Marcus Peters inspiring an opportunistic Chiefs defense

Coming into the 2016 season, there was trepidation that the Kansas City Chiefs defense might be a shell of its former self sans star outside linebacker Justin Houston. The loss of one of the league’s top pass rushers would surely affect a young secondary that had already suffered the departure of cornerback Sean Smith (to the Oakland Raiders). The ability to defend the pass in today’s NFL is largely contingent upon how much pressure you can consistently bring. The more time a quarterback has to throw, the less likely your defensivebacks are to sustain good coverage.

Between 2015 Defensive Rookie of the Year Marcus Peters and 2014-draftee Phillip Gaines, Kansas City is plenty talented on the outside, but the best coverage still tends to break down after more than four or five seconds.

The most dependable pass-rushing option behind Houston is 32-year old Tamba Hali. At this stage of his career, he’s on a limited practice schedule and just isn’t as productive as he once was as a younger player. Dee Ford’s still trying desperately to live up to his draft promise and rest of the depth chart, at the outside linebacker spot, is little more than waiver-wire fodder.

Houston isn’t set to re-join the team until at least November. Until he returns, the Chiefs defense is in full survival mode. If they can’t be as routinely good as they were a year ago, the next best thing is to be opportunistic — like they were when they took the ball away from the New York Jets eight times last Sunday.

With the ascension of Peters, I think it’s possible they could continue to be a big-play defense that prides itself on turnovers. In fact, I think his example might be the catalyst that recreates some of those 90’s Chiefs defenses that were luckier than they were good.

If you can’t perform at the 2015 level on a regular basis, you could capitalize on turnover opportunities when they present themselves. I may or may not be exaggerating here, but over the past five years, it seems as though Kansas City has dropped more interceptions than any other team in the NFL. That’s much harder to prove than it is to claim, but until Peters came along, the occasion always seemed to slip through their fingers (pun intended).