The Kansas City Chiefs retain Bob Sutton for another week
By Matt Conner
Another week has nearly come and gone and the Kansas City Chiefs continue to employ Bob Sutton as defensive coordinator.
Ever since the 2017 season ended for the Kansas City Chiefs, head coach Andy Reid has made a number of changes to his coaching staff. However, Chiefs Kingdom is largely still waiting to hear about one major change in particular—one that seems less and less likely given the amount of time that’s already passed as well as the lack of buzz.
Bob Sutton has been Reid’s defensive coordinator since he first arrived in 2013 after coming over from the New York Jets. He’s enjoyed some nice years with the team, but somehow the Chiefs defense fell apart in 2017 to the tune of allowing the most yards in the NFL—more than basement dwelling teams like the Cleveland Browns or Indianapolis Colts.
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Immediately after the season, calls were made for Sutton to be fired, including a scathing column from Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star. The reasons were many, even beyond allowing a ridiculous number of yards, including the inconsistency of Marcus Peters, the regression early on for Chris Jones, the frustrating development of Dee Ford and the inability of the secondary to put itself together after losing Eric Berry for the year. Oh yeah, it doesn’t help that the team’s single best pass rusher is dropping back into coverage.
So far, Reid has replaced his offensive coordinator after losing Matt Nagy to the Chicago Bears to be their head coach. Eric Bieniemy took the position and the Chiefs brought in an young outsider in Deland McCullough at running backs coach. The Chiefs also added another young defensive mind in Jay Valai from the University of Georgia to be quality control.
Now fans are waiting for the axe to fall on Sutton, but the longer time passes, the more like Sutton is to stay in his position. It’s possible Reid is waiting on someone who is still coaching right now, but in the end, we might want to brace for another year of Sutton’s leadership.