Is the Kansas City Chiefs defense… getting better?
The Kansas City Chiefs are great offensively, but their defense is starting to get it’s act together. The NFL should be terrified.
During the Patrick Mahomes’ era, the Kansas City Chiefs’ defense has been bad. Actually, that’s not a strong enough word. They have been downright awful. It’s been one of the worst units in the league, continually allowing big plays and points, at will.
In 2018, they allowed 28 or more points in eight of their 16 regular-season games. They allowed more than 40 points on two separate occasions as offense were able to light them up whenever they wanted. It’s a group that hasn’t done any particular thing well, despite the team sinking resources into the position over the last few seasons.
Despite how great Mahomes was last season, their defense was the reason the Chiefs ultimately didn’t make the Super Bowl last season after getting shredded by Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Over the offseason, the Chiefs made it a point to upgrade their defense via trades, free agency and through the draft. However, 2019 started off rough as nothing appeared to change from the previous year. Kanas City allowed 26 or more points three of their first four games and then allowed the Packers and the Texans to score 31 points in two of the last four weeks. However, there have been some signs of life for this defense that could be encouraging going forward.
One of my favorite ways to measure a defense is to look at the DVOA, provided by Football Outsiders. Last season, the Chiefs finished 26th in defensive DVOA rating. That is noteworthy because no other team in the NFL made the playoffs after finishing the year in the bottom 12 in DVOA. This season, the Chiefs are fairing much better, coming in at No. 11 on defense, while still finishing at No. 2 on offense.
It’s fairly evident to anyone watching the Chiefs that the defense is never going to be the strong point of this team, and that’s okay. For Kansas City to make a run in the playoffs, they need a defense that can get the occasional stop or turnover. And with improvements in the secondary and on the defensive line, they appear to be on the right track.
On the season, Kansas City is allowing 22.7 points per game, the 18th-most in the NFL. That is a significant improvement from last season when they allowed more than 26 points per game. Kansas City is also allowing 369 total yards per game, which is actually a significant decrease from last season, where they allowed over 400 total yards of offense per outing.
So it’s clear that Kansas City’s defense is improved. But the more important question is, why has the group played better, and is it sustainable? That answer is…maybe. Aside from adding defensive ends, Frank Clark and Emmanuel Ogbah, the Chiefs rebuilt their entire secondary, and it is showing.
The Chiefs added several veteran players, such as Morris Claiborne, Tyrann Mathieu, and Bashaud Breeland, and they selected safety Juan Thornhill in the second round of April’s draft. While it’s certainly not the best secondary in the league, it’s significantly better than what we saw last season.
Through nine games, opposing quarterbacks are averaging 6.4 yards per attempt through the air, down from 6.9 last season. More importantly, they are allowing teams to convert just 38 percent of their third-down attempts, which is a significant improvement from last season when they allowed more than 42 percent of third-down plays to be successful. Their development in the passing game has made them much better defense.
Assuming Mahomes can come back and be the same player he was before his injury, this is still one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL. Look for the Chiefs to be a significantly improved team in the second half of the season with the return of Mahomes and a rapidly improving defense.