What’s your top area of concern following the Kansas City Chiefs first two preseason games? I bet most of you are answering the run defense. Because it should be a concern.
The Chiefs were really good at stopping the run last year buoyed by Derrick Johnson’s return and Jaye Howard’s emergence as a run stopper.
This year, Chiefs DL coach Britt Reid said the Chiefs “weren’t great” at stopping the run in the first preseason game. Chiefs coach Andy Reid said on Sunday that it “wasn’t as good as we need to be obviously” in the second game.
So what has happened?
The hope here is that we can attribute this to injuries and holdouts. Eric Berry can help stop the run and he isn’t here. Tamba Hali and Justin Houston aren’t playing which means the Chiefs are playing their third and fourth pass rushers who don’t set the edge as well (hi, Dee Ford). Actually, Dezman Moses was out on Saturday so they were playing their fourth and fifth best pass rushers. Josh Mauga has been out with an injury which led to second-year Justin March playing inside linebacker.
The hope is that all of those players - save Houston - are back Week 1 and the run defense is much better. That’s a reasonable hope, right?