KC Chiefs’ Defense Ranked as NFL's Second-Best by Bill Barnwell
Throughout the Patrick Mahomes era of Kansas City Chiefs football, the team has been known for its lethal offense. The defensive side of the ball has always been an afterthought, viewed as a unit that struggles early in the year and then becomes a roughly average group in time for the playoffs. The 2023 season, however, has been quite different.
Seven weeks into the year, Steve Spagnuolo's defense has been one of the NFL's very best. It's surrendered 21 or fewer points in every single game thus far, including an allowance of 10 or fewer in three contests. It's been by far the most complete defense of Mahomes's career, ranking sixth in lowest EPA per play allowed and third in lowest dropback EPA. By most accounts, the side of the football that doesn't include Patrick Mahomes has largely been the better part of the team.
Many are noticing the Chiefs' hot start on defense. ESPN's Bill Barnwell is one of those people, and he recently ranked Kansas City as the No. 2 defense in the entire NFL right now. Pointing out a combination of internal development, wise front office decisions, good coaching and the Chiefs having the league's youngest defense on a snap-weighted basis (25.4 years), he praised the defense in multiple regards. How the team is doing when not generating pressure is also a contributing factor:
The best sign of how dramatically the Chiefs have improved might be looking at how they perform when they don't get pressure. No team is good on defense when it doesn't get home, but Kansas City has been particularly brutal without that pass pressure in previous seasons. It ranked last in QBR without pressure as recently as last season, and the only time it ranked higher than 22nd in that metric was 2019, when it was the sixth best in football.
The 2023 Chiefs rank second in QBR allowed without pressure, which is a testament to how much work they've done developing young players at linebacker and in the secondary. The veteran imports who were on this roster for most of the Mahomes era are gone, including Tyrann Mathieu, Anthony Hitchens and Mike Hughes. The only starter on the back end who wasn't drafted by Kansas City is former Texans safety Justin Reid, who joined the team via free agency in 2022.
The Chiefs' secondary has been nothing short of fantastic in 2023, with the cornerback duo of L'Jarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie emerging as one of the premier combos in the entire NFL. On top of that, the addition of Mike Edwards via free agency is something that has served as plus depth and injected playmaking into the lineup. This also might be the deepest linebacker room the Chiefs have had in the Mahomes era. Even with Nick Bolton previously missing some games and being set to do so again now that he has a dislocated wrist, offseason pickup Drue Tranquill is a near-perfect replacement.
Barnwell does mention how the Chiefs struggle against the run, which is a very valid point. Despite that, opposing teams haven't committed to it enough to make it a concerning development. The reality of this defense is that even when the offense isn't firing on all cylinders, that doesn't mean the game is out of reach. For the first time in quite a while, the defense is capable of picking the offense up:
One element of the Spagnuolo-era defenses remains true: The Chiefs still struggle against the run. They rank 21st in EPA per rush attempt, which is still better than their usual performance. The case in years past has been that opposing offenses haven't been able to sustain the run throughout the game and keep up with this offense, though, and Kansas City hasn't really been burned on the ground this season. (Even in their one loss, David Montgomery's 21 carries produced just 74 yards.)
Suddenly, the Chiefs are a complete football team. A defense that has ranked an average of 17th in win probability added since Mahomes took over in 2018 is seventh this season. Harrison Butker hasn't missed a kick all season. Sunday was a reminder that Mahomes and Travis Kelce can still take over games at their best, but this season tells us the Chiefs can do just fine without A-games from their stars, too.
