What does Joe Cullen bring to the KC Chiefs?

The Kansas City Chiefs are set to go through a few coaching changes this offseason, even as their own offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has been overlooked for a head coaching gig for the fourth straight year (after countless job interviews). On the offensive and defensive side, the Chiefs have seen some assistants come and go, which means players will have to adjust to new voices in ’22.

The biggest shift on the defensive side was a bit of reshuffling after linebackers coach Matt House left to join Brian Kelly’s staff at Louisiana State. House had a chance to be a defensive coordinator with a major college program. From there, the Chiefs decided to hire a new defensive line coach instead of simply replacing House, and the new addition is a familiar face around the NFL in Joe Cullen.

The Chiefs ended up retaining their current line coach in Brendan Daly, who joined the team in 2019, but shifted him to linebackers and installed Cullen up front.

Cullen comes to the Chiefs after spending last year as a defensive coordinator for the first time at the NFL level after years as a positional coach. Unfortunately, that opportunity for Cullen came with the Jacksonville Jaguars under the leadership of Urban Meyer.

Before coaching for the Jags, Cullen had years coaching the defensive lines of the Baltimore Ravens for five seasons as well as the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

We reached out to our friend Carlos Sánchez, site expert from Black and Teal, to tell us more about Cullen’s performance last season as DC and what he expects him to bring to the Chiefs.

When it comes to Joe Cullen, what’s the general feeling about his performance as DC?

The bar was set low but the Jaguars’ defense got better with Joe Cullen at the helm. Even though his unit ranked 28th in points allowed and 20th in total yards, they gave the team a chance to win more often than not. Cullen got the most out of players such as defensive tackle Adam Gotsis (a second-round pick in 2016) and linebacker Damien Wilson, who spent the 2020 season with the Chiefs. Funny enough both Wilson and veteran cornerback Nevin Lawson log their first career interceptions in 2021.

Cullen also played a big role in the development of cornerback Tyson Campbell. Even though he struggled in the preseason and early into the regular season, his confidence in the rookie never wavered. Regarding his personality, his players liked him and many of them, including outside linebacker Josh Allen, said they would have loved to have him back. There’s no doubt the same will happen in Kansas City.

The Jags’ defensive rankings aren’t all that exciting, but it also feels like there was a real talent deficiency there, too. Is that right?

The rankings surely don’t paint the whole picture and the Jaguars’ defense played better than the numbers suggest. Having said that, Cullen’s unit was definitely inconsistent. They would perform at an elite level at times – especially in their three wins – but they would allow opposing offenses to score with ease early in games and there were several times when the Jags were already trailing by 17 points because their defense couldn’t make enough stops early in games.

The Jags’ run defense was pretty solid in the first half of the season. In the first eight weeks, they only gave up 100 rushing yards or more just twice. However, they struggled in the second half, surrendering 100 rushing yards or more in seven of the last nine games.

Also, Cullen kept safety Andrew Wingard in the starting lineup for most of the season even though Andre Cisco had the bigger ceiling of the two. Once Wingard landed on the COVID-19/Reserve list, Cisco got his chance and showed he was the better player. I feel that wasn’t Cullen’s decision and that order came from either Urban Meyer or Trent Baalke. I think they wanted Cisco to redshirt last season and that’s why he hardly played.

Scheme-wise, don’t expect Cullen to revolutionize the NFL but he was flexible and ran both 3-4 and 4-3 looks. He liked to send linebackers and secondary blitzes. I don’t think he did it often enough because he didn’t want their back seven to get burnt.

Overall, I think he did a good job in Jacksonville, especially when you take into account it was the first time he was a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He should have no trouble squeezing every single ounce of talent from his players. He got the most from Roy Robertson-Harris, Jihad Ward, defensive tackle Malcom Brown, and Gotsis, He should do the same with the Chiefs’ defensive line now that it will be his lone focus.