Steve Spagnuolo Breaks Down Joshua Uche's Progress, Playing Time Moving Forward

Now several games into Joshua Uche's Chiefs tenure, Steve Spagnuolo is pleased with what he's seen and revealed what KC's plan for him is moving forward.

Nov 4, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Rachaad White (1) runs the ball against Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Joshua Uche (55) during the first half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

As the Kansas City Chiefs' defense gears up for the last handful of weeks this regular season, Steve Spagnuolo's group is still a work in progress on the pass rush front. The return of Charles Omenihu should provide a boost whenever that occurs, also giving the coaching staff another piece to work with down the stretch.

Speaking of which, October trade pickup Joshua Uche is no longer the new kid on the block. Now three games in, the longtime New England Patriots standout has logged just 25 combined defensive snaps in three games with Kansas City. For reference, he averaged 23 per game in his first seven contests prior to being traded.

Despite the minimal workload, are the Chiefs still seeing positive indicators from Uche? Spagnuolo expanded on the lack of high-end snaps for the 26-year-old and what the club's potential plan is for Uche moving forward.

"Yeah, keep trying to amp him up," Spagnuolo said. "I mean, listen, we've got a lot of guys who can rotate in there. Joe (Cullen) tries to navigate through that in the course of a game. We don't like to have 72 plays – I think we had 72 plays in this game – we'd rather have 50. Of course, when that happens, it goes down. A lot of the guys now, especially in the D-line room when we're getting into situational things where we've got guys earmarked for certain situations, sometimes they come up [and] sometimes they don't. We have packages where sometimes we have three linemen and sometimes we have four, so that kind of changes the snaps a lot.

"But we're going to function as a unit. It's not trying to get one person a number of reps, it's not trying to get one person a number of sacks. We play best when it's 11 guys, and that's what it'll always be. However it works out numbers-wise, one game might be one way and another game might be a little bit different. We'll see where we go from here."

The box score for Uche's three games as a Chief doesn't reflect someone who's been able to do a ton. After logging a pair of tackles in his Week 9 debut, he's gone without one in back-to-back weeks. Pro Football Focus credited him with one pressure in the aforementioned contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then none since. Thirteen of his 14 logged pressures for 2024-25 came as a member of the Patriots. Taking that into account, it's hard to put too much stock into his season-wide analytics.

edge rusher pass rush metrics pic.twitter.com/VATfKeEJ2o

— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) November 21, 2024

Uche has made plays on film, sure, but Kansas City is still waiting for everything to come together. Personnel is also something that must be considered. Two players on the roster, George Karlaftis and Mike Danna, are regarded as starting-caliber defensive ends who play better run defense than Uche. The most logical player to get snaps taken away is Felix Anudike-Uzomah, yet the 2023 first-round pick has already dropped to 12 reps in consecutive games after being above 30 in Weeks 7-9. Uche is closer to a situation-specific pass rusher at this juncture, even before Omenihu gets added back into the fold.

What's the answer to getting Uche on the field more and, thus, potentially more productive? Alleviating some pressure from Danna (79 snaps in his first two games back from injury) makes sense, although it isn't something Spagnuolo or Cullen seem likely to do. Karlaftis isn't losing snaps. Anudike-Uzomah already is. Maybe Malik Herring, who has 19 total snaps in Weeks 10 and 11, falls victim to the numbers game.

That's a lot of math to do. Omenihu will make things more challenging. As Uche finds his footing in a new environment, it gives the Chiefs a good problem to solve before the playoffs. For what they gave up (or didn't) to get him, both sides are afforded the right to play the long game.

Only time will tell if the snaps – and numbers – will be on the rise.

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