Grading the KC Chiefs defense prior to the 2021 NFL Draft
As they saw, it’s best for a team to enter a draft with as few needs as possible. The 2021 NFL Draft takes place in a little over two weeks, and despite consecutive trips to the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs have some holes to fill.
For this piece, I’ll focus on the Chiefs defense and each individual position group. I’ll grade each relative to the rest of the league and highlight positions of need heading into the NFL Draft. As a reference, a grade in the “A” range will represent a position group that falls in the top-10 relative to the rest of the league. A grade in the “B” range will represent a position group with above average talent, but lacking enough elite talent to be considered outside the top-10. A grade of “C” will represent average talent, “D” will represent below average, and “F” will represent bottom of the league.
For more Chiefs grades, check out last week’s content:
Defensive Line: B
The Chiefs defensive line has been an up-and-down unit for quite some time. Even under the Bob Sutton regime, they were an above average and sometimes elite pass rushing unit.
In 2018 the team posted 52 sacks, the most in the Andy Reid era. The vast majority of those came from players lined up on the line of scrimmage, whether true defensive lineman or glorified linemen in Justin Houston and Dee Ford.
Even with a re-tooling that saw the majority of the team’s pass rushing production leave in free agency, the unit excelled in 2019. The team as a whole delivered 45 sacks with the defensive line providing 34.5 of those. Unfortunately, the unit fell off a cliff in 2020. Overall sack production fell by nearly 30 percent from 45 to 32, and the defensive line vanished as a pass rushing juggernaut. Through 16 games the unit only generated 22 sacks.
The team as a whole actually pressured the quarterback slightly more in 2020 than they did in 2019, but they also blitzed on 15 percent more snaps. The moral of the story is the Chiefs defensive linemen had a rough year rushing the passer. They were given more opportunities and converted at a lower percentage than in the past.
We haven’t even touched on the struggles against the run. The defensive line is the first line of defense when it comes to stopping the run, and they were not good and finished 21st in the league in rushing yards allowed per game.
Even so, at the end of the day this unit has the skills to be a top-10 unit. Chris Jones is one of the elite interior lineman in the NFL. Nearly every season he is one of the best at beating double teams and pressuring the quarterback. Even in a down year he still tallied 7.5 sacks and 28 quarterback hits.
Frank Clark has been an up-and-down player, but he has averaged nearly double digit sacks and quarterback hits for his career. This unit’s major challenge is the consistency of the players outside this pair.
The Chiefs got outsized production from a couple players in 2019, and those players were either gone or declined precipitously in 2020. The unit added pass rusher Jarran Reed this offseason, so with that comes expectations of a bounce back season.
I’d expect the front office to focus on adding a player or two to this unit in the upcoming draft. You can never have enough pass rushers, and the Chiefs have a number of spots up for grabs in the rotation for 2021. If the team can add a couple consistent pass rushers to take the pressure off Jones and Clark, they will easily be a top-10 unit. Until then, they’re probably closer to a top-15 unit justifying a “B” grade.