How Steve Spagnuolo’s defense could look with Kansas City Chiefs

Steve Spagnuolo’s philosophy and scheme are the opposite of what we have seen from the Kanas City Chiefs in recent years. We discuss what you can expect.

The Kansas City Chiefs hired Steve Spagnuolo on Thursday to replace Bob Sutton as the team’s new defensive coordinator. The move was met with cheers and jeers from Chiefs fans.

In Kansas City, we have seen Bob Sutton run the team’s defense for six seasons and, despite what you may hear on Twitter, you should not expect more of the same going forward. The Chiefs have a brand new identity on defense.

With Spagnuolo running the defense, here are some of the key things to expect going forward.

A 4-3 defense:

You have all heard it by now. The Chiefs are likely shifting from the 3-4 base defense that we have grown accustomed to and going to a 4-3. This is simple to understand. It means that the Chiefs will have four down linemen and three linebackers as their defensive front. By the way that a 4-3 is structured, it can make it easier to defend against the run. In most 4-3 defenses, linebackers are separately good at different things and are generally able to defend against the run and the pass.

What this means for the Chiefs:

This is not really a huge change because the NFL runs mostly sub-packages to combat the high volume passing attack. As it stands now, you are likely looking at a front four of Justin Houston on one end and Dee Ford on the other. The defensive tackles would likely be Derrick Nnadi and Chris Jones. To me, that attack is lethal and could prove to be an incredible pass rush. For linebackers, it seems to be Dorian O’Daniel, Anthony Hitchens and a mystery linebacker. Reggie Ragland simply does not fit the requirements of a 4-3 linebacker.