Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 578 Mending
This offseason, the Kansas City Chiefs focused more on updating and adjusting their defensive team, but they still face a series of challenges.

First up is the defensive line.

Last season, the defensive line's pass rush pressure and quarterback raids were mediocre, forcing the team to rely on linebackers or cornerbacks to create enough pressure many times, but they had to risk the backfield defense being empty. This way of robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a solution.

During the offseason, the team traded for the Arizona Cardinals' starting forward Xavier Williams.

Williams was an undrafted rookie in 2015, but has become the starting forward for the Arizona Cardinals in the past two seasons; this offseason, the Arizona Cardinals placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on Williams.

Unlike Bell's exclusive franchise tag, Williams can approach other teams.

If an offer is made, the Arizona Cardinals can choose whether to match it:

Once matched, Williams must stay in Arizona.

If the match is refused, Williams can sign with the team freely, and Arizona can get a draft pick corresponding to the round of the team that year. However, because Williams is an undrafted rookie, this condition is naturally cancelled.

In other words, the Kansas City Chiefs got Williams at no cost.

In addition, at the defensive end position, two main rotation players last season, Allen Bailey and Chris Jones, got the starting positions thanks to their outstanding performance in training camp.

Especially Jones, the third-year player has shown strong enthusiasm and willpower, and his performance in the new season is worth looking forward to.

Next is linebacker.

The situation of the Kansas City Chiefs' offseason training camp hides a lot of anxiety. Last season's starting outside linebackers Justin Houston and Dee Ford both suffered injuries. Although they were not serious injuries and would not affect the game, the status of both players was not stable.

What's worse is that even though Houston and Ford have "exposed their flaws", other outside linebackers have not been able to seize the opportunity to win the starting position, and their performance is still not as good as Houston and Ford.

So in the new season, the two veterans are still the starters, playing despite injuries.

The situation at inside linebacker is also worrisome, with Anthony Hitchens, who was transferred from the Dallas Cowboys this season, and Reggie Ragland, who has been a backup linebacker since transferring from the Buffalo Bills last season, becoming starters.

But neither player became the starter because of his outstanding performance and won unanimous praise. There was really no other choice, so they had to pick the taller one from the short ones.

For linebacker, defensive captain Houston may still need to continue to shoulder the heavy responsibility.

Finally, there is the second line of defense.

Last season, despite the unstable performance of the defensive front line, they always stepped up at critical moments, and it wouldn't be too bad if they patched up another year; on the contrary, the weakness of the defensive second line was the fatal shortcoming of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The offensive battle in the Super Bowl was exciting, but the secondary defenses of both teams were beaten into a sieve, which was not good news for the cornerbacks and safeties.

This offseason, Berry is still recovering and Revis has announced his retirement. The Kansas City Chiefs' poor secondary defense is in urgent need of replenishment, which is also the focus of Veach's busy work throughout the offseason.

However, plans cannot keep up with changes.

At cornerback, Fowler, who was traded from the Washington Redskins, will partner with Steven Nelson, who played intermittently last season due to injuries, as the starting cornerback. There seems to be some improvement in the new season.

But in terms of safeties, Daniel Sorensen, the fourth backup safety last season who had already been confirmed as a starter, was injured in training. Although he is not out for the season, he is expected to miss the September game. The performances of the rookie players were all below expectations, so much so that the coaching staff was forced to take a desperate measure - Murray, who replaced Berry last season but had a mediocre performance, partnered with Jordan Lucas, who also played in the rotation last season but lacked a standout performance, as the starter. Both players are free safety.

In other words, the Kansas City Chiefs must start the new season without a strong guard.

It's a headache.

He spent the entire offseason tinkering around like a tinkerer; but in the end, Vic was unable to come up with a satisfactory lineup.

This is the NFL. Under the constraints of a hard salary cap and facing the huge layout space of 22 seats for the offensive and defensive teams, it is too difficult to completely transform oneself in one season. It requires time and patience.

It is precisely because of this that the NFL has strict requirements on team managers' overall vision.

Then, the new season begins.

Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers without Bell, the Kansas City Chiefs' defense must not take it lightly. Not only Veach, but other people in the league are also curious about the final result of the Kansas City Chiefs' efforts throughout the offseason.

On paper, the defense is still... a mess, with only one Pro Bowl player in Houston. Do they have to rely on Houston to continue carrying the Kansas City Chiefs' defense for another year with his two old cold legs?

I never expected that after lowering my expectations, a surprise would come.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Sutton is a cost-conscious coach who tinkered with limited resources last season and managed to hold on to the bottom line; this season, he is starting to use his expertise again and continue tinkering.

Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers who were missing Bell, Sutton developed a tactic:

Perhaps, judging from the actual ground advancement effect, Tomlin can always rely on tactical coordination and ground coverage to create advancement space for the running back, and the ground advancement yardage may not be much worse than when Bell is on the field.

But from the perspective of deterrence and threat effects, the absence of Bell means one less threat, and the Kansas City Chiefs' defensive strategy becomes clear.

Up front, pressuring Roethlisberger, but no need to pounce.

Roethlisberger is the kind of quarterback who, when facing pressure, has a compressed passing field of view and his passing choices become questionable; but when facing collisions, this huge quarterback is often able to unleash his explosive power. In crisis situations, he does not let his imagination run wild and passes the ball according to his intuition, which can bring some surprises.

So, there is a fine line between pressure and sacks, and now the Kansas City Chiefs just need to apply pressure.

Moreover, now that the threat of Bell is gone, the pressure on the Kansas City Chiefs' defensive front line has been reduced, and both the tactical choices and the level of concentration are different.

On the second line, thanks to the relatively simplified defensive tactics of the front line, the linebackers are able to free up some of their attention and focus on short pass defense, which in turn can free up space for cornerbacks and safeties, ensuring that they can focus on their own defensive tasks.

Sutton used a stupid method here, simple but effective.

A cornerback, Fowler, is specifically assigned to guard Brown, the killer weapon of the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive team. At the same time, a safety and a linebacker, while sticking to their own defensive positions, devote 50% of their energy to assist in defending Brown at any time, eroding Brown's presence with the advantage in numbers.

The entire defensive tactic is clear, concise and efficient.

(End of this chapter)