What should the Kansas City Chiefs do with Dee Ford?

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The Kansas City Chiefs used their 2014 first round pick on Dee Ford but it may be time to accept that he doesn’t have a future with the team.

On November 13th, 2016, Dee Ford collected his 10th sack of the season for the Kansas City Chiefs. It was only the Chiefs ninth game of the year and it put Dee Ford at the top of the leader board for sacks in all the NFL. For a brief moment in time it appeared as though Ford was going to live up to the first round pick that the Chiefs had used on him.

Unfortunately, that was 639 days ago and it was the last time that Dee Ford made much of a positive contribution for the Kansas City Chiefs. Ford would not record another sack in K.C.’s final seven games that season, and then in 2017, he recorded just two sacks in six games due to injuries and inconsistent play. Now Dee Ford is in the final year of his contract with the Chiefs, and it is time for K.C. to make some hard decisions on what to do with him.

We will never know if the Chiefs were hoping to bring Dee Ford back for this season to begin with. Due to his long recovery time from his season-ending injury, his salary for 2018 (a little over $8.7 million) became fully guaranteed. Perhaps the Chiefs were 100% committed to keeping him around this year for that amount or maybe they were considering moving on. Like I said, we’ll never know. What we do know is that Dee Ford is and will be a Chief in 2018. When his salary became fully guaranteed, it meant that K.C. would be responsible for every last dollar of it even if they cut him before the start of the season.

Ford has not lived up to his first round draft status, but he’s also not the kind of player that is SO bad that you pay him $8.7 million to just go away. As the first nine games of 2016 showed, Ford does have some legit pass rushing upside. He is definitely worthy of being on an NFL roster.

However, as the last 639 days have shown, he is also not reliable for two different reasons. First, he has had trouble staying healthy. He missed most of last season and even before that his play and reps have been effected by other nagging injuries throughout his time with the Chiefs. In fact, just yesterday Ford had to leave practice early (apparently he was feeling sick). The other reason he isn’t reliable is because, even when he is on the field, his play is so inconsistent.

Ford’s upside as a pass rusher is still there, but he simply hasn’t been able to give the Chiefs reliable pressure opposite Justin Houston. Then when you add in the fact that Ford is a liability against the run, it equals a player that the Chiefs simply can’t afford to invest in going forward.

The Future at OLB

The Chiefs now have two promising outside linebackers that they’ve invested consecutive second round picks on in Tanoh Kpassagnon and Breeland Speaks. While both of those players still need to develop their game, it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify denying them getting more in-game reps in order to give them to Ford. Both Kpassagnon and Speaks outweigh Ford by over 30 pounds, and even though their technique needs refining, they can already hold up at the point of attack better than Ford.

Case in point. The following tweet from the Athletic’s Seth Keysor was intended to show the excellent play of Xavier Williams (who was very impressive), but it also shows Ford being controlled at the line of scrimmage—not by an offensive tackle, but a tight end, thus allowing the Texans to run right at him for a big gain.

If you watch Dee Ford closely against the run you see plays like this far too often. If Ford was consistently getting to the quarterback, you might tolerate his weakness in the run game, but with just two sacks in his last 12 regular season games you simply can’t rely on that either.

The Chiefs have three outside linebackers that they have significant commitments to after this season. The two second rounders Kpass and Speaks that are still on their rookie deals and Justin Houston who will still have enough guaranteed money left on his deal to make cutting him in 2019 hard to justify. (In 2019 the Chiefs would have $7.1 million in dead cap space if they cut Houston but that drops to just $1.5 million in 2020.)

Dee Ford’s Future

So my question is if there is ANY scenario where the Chiefs would bring Dee Ford back after this season?

I don’t think so.

Let’s say Ford continues to be the player he has been for most of his time in Kansas City. He battles some injuries here and there, is weak against the run, and flashes a little pass rush upside here and there but not enough to be a real difference maker. If that’s the case there is zero reason to bring him back unless he simply takes a veteran minimum deal to be a backup for the Chiefs.

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On the other hand, let’s say Ford does put it all together finally this season and gets 12-15 sacks opposite Justin Houston and sets himself up for a decent pay day. Does it make sense for the Chiefs to be the team that gives him that pay day?

I don’t think so.

Even if he’s great this season, you have too much already invested at outside linebacker to give another guy a big deal—especially given that you have two young guys at the position that you are developing to be regular players and how inconsistent Ford has been up until this point. Even if Ford was great this year, how confident would you be that he could replicate that success over the life of a new contract?

Dee Ford in 2018

So if logic dictates that Ford will be done in Kansas City after this season, the Chiefs have zero reason to approach Ford’s use this season with his long term development in mind. The question is no longer “How can we turn Dee Ford into a great every down player?” the question is now “In what role does Dee Ford best help the Kansas City Chiefs?”

In my opinion there is zero reason to play Dee Ford in the base defense any more. Kpassagnon and Speaks are stronger at the point of attack to help the run defense and can still offer some help in applying pressure on the quarterback too. Even if you don’t factor in getting those two more in-game experience (which does help their development), it still makes sense just from a standpoint of who’s better suited to succeed in that role right now. So if I was calling the shots, Ford would not be an every down player any more. I would turn him into a situational pass rusher.

While Kpassagnon and Speaks definitely have shown some pass rush ability, neither of them have the first step quickness off the line that Ford does. Let Ford stay fresh by keeping him on the sidelines until a clear passing situation and then send him out there with the sole focus of getting after the quarterback. It plays to his strength and it plays to the strength (literally, the physical strength) of Kpass and Speaks as well.

I simply don’t see a downside to this approach. Ford isn’t going to suddenly become a great run defender this season and the Chiefs no longer have any reason to worry about Ford’s development beyond this season. They do have two promising (and much larger) outside linebacker prospects who they would benefit from developing as much as possible this season.

It’s time to admit that Ford simply doesn’t have a future with the Kansas City Chiefs. So here’s to hoping that Bob Sutton understands that and uses him accordingly. If he does, I believe Ford can still be a valuable role player for the Chiefs this season and they can get their young outside linebackers some valuable experience to help their development. It’s a win/win situation.

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So what do you think Chiefs fans? Do you agree that Ford doesn’t have a future in Kansas City after this season? Do you agree that his best role on this team is as a situational pass rusher? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and go Chiefs!

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