Mandatory Credit: Bruce Hemmeglen – USA Today Sports
Sean Smith
When Sean Smith came back from his suspension, it was supposed to usher in the return of the dominant Chiefs passing defense of 2014. While the defense did improve when he came back, we haven’t gotten the Sean Smith that we saw last year. In no game was this more evident then against the Bears, where he had a tough time keeping tabs on their third and fourth string receivers.
However, as is the case with Wilson, Smith has been trending up recently.Watching him go toe-to-toe with Calvin Johnson in London was awesome and showed me that Smith is capable of reaching his 2014 level. With Phillip Gaines going to down early on, and every corner not named Peters struggling, Smith’s ability to consistently lockdown his side of the field is going to be vital if this defense wants to continue to make life difficult for opponents.
Dontari Poe
I’m chalking this one up to injuries. From back surgery to a dreaded high ankle sprain, Poe has struggled to remain healthy all season. And while it hasn’t shown up in the number of games played, it has shown on the impact he’s been able to make. In fact, I think it would be pretty hard to argue that Dontari is no longer the best defensive tackle on this roster thanks to the meteoric rise of Jaye Howard. Now that’s a sentence I never thought I would be writing.
When Poe is on his game, you see him eat multiple blockers up, stop running plays from even developing, and push pockets when quarterbacks drop back to pass. We haven’t seen too much of that Poe this season, but with the recent bye week giving him a chance to get some much needed rest, I’m hopeful that we’ll finally get the beast in the middle back.
The Chiefs expected more from these players heading into the 2015 season. The good news is that there is still eight more games for each of these guys to elevate their play to the levels we know they are capable of. Because if they don’t, we won’t be seeing the Chiefs play any meaningful football come January.