A Simple Idea That Can Change a Team

You ever watch the Chiefs and wonder exactly what kind of team you are watching? You look at them out on the field or on you HD T.V. and wonder are we a defensive team like Pitt? or Running team like the Titans? But if you look at our last few drafts you kind of get a picture of what we are. We are a team that has up to this point yet to prove to the league we have an identity. Lets look more at what direction we are taking and what we should do to "take the next step"

First of all I know many people here on AP believe we are a defensive team. Specially now we have Romeo Crennel as the Head Coach. Now what are some characteristics of a defensive team? A Mean intimidating group of defenders who lay wood and fight you for every inch is a general overview from my point of perspective. Now this includes teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Jets, Oakland (at times), and Houston showed it this year to a degree. Now you have hybrids of course teams like the Giants, San Fransisco, and even the Packers. These Hybrids have very good players and even great ones like Clay Mathews, Justin Tuck, and Patrick Willis but still don't show that toughness of the Elite long lasting defenses. They also show a bit of softness such as how the Giants DE's just aren't built to handle big blockers or big RB's. That is why a lot of the defenses that play mean tough smash mouth football are 3-4 teams. It allows you to have 4 LB's flying around laying wood on RB's and stopping the run game in general.

Now that we have gone over a broad view of a defensive team lets see if our Chiefs fit the mold. Do we hit hard and intimidate the other team? Well Hali gets some pretty good hits on the Qb but not really known for bone rattling hits. Our best hitter may be the returning safety in Eric Berry. This kid does lay wood with the best of them and isn't afraid to make an offense know he is there. Now we do have the best tackling Corner in the league in a young man named Brandon Flowers but he's just great at wrapping up not really hitting. MLB is where you usually see the Captains of these 3-4 Juggernauts and usually where you find that man that takes years off RB's careers with his hits. We have DJ a man that we all know and love but we love him for his elite coverage skills and solid tackling skills but not for scaring RB's with his hard hitting. Now i'm going to try and lay off of my most hated chiefs player possibly ever. But here we go.... Jovan Belcher possibly the softest player to ever wear a Chiefs uniform. The guy is usually a day late on a tackle and couldn't cover my Grandma in a game of flag football. If I had to be hit by any one player in the NFL this is the guy I choose. He is what I call the pile on guy. Whenever another of our defenders is locked on to an offensive player Belcher runs in and hops on. Now does he lay a big hit and possibly cause a fumble? No not at all he just hops on like he's trying to get a piggy back ride. Belcher is one of the main problems with our defense now he may not be the worst player in the league, only because Jon Mcgraw and Pisscawhatever compete for that prize, but the mental softness and style of play he brings hurts the players around him. When Berry flat out decleats a RB the players around him respond in a certain way and now when Belcher gets dragged for 5 yards on what should have been a gain of 1 they respond also.

Now I know your starting to get bored with all the reading so lets get to the point. We are FAR FAR FAR away from being a Offensive team... well other than it's offensive to watch our offense sometimes. But we are really close to being a Power House of a defense we have a lot of the tools but we still aren't there yet. We need that NT that is plays like Vince Wilfork did against Baltimore. We need that ILB that when we need a play sacrifices his body and takes the head off of the RB to cause a fumble. We found the compliment to Tamba and his name is Justin Houston. We have that elite safety and that corner that teams don't like throwing at. Our DE's are a story for another day but they are good enough till we fill these other positions and a great NT can make those guys look a lot better specially someone like Jackson. All in all the Chiefs need to make the moves to take the defense to the next level and then work on the offense over time.