The Kansas City Chiefs have gone defense so far in the draft, and Steve Spagnuolo is the early winner as a result.
The Kansas City Chiefs have been one of the biggest surprises in the NFL so far. The Chiefs are usually all about Patrick Mahomes in one way or another, but in this draft the focus has been very different.
The Chiefs are all about defense this time around, and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was labeled one of the winners in an early draft assessment from Mike Jones of The Athletic. The Chiefs have used their first three picks to land a cornerback, a defensive tackle and an edge rusher, so Spagnuolo has now received what Jones called “an infusion of young talent” to help a unit that often couldn’t get off the field at key moments in big games.
The way this has happened, though, is a bit backwards. The Chiefs were expected to make a big splash with either an edge rusher or a receiver with the No. 9 pick, with David Bailey, Arvell Reese and Rueben Bain Jr. being the top candidates at the former position.
Instead the Chiefs traded up to No. 6 to get cornerback Mansoor Delane, who was expected to land somewhere in the first half of the first round. Then they added Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods, who’s considered something of an underachiever as a first rounder, and last night they added R Mason Thomas from Oklahoma as the explosive edge rusher who could become the pass rusher Kansas City needs.
It’s hard to know what to make of all of this, but one preliminary conclusion is that the Chiefs were putting out a lot of noise about their in-house depth in the secondary and some of the free agents they signed. You don’t do a last-minute trade and give up three draft picks to move up three spots if you’re confident you already have a possible starter on your roster, but that’s exactly what Kansas City did.
Another conclusion is that the Chiefs didn’t think much of the offensive tackle draft in this draft. GM Brett Veach mentioned a wave of tackles coming off the board in the 10-25 range of the first round, but the Chiefs still haven’t made an offensive pick going into Day 3.
As for Spagnuolo, he’ll have his work cut out for him with all three of these new players. Delane is a top talent, but there are those who think he’s underachieved to date based on his ability to be a top-five talent. Woods has definitely underachieved, and Thomas is a raw athlete who has enormous potential as an edge rusher, but he was also criticized for missed tackles and missing the quarterback occasionally, so he’ll likely start his Chiefs career as a pass-rushing specialist rather than a three-down player.