Chiefs Roster Evaluation: Linebacker remains a position of need

What actually happened

While the Chiefs defense improved, the linebacker play left a lot to be desired. It turned out that Reggie Ragland didn’t fit into Spags’ system. His skill set simply didn’t fit the scheme change. Ragland, who saw his snaps decline sizeably, faded out of his featured role down the stretch.

Damien Wilson seemed to pick up the slack production-wise. Wilson, who proved to be a better defensive fit than Ragland, logged combined 81 tackles and played 709 snaps to Ragland’s 235.

Anthony Hitchens continued to struggle to live up to his contract, a 5-year $45 million dollar contract. Hitchens’ weaknesses have been consistent throughout his tenure as a Chief. He struggles with run defense and passes coverage. Hitchens is at his best when he’s running downhill, but struggles to move laterally in space.

Hitchens had some nice moments in the playoffs, but most of those highlights were from designed blitzes that allowed Hitchens to explode past the line of scrimmage. Despite starting 15 games and being a more natural 4-3 defender (Spags’ system), Hitchens’ lack of improvement in spite of his health was disappointing.

The rest of the group—Ben Niemann, Darron Lee, and Dorian O’Daniel—are all 26 or under and each showed brief flashes this season. Niemann, in particular, should continue to develop nicely in Spags’s system. He’s a quick, lean, decisive tackler who could be molded into a consistent starter.

The linebacking core benefitting from the excellent play of safeties Tyrann Matthieu and Juan Thornhill. The speed, agility, and coverage ability of Mathieu and Thornhill relieved some of the pressure from the linebackers. They were often able to patrol the middle of the field, which helped tighten up spots on the field the linebackers should have controlled.