How Tillery fits in Kansas City
Kansas City is in a Super Bowl ‘window.’ If they want to maximize production in 2019, they will get immediate production from Tillery. With a defensive line that would feature Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi and Jerry Tillery, offensive lines would struggle with the variety of looks that the Chiefs could deploy. With the athleticism of Jones and Tillery, they could easily be moved to defensive ends. In fact, I would expect one of them to be a mainstay at strongside defensive end if Tillery, or someone like him is added to the roster.
Tillery is an explosive pass-rusher. While he is not a behemoth like Nnadi and does not stop the run at an exceptional level, he, at least partially, makes up for the pass-rushing ability that Justin Houston provided the team. I believe that Tillery would fit in very well with the aggressive defensive front that Spagnuolo has shown to love throughout his career in his various schemes.
If you watch the tape from Spagnuolo’s time as a defensive coordinator, you can quickly see how often he likes to rotate his defensive linemen in and out of the game. Tillery’s quickness and versatilty is extremely intriguing for an aggressive coordinator who loves versatility up front along the line. Therefore, Tillery would make a great fit in Kansas City’s new defensive scheme.
Ultimately I believe that Kansas City could consider moving Chris Jones to strongside defensive end. With his quickness and size, he would be an ideal fit anywhere that Spagnuolo would like to use him. With Tillery aboard, the Chiefs could use him in the exact same manner. Either player has incredible versatility with their quickness and size.