The Kansas City Chiefs have made their first change among their defensive assistant coaches by hiring Jay Valai as quality control.
After a myriad of moves on the offensive side of head coach Andy Reid’s staff of assistants, the first move on the defensive side has been announced with the rumored addition of Jay Valai, per Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star.
Valai is being hired as a defensive quality control assistant with some additional responsibilities. As explained by Paylor here:
The Chiefs have hired Jay Valai to be a defensive quality control coach, a source confirms. I'm told he'll also help coach the DBs or LBs, but that part is not finalized yet.
— RIP Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) January 15, 2018
Valai was with the University of Georgia last year in the exact same position: defensive quality control. He’s held the position since 2016 when he was first hired by Kirby Smart. Valai also played college ball at Wisconsin as a four-year safety. It’s an interesting addition, for sure, but likely bears little resemblance to the sort of move that most Kansas City Chiefs fans were waiting for.
Right now, Bob Sutton remains the team’s defensive coordinator despite a pretty vocal group of fans and even media who have called for a change. Once the anchor of the team’s ability to compete in the playoffs year after year, Sutton’s unit had a below average year in which they gave up the most yards in the entire NFL, ranking 32nd overall in yards allowed.
Perhaps the addition of Valai and other tweaks will be enough to help the Chiefs get the defense back on track. Of course, player changes will also play a serious part in that, including players like Eric Berry returning from injury.
You can follow Jay Valai on Twitter here.