The Chiefs first team defense seemed to struggle last week against the Falcons. Should Chiefs fans be worried about the defense after the poor performance?
Week 2 of the NFL preseason had a lot of exciting moments for the Kansas City Chiefs. Whether it was Patrick Mahomes throwing a 70-yard bomb to Tyreek Hill or Ben Niemann returning his first pick-six in the NFL, there were plenty of positives to take away from the game.
As many good things that we saw, there were also plenty of negative things. Most of these issues happened on the defensive side of the ball, which has many fans worried about the state of the defense.
The Atlanta Falcons had no problem running through the defense like it was swiss cheese with backup running back Tevin Coleman. The Falcons also had an efficient passing attack without the aid of Julio Jones who did not play in the game. The reactions from fans were ones of worry and sometimes anger, many were claiming that Brett Veach had not done enough during the draft to fix things.
Many fans specifically stated that Veach had not done what was needed to bolster the Chiefs depleted secondary, which is an issue that Veach himself believes needs to be addressed as well. Kansas City had both Orlando Scandrick and Bashaud Breeland in for visits over the past few weeks. The Chiefs ended up signing Scandrick to a one year deal worth $1.5 million. While the signing of Scandrick does not fix all of the defensive woes on the team, it does help Kansas City with depth in their secondary.
More from Arrowhead Addict
- Former Chiefs cornerback in legal trouble in Las Vegas
- Chiefs Kingdom: Get ready to break contract news
- Chiefs news: Travis Kelce wants to host fan ‘chug-off’ in Germany
- Podcast: Breaking down the Chiefs biggest roster battles
- KC Chiefs send Dave Merritt to NFL coaching accelerator
While Coleman did have an easy time finding lanes to run through, he did this against Kansas City’s second string linebackers. Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland both sat out of the game due to some minor injuries that they had sustained during training camp. In their place, Ukeme Elgiwe and Terrance Smith started instead.
They both seemed to have a hard time correctly identifying their gaps and attacking them. They also sometimes seemed to misidentify which gap was their responsibility and overran it entirely leaving perfect cutback lanes for Coleman to squeeze through. These are issues that both Ragland and Hitchens will fix once they are back on the field.
While the return of the starters will be a big boost to the defense, the biggest reason to not worry is how young they are. The depth chart that was sent out in advance of the first preseason game had a starting defense with an average age of 26.3. The first depth chart included Daniel Sorensen if you take him out due to his injury and replace him with his projected back up Leon McQuay that number drops to just 25.9.
The oldest players on the starting defense are Eric Berry, Justin Houston, and Allen Bailey, all of whom are 29 years old, this makes for a very young, and in some cases, inexperienced defense. The defense that we see Week 1 of this season will not be the same as the one we will see Week 17. As the unit becomes more experienced in Bob Sutton’s scheme, we should see an increase in their overall play, barring any injuries of course.
We all have to remember this was just a preseason game; the Chiefs staff is not necessarily trying to win these games. They are instead focusing on evaluating players and seeing who should make the final 53 man roster. Let us all pump the brakes on the negativity, things will improve as soon as the starters return and as the season continues.