Kansas City Chiefs: 5 burning questions in 2018

4. Will the defensive front be better?

The Chiefs had 46 sacks as a team in 2014 and then 47 sacks in 2015. Since then the Chiefs haven’t registered more than 31 sacks in a season since then. Part of that was they were missing Justin Houston for almost all of 2016, but as a group they haven’t produced.

A case could be made that another reason why they haven’t produced the sack totals from 2014 and ’15 is because of defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s scheme. The lack of twists and stunts this past season isn’t likely to be a reoccurring theme this season, especially given the fact that the Chiefs coaching staff and front office were all in agreement that their defensive struggles was a personnel and not a scheme problem.

The bottom line is that the Chiefs are going to have to get after the quarterback if they’re going to succeed next season. The secondary has enough question marks as it is. They don’t need a pass rush that consists of Dee Ford (first-round pick), Houston (third-round pick) and Chris Jones (second-round pick) struggling to get to the quarterback.

The team is hopeful that Derrick Nnadi and Breeland Speaks can contribute on some level right away, and while their contributions would be great the Chiefs really need their main guys to rack up the sacks this season.