Because of all the interest in this thread, I've place all of the video content of Patrick Mahomes II's college career, and draft day goodness into a single post that can be found here. Enjoy! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chris Meck:
There is a veteran upgrade at each level of the defense before you even get into considering the draftees or young players improving.
Xavier Williams, Anthony Hitchens, and Eric Berry.
There's no reason to think they won't be at least marginally improved. If any of the rookies contribute, that improvement may be dramatic. Even if they don't, it should overall be an improved squad. I think it likely, however, that at least Nnadi and Speaks would be rotational players at a minimum, and clearly have some talent as opposed to JAG's.
A middle of the pack defense with this offense's capabilities should be a play-off team.
Exactly. With the exception of #1 CB and MAYBE one of the DE spots, every position on this defense is addition by subtraction.
Yeah, the safety position is a huge concern. A lot of unknowns, and we're relying on JAGs to make contributions. But even Berry + Sorensen/Watts/Golden is an upgrade from last year, when it was Ron Parker with no gas left in the tank and Daniel Sorensen.
LB? Instead of a Ragland who took several weeks to get used to our team and get back into the swing of things from the injury and JAGs, it's now Hitchens, Ragland, and all those JAGs who are perhaps ready to make more contributions. OLB is mostly unchanged, but we're not going to be relying on Zombo if one of the guys gets injured now. Depth at that spot has been dramatically improved.
For DL, I view Xavier Williams/Bennie Logan as a wash. Logan wasn't anything special, but we're still entrusting Wililams with a starting job that he hasn't really shown he can take command of-- he was rotational depth his entire time in Arizona, having only started 1 game in his entire pro career. That's a question mark, but at least we're left with some half decent backup plans in Nnadi and Hamilton (more competition the better). Williams might be able to serve effectively as RNR's rotational role, bringing a run-stuffing specialty we haven't had in any of our DL players since Mike DeVito. Everything else is the same.
The defense will almost certainly improve from last year. It still might not be good enough, but the talking heads going, "Oh, but they lost Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Ron Parker and Bennie Logan..." clearly don't have a fucking clue what they're talking about. [Reply]
Patrick Mahomes only needs 28,224 passing yards in Week 1 vs the Los Angeles Chargers to pass Len Dawson for the all-time Chiefs passing yardage record.
— Patrick Mahomes Facts (@FactsMahomes) July 6, 2018
Just a guess but I like Nnadi to take the starting NT job in camp. He’s a grown ass man. He’ll plug the middle and let our LBs flow. Williams might too, but I like Nnadi’s upside more. [Reply]
Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19:
Just a guess but I like Nnadi to take the starting NT job in camp. He’s a grown ass man. He’ll plug the middle and let our LBs flow. Williams might too, but I like Nnadi’s upside more.
I think so too; and I think Williams is better than Logan. [Reply]
I have this defense conversation on a daily basis with a friend of mine.
He tells me all the time that the defense "is as bad as when Vermiel was here" to which I always respond um no it's not, when guys leave now they actually get signed by other teams, none of those guys did.
Then that turns into "Eric Berry tore his achilles tendon I don't expect him to be nearly as good, they traded away their best defensive player and Steven Nelson is still playing and he's awful".
Then that usually leads into how Justin Houston is an overpaid POS and Dee Ford is just a POS and that makes them the worst defense in the league and Mahomes is going to turn it over making them even worse.
Which all leads to him telling me how they are a 6 or 7 win team. But of course he's the same dude that would always defend Alex Smith, I just don't get it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by NJChiefsFan:
Man do people not remember how horrible that vermiel defense was?
They really don't, it was so bad none of those guys went on to play anywhere else in any meaningful capacity, I think Monty Beisel went to play special teams for the Pats and he was one of the only ones that found a job anywhere else. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
I have this defense conversation on a daily basis with a friend of mine.
He tells me all the time that the defense "is as bad as when Vermiel was here" to which I always respond um no it's not, when guys leave now they actually get signed by other teams, none of those guys did.
Then that turns into "Eric Berry tore his achilles tendon I don't expect him to be nearly as good, they traded away their best defensive player and Steven Nelson is still playing and he's awful".
Then that usually leads into how Justin Houston is an overpaid POS and Dee Ford is just a POS and that makes them the worst defense in the league and Mahomes is going to turn it over making them even worse.
Which all leads to him telling me how they are a 6 or 7 win team. But of course he's the same dude that would always defend Alex Smith, I just don't get it.
Originally Posted by Cave Johnson:
Sounds like a butthurt Alexsexual.
It's frustrating as all hell to deal with, then he listens to sports radio and basically bitches that "everyone expects to much of Mahomes, he's not going to be that good" [Reply]