Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports recently ranked all the defensive lines in the NFL. There are two distinctions among defensive linemen -- 3-4 and 4-3 -- and Cole looks at the effectiveness of each one.
The Chiefs came in at 21st, which I think is probably pretty fair.
OK, there’s still plenty of growth potential here with Tyson Jackson and Alex Magee leading the way. In addition, it’s hard to judge defensive players properly when they so rarely are in games where the opposing offense has to take any risk. That’s because the Chiefs offense was just God-awful last year. However, when the combination of Jackson, Magee, former No. 5 overall pick Glenn Dorsey and solid veteran Ron Edwards combine to get all of three sacks, that’s just not good. Even in 3-4 scheme, it’s just not good.
That's pretty much it. The Chiefs defensive line -- and specifically getting pressure on the quarterback -- has been the biggest issue plaguing the team over their 10-wins-in-three-years stretch.
As we've said before, defensive linemen usually take a few years to develop so patience (I hate that word) is necessary here. We'll have a better understanding of where the defensive line is headed after this season when Glenn Dorsey has three years under his belt and Tyson Jackson completes year number two.
The good news here: The three other AFC West teams rank below the Chiefs.
(H/T jrcnc for the first FanShot)