Oh, noes! It's a process: Spags first conference call with local news outlets.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nf...226522090.html
Switch to 4-3? Chiefs’ Spagnuolo preaches ‘physical, competitive defensive football’
BY BLAIR KERKHOFF
FEBRUARY 20, 2019 02:15 PM
In his first interview as the Chiefs’ new defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo said he wants to evaluate personnel before he discusses alignment.
“We’re not going to get hung up on scheme right now,” Spagnuolo said. “What we should first do is find out what we have and how they fit then decide exactly what the scheme is.
“I do think today things are a little overblown. Let’s all recognize that in today’s football they put a lot of wideouts out there, so we’re in a lot of sub packages.”
And sub defenses are less about a 3-4, which the Chiefs used as their base under former coordinator Bob Sutton, or 4-3, which Spagnuolo traditionally had run in his years as a head coach with the Rams and coordinator with the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints.
When it comes to personnel, many decisions await a team that finished 31st in yards allowed despite tying for the NFL lead in sacks.
Much of the speculation has focused on how some of the team’s veterans, such as 3-4 outside linebackers Dee Ford and Justin Houston, will fit a base scheme that operates with two ends and two tackles up front.
A 4-3 would seem a better fit for the skill-set of Breeland Speaks, who lined up as an outside linebacker as a rookie but seems more like a natural 4-3 end.
Spagnuolo, who has met some but not all of the team’s defensive players as he begins to put in office hours at the team’s training facility, said it’s too soon to start fitting players into positions.
“You just get your best pass rushers out there and your best coverage people,” Spagnuolo said. “So once we get that figured out, we’ll start slotting people into where they should go.”
Don’t look for answers any time soon.
“This is a long process to figure out who and what we have, how it fits,” Spagnuolo said. “One thing I’ve always said, especially about defensive football, is you don’t really get a good assessment of your players until you put pads on and watch them play real defensive football, and that doesn’t happen until the end of July.”
But the mission is clear. Two days after the Chiefs failed to stop the New England Patriots in their AFC Championship Game loss — New England won the overtime coin toss and ended the game with a touchdown — Sutton was fired. And Spagnuolo was announced as his replacement before the end of the week.
Spagnuolo is charged with improving a defense that shares a locker room with an offense that led the NFL in yards and scoring.
“We’d like to think that can happen,” Spagnuolo said. “But this is process. There are no quick fixes. One person or a new staff coming in here doesn’t assure success.
“But I will tell you this. We will do everything to put something together that we are playing aggressive, challenging, physical, competitive, defensive football. That’s the goal.”
[Reply]
I just listened to that again for shits and giggles. Just a couple of things:
1) He's obviously zeroed-in on the main issue(s) and I think it's safe to say that his overall plan will be to reintroduce some concepts that have clearly gotten lost along the way, and then to hold players accountable for their execution and upkeep of said concepts.
2) This guy has a great demeanor and from what little I've seen, is VERY effective at getting his ideas and concepts across to players so that they can learn and absorb quickly, and feel intelligent while doing so. He's not a down-talker. He's also very active and engaged with his players on the sideline, continuously in coaching mode while attending to his duties as a D-Coord. After the last two years, this is like standing on a mountain top breathing fresh air after spending too much time in a glass jar with air holes in the lid.
[Reply]
Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Hate:
I just listened to that again for shits and giggles. Just a couple of things:
1) He's obviously zeroed-in on the main issue(s) and I think it's safe to say that his overall plan will be to reintroduce some concepts that have clearly gotten lost along the way, and then to hold players accountable for their execution and upkeep of said concepts.
2) This guy has a great demeanor and from what little I've seen, is VERY effective at getting his ideas and concepts across to players so that they can learn and absorb quickly, and feel intelligent while doing so. He's not a down-talker. He's also very active and engaged with his players on the sideline, continuously in coaching mode while attending to his duties as a D-Coord. After the last two years, this is like standing on a mountain top breathing fresh air after spending too much time in a glass jar with air holes in the lid.
.some giants fans think his coverage schemes are at times too complex. Matt house seems to prefer simplification. Might be interesting to monitor. But no way players will look even close to as confused as they looked running Suttons Defense.
[Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
.some giants fans think his coverage schemes are at times too complex. Matt house seems to prefer simplification. Might be interesting to monitor. But no way players will look even close to as confused as they looked running Suttons Defense.
Absolutely. I'm sure Bob had some complex coverage schemes in his playbook too. The difference is, unlike Bob, Spags can probably teach and convey those schemes to his DB's much more effectively and if necessary, have a "plan b" on standby if the schemes aren't working. But yeah, there's no doubt in my mind that with current players and any draftees brought in, we're gonna' strip it down and start playing some tough, aggressive, disciplined, and fundamentally sound defense.
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