Kansas City Chiefs ranked among league’s worst run defenses

Pro Football Focus says the Kansas City Chiefs are still among the worst quarter of the league’s teams in terms of run defense.

The Kansas City Chiefs can only hope the early reflections on the team’s completely revamped defense are completely wrong as they hope to avoid being in the league’s basement in terms of defensive ranking for a third year in a row.

Pro Football Focus recently put out a ranking of every team’s run defense heading into the 2019 NFL season. The Chiefs came in with a No. 26 overall ranking, putting them in the bottom quarter of all NFL teams. It’s hardly a surprise given their recent standings, but it also shows very little faith on the part of analysts at PFF that the Chiefs’ attempt to reconstruct their defense will yield different results.

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In particular, Pro Football Focus writer Michael Renner discusses the Frank Clark acquisition in his main discussion of the team’s ranking.

"Frank Clark should help alleviate some of the Chiefs’ run-defense woes from a season ago, but he’s been far from a consistent force against the run. His 5.6 run-stop percentage last season ranked 30th out of 52 qualifying edge defenders."

The thing about focusing only on Clark is that it makes it look like the rest of the line is a series of familiar faces. The reality is that Derrick Nnadi was already above average as a rookie and he will now be tasked with more inside. He’ll play next to Chris Jones, while Clark and Alex Okafor are new faces on the outside. Even the depth is stronger than ever with Xavier Williams and Khalen Saunders ready for rotational roles.

The linebackers will also be completely reset in Steve Spagnuolo’s system. Anthony Hitchens played like a man out of place last year, so he’ll hopefully settle into something more comfortable this season —a scheme that will allow him to instinctually respond on defense. Reggie Ragland knows he’s competing for a roster spot amid more competition than ever, while newcomers like Damien Wilson, Jeremiah Attaochu, and Darron Lee hope to earn playing time as well. The former two should factor into the run game if they stay on the team.

What will also help is the tremendous upgrade at both safety spots with Juan Thornhill and Tyrann Mathieu taking over for Ron Parker and Eric Murray, respectively.

Front to back, the Chiefs have been completely remade on defense and even familiar players will be tasked with a learning curve. It’s going to be an interesting year, one that will hopefully lead to new results on the defensive side of the ball.