Double Take: A DVOA Assessment Of The 201O Chiefs Defensive Line

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As a natural follow up to last week’s DVOA breakdown of the 2010 Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line, this week we take a look at how our defensive line fared using the same analysis. The prevailing consensus seems to be that Glen Dorsey is making good progress, Tyson Jackson still has a lot of question marks, and we need to upgrade at Nose Tackle. Are these all fair assessments?

Well, we’ll find out if Football Outsider’s DVOA analytical assessment of our defensive line justifies those popular opinions, or, maybe, just maybe, throws us any surprises – right after the jump.

Similar to last week, the first two of the following charts characterize the 2010 Chiefs defensive line success relative to the rest of the league with comparisons to the DL’s performance in 2009. In the first chart, for defense, “Power” refers to success in defending against short yardage situations on either 3rd down, 4th down or goal line situations, “Stuffed” means stuffed, “2nd Level” refers to success in preventing runs of 5 to 10 yards, and “Open Field” means success in preventing runs of more than 10 yards. In the second and third charts, Left End and Right End refer to rushes outside the tackles, Left Tackle and Right Tackle refer to runs that go between the respective tackle and guards, while Middle/Guard refers means anything that goes between the two guards without respect to which side of the Center they fall. Lastly, the third chart indicates where along the line Chiefs opponents preferred to run the ball and how those preferences compare to NFL averages as computed through the 2010 regular season.

Much as we saw with the offensive line, it is quite apparent that the overall effectiveness of our defensive line was significantly better in 2010 than where it was in 2009. Then again, we were at or near the bottom of the league in several categories last year . . .

Couple things jumped out at me right away.

This season, we were amazingly good (2nd best) at stopping runs outside the Right Tackle. Unless I’m mistaken, this responsibility, or credit if you will, is associated with the “Jackson/Vrabel/Belcher” side of the line. I was honestly stunned when I saw that.

The second big thing that pops out is just how much teams like to run straight at us and how generally successful they were when they did so. This to me is a great argument saying that our entire defense ought to improve dramatically with a major upgrade at NT during the offseason. In fact, I would say that improving this position should be considered at least as important as landing a quality receiver (or two). What’s more, based on how he handled his workload outside the guard, I am now inclined to think that putting a skilled NT clogger/pusher alongside Tin Man is most likely to improve the play of the latter on either of the side of the guard.

Those two mentions out of the way, I’ll wrap with the general observation that even though our DL improved in 2010, it is still significantly below average in almost every category. Even where we did show the most significant jump (i.e., pass pressure) there is still plenty of room for getting better.

That’s my Double Take. What are your takes Addicts?

Tags: Glenn Dorsey, kansas city chiefs, mike vrabel, romeo crennel, Tyson Jackson

Double D

Paddy/Big Matt, As far as position assignments go, I mainly went off the Chiefs official website and then verified that against depth chart shown on NFL.com. You're right though to some extent, Hali seemed to come from one side as much as the other. To the exact extent I am not really sure but I think he usually tended to get his sacks/pressures from the right side. Valid point on Perv Smith as well - somehow forgot to squeeze him into my assessment when I was going through all this.

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Patrick Allen

Great stuff as usual DD. Couple of thoughts. -The right side may have been better but it wasn't because of Vrabel or Tyson Jackson. Vrabel was terrible (as you'll see in my roster evaluation of him in just a bit) and Jackson hardly played. My guess for the improvement of runs to the right side is the additions of Belcher, Shaun Smitth and Eric Berry. Berry probably had the biggest impact. His speed and tackling ability are so much greater that what we saw from Mike Brown. The Chiefs also used him a lot in run support. Next, you have Shaun Smith, who had over 50 tackles playing part time. Tyson Jackson played all year in 2009 and registered, I believe in the 30's in tackles. Belcher, who has problems with pass coverage, excels in his run defense. It is the best part of his game. He is much better at it than Corey Mays was last year. Thus I think the productivity came from Berry, Smith and Belcher in spite of the shortcomings of Jackson and Vrabel.

Nick Rodgers

I was thinking Berry as well and was going to ask if DVOA took considerations for tackles made by the secondary with these statistics.

I believe they do. I mean if a Safety run blitzes and gets the stuff, that's still a stuff.

Right, the question is does his ability to defend the run (which has been of much talk in the Chiefs world this season) make Vrabel's/Jackson's play look better? If this is not figured out of the statistics, then I would agree with Paddy that it definitely does.

Then again, to what extent does Berry commit to the run? I know it can't be constantly. I think the fact that opponents did not particularly favor running outside right (2% below league average) needs to be looked at as well. In other words, the rest of league respected our ability to shut that side down. My sense is that credit for that ought to be distributed among the players with responsibility for that side. We know one thing for sure - Edwards gets no credit for that particular success and in my mind is the weakest link of our defense. Mind you, that's a pretty damning indictment considering that NT is regarded as the single most important role in the 34.

True, good call Double D.

Big Matt

Nice to see we did well in pass pressure, although that pretty much has to include Hali, right? Or is Gilberry really enough to carry us that far? I know profootballfocus has Dorsey and Tin Man rated as terrible pass rushers, and Perv and Sweet Ron are more cloggers than anything. I think you might have your linebacker order mixed up a bit. I had DJ playing on the Tin Man/Perv side more often than not. And Vrabel and Hali really seemed to switch back and forth on the reg. I know Hali likes to rush from the left. Plus Perv got way more snaps there than Jackson, didn't he? And isn't that also the side Gilberry normally comes in on? Interesting. I guess I'm just not inclined to give Tyson Jackson or Mike Vrabel credit for anything positive. When watched individually, you just can't (cue comment about Tin Man eating blockers).

Paddy/Big Matt,

As far as position assignments go, I mainly went off the Chiefs official website and then verified that against depth chart shown on NFL.com.

You're right though to some extent, Hali seemed to come from one side as much as the other. To the exact extent I am not really sure but I think he usually tended to get his sacks/pressures from the right side.

Valid point on Perv Smith as well - somehow forgot to squeeze him into my assessment when I was going through all this.

Great stuff as usual DD.

Couple of thoughts.

-The right side may have been better but it wasn't because of Vrabel or Tyson Jackson. Vrabel was terrible (as you'll see in my roster evaluation of him in just a bit) and Jackson hardly played.

My guess for the improvement of runs to the right side is the additions of Belcher, Shaun Smitth and Eric Berry.

Berry probably had the biggest impact. His speed and tackling ability are so much greater that what we saw from Mike Brown. The Chiefs also used him a lot in run support.

Next, you have Shaun Smith, who had over 50 tackles playing part time. Tyson Jackson played all year in 2009 and registered, I believe in the 30's in tackles.

Belcher, who has problems with pass coverage, excels in his run defense. It is the best part of his game. He is much better at it than Corey Mays was last year.

Thus I think the productivity came from Berry, Smith and Belcher in spite of the shortcomings of Jackson and Vrabel.

I think you might have your linebacker order mixed up a bit. I had DJ playing on the Tin Man/Perv side more often than not. And Vrabel and Hali really seemed to switch back and forth on the reg. I know Hali likes to rush from the left. Plus Perv got way more snaps there than Jackson, didn't he? And isn't that also the side Gilberry normally comes in on? Interesting.

I guess I'm just not inclined to give Tyson Jackson or Mike Vrabel credit for anything positive. When watched individually, you just can't (cue comment about Tin Man eating blockers).