The Kansas City Chiefs will be much better in coverage in 2019
Opposing QB Ratings by Position Group:
Targeting Cornerbacks: 84.2 (6th in the NFL)
Targeting Safeties: 107.9 (28th in the NFL)
Targeting Off-ball Linebackers: 113.8 (29th in the NFL)
Those numbers are staggering. Despite some of the occasional big plays allowed by the Chiefs cornerbacks their overall passer rating allowed was actually one of the better in all the NFL. The trio of Kendall Fuller, Nelson, and Scandrick actually combined for an impressive 40 pass break ups. However, the Chiefs coverage by both safeties and linebackers were among the absolute worst in the NFL.
To give you some comparisons for those QB ratings, Joe Flacco had exactly an 84.2 QB Rating when he lost his starting job last season for the Baltimore Ravens. On the other end of the spectrum, KC’s own Patrick Mahomes had exactly a 113.8 QB Rating last season. In 2018, when targeting K.C.’s corners, opposing QBs were Joe Flacco. When targeting Chiefs linebackers, they were Patrick Mahomes. That’s a pretty staggering difference.
Does that mean there’s no point in going out and acquiring a top tier cornerback if one is available? Of course not, the defense would be even better with an elite corner thrown into the mix, but these numbers show that where the Chiefs really struggled in coverage last season was at safety and linebacker. Before we get to the upgrades that KC has made there, let’s take a quick moment to look at the corners that the Chiefs currently have at the top of their depth chart for 2019.
The good news is that of the 12 touchdowns allowed by Chiefs cornerbacks last season, 10 of them were allowed by Steven Nelson and Orlando Scandrick, who are both no longer on the team. The trio of Kendall Fuller, Bashaud Breeland, and Charvarius Ward that currently sits atop the depth chart only allowed a total of two touchdowns in 2018. The bad news is that part of the reason for that is because they played a lot less snaps.
While Fuller had 777 coverage snaps last season, Ward and Breeland only totaled a combined 336 coverage snaps last year. That’s only a small fraction of the 1,633 combined coverage snaps of Nelson and Scandrick. In order for the Chiefs to maintain their corner play (let alone surpass it) they’ll need Breeland to stay healthy and Ward to continue to improve as opposed to regressing like previous young corners who flashed upside, a la Marcus Cooper and Terrance Mitchell.
So assuming the Chiefs can just get similar cornerback play to last season the reason to believe they will be better in coverage is because of the improvements at linebacker and safety. Let’s start by looking at the improvements at linebacker.