Worrying about losing individual players from a league-worst defense is a silly exercise. If the Chiefs need to blow it all up to win, do it.
Justin Houston’s time in Kansas City is all but over. Dee Ford has been tagged but could be dealt. If neither player is in a Chiefs uniform when the 2019 season kicks off, it will mean the front office willingly sent packing two of the biggest reasons for the team’s lone defensive bright spot in 2018.
You know what? I’m fine with that. There’s a certain perception among some that it’d be foolish to essentially hit the reset button on the only good thing about the Chiefs’ defense, but even an elite pass rush couldn’t elevate K.C. out of the basement.
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So, in turn, I honestly do not care anymore. The 2018 Chiefs defense sapped my ability to feel anything about losing anyone on that crew over the age of 25. Even Eric Berry (who I love and will defend forever, and if I was in the general manager’s chair I’d likely keep at least for 2019). If Brett Veach and the Chiefs decide to let go of him as well, I won’t complain. I see the reasoning. At some point, you just have to blow it all up and start from as close to scratch that remains within sound logic. (You make sure Chris Jones sticks around, obviously).
If the price of getting the defense to, at a bare minimum, “not the worst” at every position group is the money saved now and in the future by letting go of Houston, Ford, and possibly even Berry, then that’s something every Chiefs fan should happily sign up for. Not to beat a dead horse, but “not the worst” level defense in 2018 was the threshold between the Chiefs and a ring.
That lingering “but they’re our guys” feeling surrounding the potential losses of players like Houston, Ford, and Berry is a survival mechanism that’s a holdover from when the Chiefs were a total loser franchise. Which is totally understandable–the Chiefs have been a total loser franchise for decades, and only recently broke out of that miserable cycle of Just Good Enough peppered with stints of Just Plain Garbage.
When your favorite team is never good enough to be great, your emotional attachment to the few players who are great is even stronger. Even players who just flirt with being above-average get elevated to a higher status. Remember how much we loved Dwayne Bowe for like two or three years? There are probably 50 other players that also fit that bill, but Bowe feels like the most blatant example of the “we suck, but we got this guy” delusion in Chiefs history.
With guys like Houston or Berry, who’ve been cornerstones through some of the roughest years of the franchise and now have finally been a part of a winning culture, it can feel extra bitter to let them go when the team feels this close to a Super Bowl. But that, again, is a mentality that comes from a long legacy of not winning much of anything. If the Patriots have taught us anything, it’s that it’s a lot easier to let good players go when you’re winning championships.
Which isn’t to say I totally trust Brett Veach to build that “not the worst” defense. I’ll give him a pass on last year’s draft class and hope Steve Spagnuolo brings out the best in them. But his first year saw him giving out contracts that felt more like Madden than reality, and that’ll likely continue this offseason. I understand the theory that when you see the opportunity for a Super Bowl you spend now and don’t think too hard about the future, but when you have Patrick Mahomes at QB you can still be great while being smart with where you spend your money. But, of course, I’m just a fan and I’ll never be a GM. Perhaps there’s a master plan and I’ll look like a fool for worrying and there won’t be a cap crisis with multiple, backbreaking casualties in a few years. Still, something has to be done with this defense and taking the shot on rebuilding is better than doing nothing.
It feels strange and wrong to think of Houston or Berry in a different uniform. But the NFL has taught us over and over that is a strangeness that fades quickly. Brett Favre in Vikings purple. Peyton Manning in Broncos orange. Even Joe Montana in Chiefs red. They all now just feel like small but important parts of those players’ histories now. Not to pick at a recently-reopened (and self-inflicted, you babies) wound, but it took me all of like two weeks to get used to Tony Gonzalez as a Falcon and realize any thought of that tainting his Chiefs legacy was silly fan babble.
If it’s time to tear the defense down to build something at least competent across the board, then so be it. The status quo obviously was never going to work, and the bold decision to wipe the slate as clean as possible is an invigorating one. Whatever puzzle the Chiefs are putting together, it’s obvious many of the pieces they already have don’t fit. If the pieces they fit into their new plan all comes together, we’ll finally have a championship team to be attached to instead of just individual players.