Kansas City Chiefs rank 2nd in special teams rankings

Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings are out for the 2017 season and the Kansas City Chiefs are, once again, near the top.

Rick Gosselin, popular NFL analyst and presenter of his own annual special teams rankings, recently released his 2017 list based upon the recently completed regular season and, once again, the Kansas City Chiefs are near the top. In fact, if not for a historic performance by the Los Angeles Rams’ own special teams unit, the Chiefs would have been first overall.

Every year, the Chiefs rank among the league’s best special teams units in every aspect largely because the leadership of Dave Toub is second to none. He’s arguably the NFL’s best special teams coach and he’s earned a number of head coaching interviews over the last couple years as teams have realized just how strong of a leader he is. In fact, the lack of interviews for Toub this offseason is a little odd considering his consistency.

Gosselin explains his own homemade formula here:

"Here’s the formula for the rankings: The league’s 32 teams are ranked in 22 kicking game categories and assigned points according to their standing – one for best, 32 for worst. In the 14 years the ranking has expanded to include 22 categories, no team had ever amassed fewer than 200 total points."

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For the Chiefs, Toub has proven able to keep them at or near the top of such standings no matter who comes and goes. Cairo Santos continued to get more and more accurate by the year, but gave way this year to the NFL’s best rookie kicker in Harrison Butker. Dustin Colquitt also turned in another Pro Bowl performance in 2017 as the team’s solid veteran punter. Rookies like Jehu Chesson and Ukeme Eligwe blossomed as special teams performers under Toub’s tutelage.

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, returns weren’t as strong this year without Tyreek Hill back to field kicks. Akeem Hunt tried to fill in as well as De’Anthony Thomas, but it will be interesting to see the Chiefs offseason approach to returner.

No matter what they choose, they know their options are in good hands for at least another season with Dave Toub at the helm.