The Kansas City Chiefs spent big in the off-season, acquiring the likes of Orlando Brown & Joe Thuney. Rebuilding their OL made sense after watching how many times Patrick Mahomes got pressured in the Super Bowl. However, they left their defense to rot. Their pass & run defense is the worst in the league, with their biggest FA acquisition being Mike Hughes coming over in a trade. Let’s take a deeper dive into their off-season.
The Chiefs acquired Brown in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens, signed Joe Thuney, brought Kyle Long back from retirement, and drafted Creed Humphrey & Trey Smith. The OL has held up well as of late. Mahomes has been sacked 10 times through 6 weeks, compared to 22 times in 2020, while their OL ranks top 10 in the league.
The defense, however, is another story. The Chiefs starting corners include Mike Hughes, Charvarius Ward, and L’Jarius Sneed. They have allowed 29 PPG which ranks 28th in the league, with 176 total points given up, and 2,463 total yards (799 rushing yards, 1,725 passing yards). The Chiefs have been in on multiple DBs, including Richard Sherman & Stephon Gilmore, but just can’t land one. There are also rumors of them looking into trades to bolster their DL in exchange for an OL.
What surprises me is how much the Chiefs focused on upgrading one position & one position only and were willing to leave their defense to ruin. In their last three games, the Chiefs allowed 13 (WFT), 38 (Buffalo), and 30 (Eagles) points. Meanwhile, their secondary allowed 182 yards (Taylor Heinicke), 315 yards (Josh Allen), and 387 yards (Jalen Hurts) to quarterbacks in those games.
With rookie Nick Bolton & Anthony Hitchens at LB, the Chiefs have had an interest in now FA Whitney Mercilus. With only $1.7M in cap space, any potential signing/trade will be tough to pull off.
The Chiefs’ next matchup will be a tough one against the 4-2 Tennessee Titans with Derrick Henry, Julio Jones, and AJ Brown.
