceptions - 1- 7
Interception Yards - 0- 130
Touchdowns - 0- 2
Pass Breakups - 11- 10

Willis did create 3 more fumbles than Kuechly did but Kuechly blew Willis away with 7 interceptions, 130 interception return yards, and 2 TD's compared with Willis' 1 interception returned for no yardage.

No matter who we get, they will improve our team, and our defense should be pretty fun to watch this year.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by ForeverChiefs58

Meh. In 3 seasons he had 35.5 tackles for a loss. To put it in comparison, look at another good tackling ILB that entered the draft after 3 seasons, who also is good in coverage. Patrick Willis in 3 seasons at University of Mississippi had 32 tackles for a loss.

Here are the numbers for Kuechly's 3 seasons versus Patrick Willis' 3 seasons as a starter in college:

Player - Willis- Kuechly
Games Played - 32- 38
Solo Tackles - 231- 299
Assisted Tackles - 104- 233
Tackles for Loss - 32- 35.5
Loss Yardage - 148- 97
Forced Fumbles - 5- 2
Interceptions - 1- 7
Interception Yards - 0- 130
Touchdowns - 0- 2
Pass Breakups - 11- 10

Willis did create 3 more fumbles than Kuechly did but Kuechly blew Willis away with 7 interceptions, 130 interception return yards, and 2 TD's compared with Willis' 1 interception returned for no yardage.

No matter who we get, they will improve our team, and our defense should be pretty fun to watch this year.

What these numbers tell me though, is that Kuechly is an athletic guy with speed, but he doesn't bust up a lot of plays.

He reminds of of Donnie Edwards, who made a lot of tackles because of his speed, but he wasn't a physical guy that knocked people on thir ass.

Defending the pass has become more and more important, but you still need to knock ball carriers on their ass to get into those passing situations, and Belcher is a thumper that does that, and he also takes on blockers that allows for DJ to make plays.

I'd rather take a corner, a pass rusher, or a safety.