Bob Sutton’s defense has struggled immensely over the last two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. Joshua Brisco explains why this season will be his last.
“Why is this year going to be any different?”
It’s the oft-repeated—and completely fair—question that comes up in any conversation about Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton being fired at the end of the 2018 season.
In the past, Sutton has survived after both miserable year-long results and a miserable playoff loss to the Titans. Head coach Andy Reid tends to be a loyal man, both to his players and his assistant coaches. Despite all of that, I truly believe that we are seeing Bob Sutton’s final season as defensive coordinator of the Chiefs.
There are three predominant reasons that Andy Reid is (probably) going to find a new defensive coordinator for the 2019 season.
It’s Happening—Again
As Seth Keysor said on the show and in his piece on The Athletic, this isn’t a knee-jerk reaction, a small-sample-size ruling, or an arrow shot at an easy scapegoat. This is a conviction for a repeat offender. How many times can an entire classroom full of students fail before blame is eventually put on the teacher?
More Is Being Wasted
This season and the next few seasons have more on the line than ever before. The Chiefs have two windows that are closing—done faster than the other.
First, the Chiefs have the overall window of Patrick Mahomes. How many years of Mahomes’ prime will be partially defined by the league’s worst defense supporting him?
Second, and more pressingly, the Chiefs have Mahomes’ rookie-deal window. The clock is clicking especially loudly on that front. Mahomes may be great for a decade, but he can only be an incredible value for another couple of seasons. Eventually, his cap hit will rival that of Aaron Rodgers.
If the Chiefs want to play with the biggest cheat-code in the sport, an incredible quarterback on his first contract, they need to maximize it now by building a defense that can hold up its end of the bargain.
Hope. Maybe Faith.
This is subjective, but I have hope that the Chiefs will make the right move—perhaps faith in Andy Reid doing the difficult thing. He did that at the quarterback position by sending Alex Smith out of Kansas City to make way for Patrick Mahomes. This offseason, the biggest change will be finding a new voice to rule over the Chiefs’ defense. I think he’ll do it.
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