Five reasons to buy into the Kansas City Chiefs Week 1 hype
4. The Defense Is Faster
I’m positive the Chiefs will face bigger challenges this season than they did on Sunday. The Cardinals were without two of their three top receivers for this game. The young players they are playing will also make their fair share of mistakes as the season goes on. But one thing was very clear on Sunday: this defense is much faster than the defenses K.C. has had the past couple of seasons.
Speed isn’t everything in the NFL, but it does make everything easier. While it obviously helps a defense to keep up with fast players on the opposing team, it is also so helpful that it allows players to make a mistake because they can recover from them faster. Steve Spagnuolo’s defenses in K.C. have always gotten better as the season goes on. His scheme can be complicated and it can take a while to get communication worked out and know what to do all the time.
If K.C’.s upgraded speed allows them to survive better early in the year while they are all gelling and getting comfortable in the scheme it could help avoid some of the early season issues we’ve seen even in some of the Chiefs’ very successful seasons. The secondary in particular looked faster with all the young defensive backs that are on the field. You combine that speed with the size/length they have and they have all the tools they need in this secondary.
The linebackers are far and away the fastest they’ve been in the Spagnuolo era and they weren’t even highlighted that much in this first game (although Nick Bolton did have 9 solo tackles). I think we’ll see Willie Gay in particular have much bigger games than this one.
Finally, George Karlaftis is clearly going to add some juice to the pass rush and that is much needed. Carlos Dunlap may not be a speedster, but he already added a sack. KC had three total with L’Jarius Sneed and Tershawn Wharton adding the others. The combination of speed and an improved pass rush could be enough to make a huge difference on a team where opposing offenses are going to feel pressure to keep pace with Mahomes and KC’s offense.
There’s one more reason to believe in this team.