Haley Credits In House Development For Defensive Success

Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley met with the media today as the team is in the midst of preparing to travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts.

One of the topics of discussion were the obvious improvements on the Chiefs defense. Kansas City had one of the worst units in the league last season but in 2010, through three games at least, they have one of the best. What is the most suprising is that for the most part, the faces on D for the Chiefs haven’t changed.

“I think it’s going to come back to the same things I’ve been talking about which is, you’ve got to develop the players that you have and that development has been going on now for a year-and-a-half or wherever we are in that process, and we’ve had some clear development by players,” said Haley.

More after the jump.

While guys like Jovan Belcher, Derrick Johnson, Andy Studebaker and Glenn Dorsey have shown obvious improvement, there have been some new faces that are contributing as well. The additions of safeties Eric Betty and Kendrick Lewis, along with nickel corner Javier Arenas, has added some much needed speed and athleticism to a unit that was lacking both in 2010.

I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” said Haley.  “Guys are understanding a little clearer what, how they’re supposed to do things and then doing it and executing at a higher level to this point. The key is that we understand that we have a lot of room for improvement in a lot of different areas and that we continue to work hard at that and making progress. That’s just what we’re in the middle of right now, the very early stages of it.”

Despite the early success, however, Haley knows his young defense must continue to improve.

“Because of the result I’m happy with the way everybody’s played to this point but at the same time I understand that we need to make improvement in a number of different areas and that includes defense, offense and special teams, “Haley told reporters.  “And if we don’t do that then success won’t come as fast as we want it to come.”