Over the last week we've been talking about the future of a few players on the Kansas City Chiefs defense. First, it was LB Derrick Johnson getting a reported five-year contract extension. Then it was Tamba Hali, whose agent says he wants to retire a Chief, although the two sides aren't talking until the end of the season.
Up today is Chiefs DE Shaun Smith. Talking to Kevin Kietzmann on 810 WHB's Between The Lines on Thursday, Smith talked about why the Chiefs want him on the team.
"Honestly, my job is to stop the run and we've been doing a good job of doing that as of now," Smith told Kietzmann. "I'm a good teammate. Everyone likes me. I love the organization, the Hunt family, Scott Pioli, everybody's been good to me. I have no problem here. I'm glad to be here. Hopefully, I can finish my career here."
This is a relatively new phenomenon in Kansas City. It's been a few years since free-agents-to-be talked about staying in Kansas City. This all fits nicely into being a winning team.
Smith's interview with Kietzmann is worth a listen. Here are a few other tidbits from the interview:
On Romeo Crennel coaching the defense:
Oh yeah, he's got a knack for it. The man stays up late at night watching film. He's here early in the morning watching film, studying and getting the right strategy for the game plan. If it doesn't seem right, he'll throw it out. He's trying to make it as simple as possible so that we can still fly around and still have 11 hats flying to the ball.
On trash talking:
I try to get them to the point where they can jump offsides or get a 15-yard penalty. [Kietzmann: (Laughs) You're pretty good at that!] That's my whole point, to antagonize an opposing player as much as I can. Half the time, I know a lot of the guys from being around, training in the offseason in different places. I just try to antagonize and get under their skin and get them to lose focus on what they're supposed to be doing and they'll be worrying about trying to get me back.
On who's going to be talking the most trash against the Broncos:
My buddy from Denver is going to be talking, Mario Haggans, the linebacker. I know he's going to do a lot of talking because we trained together in Dallas this offseason. We went back and forth about how we're going to beat them, theyr'e going to beat us. He's the only guy I know who talks trash as much as me so I think he's going to be out there talking a lot of trash.