Ten takeaways from Kansas City Chiefs training camp

The change in defensive coaching is noticeable

If you attended Chiefs training camp the past several years with the old defensive coaches, it will only take a few minutes of watching practice this year to see that things have changed a lot with the arrival of new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and his staff. We don’t need to turn this into another segment used to bash Bob Sutton, but the difference this year is striking.

From the get go, Spagnuolo is hands on with his guys. In two days of practice this season, I saw Spagnuolo interacting directly with the players more than I did in six seasons of training camp practices I watched with Bob Sutton combined. Spagnuolo was running several of the drills himself as opposed to just supervising his position coaches. Then, as players did things that weren’t quite right, he would personally talk them through it. It sounds so simple and fundamental but, sadly, it had been lacking in previous years.

You can see in my tweet below he was even simulating the quarterback in one drill.

I also watched him personally go over and put his arm around guys after they came off the field during 11-on-11 work. You could see him coaching them and talking them through what had just happened out there. It wasn’t even always that they had messed up. Sometimes it looked like he was just talking them through what the offense had done and how the defense (or that player) needs to respond. It’s something you see at your local high school games and yet, time after time the past few years when it felt like when the defense was struggling, there wasn’t anything being done on the sideline. I don’t even need a coach ripping guys heads off, but at least pull your guys over and explain what went wrong and give them some help on how to fix it.

Think about Andy Reid and the offense. Good or bad, Reid is always talking Patrick Mahomes and the offense what is going on out there—what is working and what isn’t. Keep an eye on the sideline during the preseason games and I bet this season you’ll see that the same thing is going on with the defense. That will be a welcome change and should go a long way toward turning this defense around.

One last note about the defensive staff: I mentioned that I don’t need a coach ripping guys heads off, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be a defensive lineman coming off the field for the Chiefs if they just got pushed around out there and having to face Brendan Daly waiting for me on the sideline. Daly is as vocal and passionate as advertised. You could be clear across the practice fields and if the defensive line did something good or bad you knew based on Daly’s roar echoing over the fields.

Daly’s not just a screamer though; he’s coaching the entire time. I witnessed him demonstrating technique again and again and then roaring his approval when a guy finally nailed it. I also heard him voice his displeasure when one of his guys would get manhandled by an offensive lineman in a drill. Let’s just say that I don’t think our defensive linemen will have motivation issues this season.

All in all I left camp really encouraged by what I saw from the new defensive staff. Let’s just hope it shows up in the games. Now let’s talk a little about what I saw from the defense itself.