Romeo Crennel Will Still Be Involved With The Chiefs Defense

One of the reasons I thought Romeo Crennel made sense as the new Kansas City Chiefs head coach is because of his past experience with the defense. KC's defense ranked 12th in the NFL this year and in the final three games of the season -- the Romeo Crennel era -- they gave up 14, 16 and 3 points. The only real progress we saw in 2011 came from the defense (although that was admittedly shaky at times).

I wanted to keep that defensive momentum going and it sounds like Crennel will still have a heavy hand in the defense moving forward.

While he hasn't yet officially named a defensive coordinator (whether that's himself or someone else) Crennel does plan on calling the defensive plays in 2012. This according to a recent interview with Adam Schein and Rich Gannon on Sirius XM NFL Radio.

Crennel handled both those duties well in the final three games so on a small sample size we know he can be successful as both the head coach and the defensive coordinator. Obviously, someone on the staff will have to step up to replace some of the duties Crennel did as the defensive coordinator but in the big picture he'll still be involved.

The next step is determining whether Crennel names himself the defensive coordinator or if someone else is brought in from the outside or elevated from within. The news that Crennel plans on calling the defensive plays makes me think the team is more likely to hire from within.