Rookie Review: Kansas City Chiefs draft class proved highly productive
Khalen Saunders
2019 Stats: 22 tackles, 2 QB Hits, 1 Sack, 1 PD
Another rookie that quickly earned the love from Chiefs Kingdom was Western Illinois defensive tackle Khalen Saunders. His personality is very similar to Chris Jones, which makes him easy to cheer for. The fact that a 300 plus pound lineman can also do backflips is just a sweet bonus.
Coming out of Western Illinois, Saunders was extremely raw. It’s one thing to dominate at a level where most of your competition will not be playing in the NFL someday, but he needed to significantly upgrade in terms of the technical side of his game to compete in the NFL. His performance at the Senior Bowl helped his stock quite a bit. The Chiefs already had Chris Jones and Derrick Nnadi in the middle of their defensive line, but outside of Xavier Williams, there wasn’t anyone else to hang your hat on.
Veach decided to take the upside developmental project in the third round at 84 overall. Quite similar to Hardman’s situation, Saunders was thrown to the wolves earlier than anticipated due to the injuries along the defensive front. Playing in 12 games while starting in four of those, Saunders showed significant signs of development each week. His first couple of weeks were rough, but he quickly made himself one of the rotational pieces along the front to help plug up the middle.
Similar to Nnadi, Saunders is a shorter nose tackle standing at 6’0″ tall. Neither has the penetrating length of Jones, but they are low to the ground, stout linemen that stay lower than their opponent. Not to mention they are both tough to move once they get that anchor foot in the ground. What makes Nnadi unique is his blend of power with quickness and flexibility to shoot gaps.
The defensive line unit took some major hits throughout the 2019 season. Frank Clark started off the season hurt, missed a couple of games midway through, and then finished off the season playing through pain but playing more dominant. Alex Okafor missed some time throughout the season and ended up going to Injured Reserve shortly after he returned. Emmanuel Ogbah was placed on IR down the stretch, Jones missed some games, and Breeland Speaks was placed on IR before the regular season began. Even Nnadi was playing through an injury early in the season.
Saunders’ ability to step in earlier than the team expected, learn on the fly, and show development significantly helped this defensive front. Even when guys were coming back to the line up from injury, it allowed for Spagnuolo to build a more significant rotation to keep guys fresh for the fourth quarter. There is still plenty of room to grow for the former Western Illinois lineman, but he has given everyone something to be excited about come 2020.
Spagnuolo and defensive line coach Brendan Daly did a tremendous job of focusing on what he does best and putting him in those situations. Allowing him to play more of a penetrating role where he’s not asked to two-gap every down is where you want Saunders.