Handing out the Kansas City Chiefs midseason awards
Assistant Coach of the Year
Winner: Steve Spagnuolo, Defensive Coordinator
The third and final no-brainer of this list is Steve Spagnuolo being crowned the best assistant coach on the team. Although there aren't very many people available to win this award on the Chiefs, if it were to be expanded to cover the entire NFL, Spags would still be a major contender.
After receiving a lot of unfair criticism in the middle of the season the past couple of years, Spagnuolo is proving all of his doubters wrong. This year, when the young talent is even more experienced, his defense is amongst the best in football.
There's not much more to say about this. Anyone who says the best assistant on the Kansas City coaching staff is not Steve Spagnuolo is just flat-out wrong. The main reason the Chiefs are still in contention for the #1 seed in the AFC is because of his defense.
Most Disappointing Player
"Winner": Jawaan Taylor, Right Tackle
This is the only negative award on this list and the unfortunate recipient is Jawaan Taylor. Given the contract the Chiefs gave him this past March, he needs to be a lot better. He was called for ten penalties over the first four games, which is unacceptable. though an argument can be made that he was being singled out by the officials due to comments made by a certain commentator during the Week 1 loss against the Lions. Although penalties were a problem early in the season, he's only been called for one over the past five games.
Even though penalties were a significant problem earlier in the season, they were not the only issue. Jawaan Taylor has been straight-up awful as a run blocker. However, this is not a surprise as he was a well below-average run blocker with the Jaguars before signing with Kansas City.
Despite the penalty issues, he's actually been solid as a pass-blocker. His 96.6% pass-blocking efficiency isn't great, but it is higher than the figures Orlando Brown Jr. and Andrew Wylie posted last season.
Considering the size of the contract the Chiefs signed Taylor to, it's fair to say that he hasn't lived up to the billing so far. He's been better as the season goes along and should improve as the season continues, but he hasn't been worth the price tag that he cost the Chiefs. I'm not saying that he'll remain in bust status forever, but he has been the most disappointing player so far.