Coming for the Kingdom: How Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has the NFL — and the Shanahan tree — flummoxed

The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to do something no team has ever done: win three straight Super Bowls.

The rest of the NFL is trying to stop them.

Here are the key elements of the Chiefs’ success, which will again play a role in their quest — and could provide clues to how other teams can unseat the kings of the NFL.

(Stefan Milic/Yahoo Sports)

The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense was inconsistent last year. Sure, they won the Super Bowl and finished in the top-10 in all the underlying metrics and Patrick Mahomes was still Patrick Mahomes. But it was not a reliably efficient unit week-in and week-out in 2023.

What was reliable, and what helped carry the load for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run, was the defense led by coordinator and longtime coach Steve Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo’s defenses during his Kansas City tenure have been the afterthought of the overall Chiefs hierarchy. It was Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid and a little bit of Chris Jones to close out games. That’s the formula, everyone else get out of the way so we can get back to it.

It was typically a high-risk dice roll scheme that was designed to create chaos and to get the football back quickly in one way or another to their all-time quarterback, with the unit generally improving as the season went along and into the playoffs as Spagnuolo started to work his magic as one of the best single-game defensive planners in recent NFL memory. But last year, there was a stark difference with how Chiefs games felt. The Chiefs’ defense was good. Like, really good.

A big part of that was the recent injection of talent via the draft and free agency throughout the defense, with Spagnuolo understanding how to unlock his unique collection of personnel.

They’re well-coached and physical. A contrast to the smoke and mirrors and, shall we say, indifferent attitude toward tackling than this unit had in recent years (which was also what likely led to the Justin Reid addition). The plethora of defensive backs that Spagnuolo would…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-28 20:04:43

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