The #Chiefs are hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator, sources say. The former #Giants DC and interim HC/#Rams HC began his NFL coaching career as an #Eagles assistant under Andy Reid. Now rejoins Big Red in KC.
For the fourth time in his career Steve Spagnuolo has taken a bad/average defensive unit and turned them into something significantly better. With less talent than what the previous DC had at his disposal. Tip of the hat . . . [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
For the fourth time in his career Steve Spagnuolo has taken a bad/average defensive unit and turned them into something significantly better. With less talent than what the previous DC had at his disposal. Tip of the hat . . .
this is what I was saying.
People were all like-well, sometimes he's good, sometimes he's shit.
But context is everything.
Everywhere he's gone, his defense gets better, and usually within a year or so.
The only exceptions were unstable head coaching/front office situations.
We're stable here. Perfect situation for Spags to flourish. [Reply]
Tied for 10th in points allowed after struggling early. Amazing
Through 15 weeks of the season (MNF won't matter, both teams already have more points scored than KC), the Chiefs defense is officially Top 10 in points per game.
Few DCs are miracle workers. I don't think Spags is a miracle worker, but he's an experienced coordinator who tries lots of new things and knows how to get a group of players to play team defense. And I think a lot of people just looked at the stints with that abortion post-bountygate Saints team and the talentless Giants teams from 2015-2017 and just assumed the guy couldn't coach.
Back when we were waiting for Sutton to get fired, people brought up how scheme/coordinator are kind of irrelevant if the talent and the culture of rock solid defense is there on the team, and how if those things AREN'T in place, pretty much any DC is going to struggle. It's clear right now that KC has enough talent in place to not suck on defense, but Spags still deserves a ton of credit for getting that talent to buy in and play as a team-- it's something Sutton CLEARLY struggled to maintain in his time here.
Again, they're not the greatest defense ever, but they're playing up to the expectations we had-- and probably way above that. It's been YEARS since our run defense looked this good. A whole bunch of the Sutton "leftovers" like Ward, Sorensen, Kpassagnon, Nnadi, and even Ragland have really improved and stepped up in the midst of this transition. Just about every new addition is a positive contributor to this team when they get snaps-- Wilson, Okafor, Pennel, Saunders, Honey Badger, Breeland, and... yes, I'll say it... as of late, Frank Clark. That's also not including someone like Ogbah who was one of our best pass rushers until he went on IR.
Yeah, I'd say he's pretty good. Maybe he did lose his way for a bit there, but he's clearly found it again after taking that year off from coaching. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
I’m sure taking a year off was good for Spags.
He’s been in some shitty situations, had time to reflect/grow from an outside perspective, and now he’s coming to a team with more pass rushing talent than any he’s been apart of in a decade.
He’s also going to have a bunch of rookie and sophomore talent on that side of the ball to groom.