And he came back too soon.
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Our defensive line is being massively underrated.
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And I'm perfectly fine with that, really.
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Chris Jones is probably 1 of 1 in the NFL now, and Karlaftis is really good.

Outside those 2 there's some questions that could pop up on the DL.
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This is fair. Head-to-head the Raiders might have the better talent on the D-Line when comparing the starters (not sure about their depth), and that's taking nothing away from any of the Chiefs players at that position.

Spags is the great equalizer in how he utilizes his guys, however. He knows how to scheme and coach while the Raiders just seem happy to let Crosby go all HULK SMASH with him (not even saying that's wrong; he's THAT good).

I'm not upset at that, and I'd probably argue the receiver group as well, even with Kelce being the great equalizer to Devante Adams.
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Them adding Wilkins is a big add for the DL (not for the overall team they'll still suck).

The Chiefs have some potential, but FAU hasn't really shown anything and Omenihu is coming off injury.
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It's the same exact DL as last year :-)

Danna is not a ?

Omenihu should be fine when he gets healthy.

The only ? Is FAU and there's absolutely no reason to think he won't be better in year 2.
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I wouldn't exactly call last years DL the strength of the defense though. Danna is definitely not a question mark, good solid player.

The defense is now without a couple key contributors from last year for most of the year, so status quo on the DL isn't ideal.

Omenihu probably isn't back to normal til December and FAU didn't exactly burst onto the scene last year.
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Who said anything about it being the strength of this defense?

The only significant loss was Sneed, and the secondary is still really fucking good without him, and we all know how good Spags and Merritt are with the DBs. That room is still loaded with young talent, so there should really be no concern of a huge drop off.

I'm not exactly expecting arguably the best defense in the NFL again, but there's absolutely no reason to think this shouldn't be a top 10 defense again.

FAU was a 21 year old rookie. Again, absolutely no reason to think he won't be better. His pressures per snap were similar to rookie year Karlaftis, just didn't get the snaps due to a deeper group.
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You brought up it was the same group as last year, it had questions last year and there are some of the same ones this year we didn't really get answers to yet.

We got 18 sacks from the secondary and LB's last year, hopefully we don't need that to happen again if the DL progresses as hoped.
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Don’t forget how good Pennel is against the run.
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Chris Jones 10.5 sacks
George Karlaftis 10.5 sacks
Charles Omenihu 7 sacks (missed 6 games due to suspension)
Mike Danna 6.5 sacks

Without Omenihu's suspension, we probably have 3 guys with double digit sacks, and when your 4th best pass rusher is getting 6.5, that's damn good.

The DL was a lot better than you're giving them credit for, and that's why I brought up that it's the same group as last year.

Why would we stop blitzing guys like McDuffie, Bolton, Tranquil, and Chenel though? They're good at it too. Part of the reason Spags is so good is because of his ability to creatively bring pressure from every level of the defense.
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I wouldn't be surprised if they started off hot to the tune of 4-1 or something. The media bandwagon comes in to hype them up, Steven A Smith will start comparing Antonio Pierce to Vince Lombardi. And then reality sets in and they come crashing down, finishing 6-11 or 7-10.
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Sure, that's good.

But one of those guys isn't likely to play much this year for a while....I'd imagine not until late in the season.

So we're gonna need FAU to come on pretty good
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You mean the same guy that missed the first 6 games last year too?
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