From the FanPosts -- JD

This might be the biggest question in Kansas City right now: how are the Kansas City Chiefs going to create pressure after losing Dee Ford and Justin Houston in one offseason?

Last season, the Chiefs had 52 sacks -- with the two of them combining for 22 of them. And the Chiefs still had a terrible defense! Without them, will they get worse?

But looking at the tape from Steve Spagnuolo's New York Giants showed me different things, and I now have a different perspective on the situation. I understand the concerns, but analyzing the tape shows that the Chiefs can still create pressure -- but in a new and more modern way.

The Numbers

I watched five games from each season for the 2016 and 2017 Giants -- some against high passing attacks and some against teams emphasizing the run -- to understand what a game plan would look like against different styles. And let me say this: it is the polar opposite of Bob Sutton.

While watching the tape, I charted three types of pressure: blitzes, stunts, and regular four-man rushes. There was some overlap -- for example, stunts were generally run from a four-man rush. Anything else was either a three or four-man rush. What I found was interesting.

The 2016 Giants went 11-5. The defense was ranked 10th in yards, and second in points allowed. The 2017 Giants went 3-13, ranking 31st in yards and 27th in points.

After analyzing the tape, there were a lot of reasons for that drop in production (mainly coverage related -- stay tuned!) but the drop in blitzing definitely was a major factor.

To put it simply, the 2017 Giants just didn't blitz much -- especially as the season went on. Maybe it was due to the terrible coverage, but they weren't aggressive enough. This allowed many more big plays -- and when more big plays are given up, the worse your defense is.

While blitzing is a common way to get pressure, you can't blitz one guy and expect to get pressure. Spagnuolo said it once: the more guys you send to rush, the more windows there are to throw from. So you have to get creative about when (and how) to blitz.

So when Spagnuolo blitzed, was it effective?

Now... you can't use these numbers to simply say that more blitzing gives you a higher pressure percentage; coverage shells and personnel matter. But as I showed in my personnel article, the personnel was similar. So while there are other factors involved, you can clearly see something: as long as he had a good secondary, the more Spagnuolo blitzed, the more pressure he created.

When studying tape, I slowly gravitated towards blitzing. If you only send the same front four -- which is what the Chiefs have done for six years -- opposing teams can take those guys away. That's what New England did. This allowed them to shuffle between two plays -- based on the personnel on the field -- and destroy the Chiefs defense.

Blitzing is not perfect. It leaves fewer guys in coverage. But the NFL is changing. You can't be stagnant. I think Andy Reid knows this, and this is why he hired Spagnuolo. He is nowhere close to perfect -- in fact, he has had multiple bad seasons. But he will try anything.A nd with an offense like the Chiefs possesses, that is a formula to win.

I'm not going to dive too deeply into stunts, but here are some basic numbers.

I liked this stunt a lot. The defensive end loops inside after the two other lineman slant to get blockers out of the way. Stunts take a while to execute, but if you can make the quarterback hold on the ball for a second longer, it makes a huge difference in the effectiveness of the stunt.

Even though it was only a three-man front, the double linebacker blitz on the right side -- then the double defensive back blitz on the left -- makes it so someone is rushing free. When that happens, the quarterback can't step up, which makes him lose his momentum throwing the ball -- which in this case, leads to a near-interception. Any time you can force a quarterback to throw on his heels, it is easier to create turnovers.

When watching this game (a terrible game by Alex Smith), I noticed a lot of three-man pressures. In fact, in 45 dropbacks, the Giants only sent three blitzes. They sent many three-man rushes, which forced Smith -- who likes to dump the ball to the flat -- to force balls into windows. This could be a strategy against a quarterback like Derek Carr, who does similar things.

This stunt was interesting to me. With three linemen lined up far right -- and only one left -- there is more freedom of movement up the middle. Since protection shifts wider right, they can loop into the middle with more space to win. This was the only time I saw this, but I liked it, and I wondered if we'll see something similar this year.

Conclusion

Is blitzing effective? Can the Chiefs win without great pass rushers on the edge?

I say yes.

I understand the Chiefs under Spagnuolo won't always win, but pressure is a complex mix; you have to be able to draw up many plays to get pressure. It will be interesting to see how creative Spagnuolo and Daly can be in drawing up pressure -- but without Ford and Houston, they will have to.

If I were Brett Veach, I'd draft an edge rusher early. I understand that stunts and blitzes can work, but you still need guys on the edge. For as much those Giants teams blitzed, they also had two elite edges in Paul-Pierre and Vernon. While this team is different, you still need a guy to win off the edge. We don't need Frank Clark, but we need a guy like Clelin Ferrell -- a guy who can play all three downs, and who has powerful hands and agility.

This defense will be different. We won't have as many good pass rushers any more, but with the change to more power and agility, expect better results against the run and in batting balls down. Given our playoff failures against the run, shouldn't we all want that? It could make the difference in finally getting the Lombardi Trophy.

Thanks for reading. A shout out to Daniel Harms for helping me with getting the plays on Twitter. Follow @Natech479 for more film reviews, and please comment with your ideas on other reviews of players or schemes.

And finally... GO CHIEFS!