Steve Spagnuolo Prepares for Deshaun Watson to 'Spread the Ball Around'

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo won't spend this year's matchup with the Houston Texans game-planning for wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, but he doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

As Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo enters his second year at the helm of the Chiefs' defense, he finds himself preparing for an already-familiar foe that is missing a familiar face.

On March 16, Houston Texans general manager and head coach Bill O'Brien traded away his star wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick. The move was met with skepticism from fans and analysts.

Following the trade of Hopkins, the Texans made another trade. This time, the Los Angeles Rams sent wide receiver Brandin Cooks and a 2022 fourth-round pick to Houston for the Texans' 2020 second-round pick.

During a video conference with reporters Monday, Spagnuolo said he isn’t sure if not having Hopkins on the other side will be an advantage for the Chiefs or not.

“The biggest challenge probably is we don’t really know who the go-to guy is,” Spagnuolo said. “We kind of knew that last year, whether that was good or bad I don’t know, but it sounds and feels like they’re going to spread the ball around. Which means we’re going to have to deal with a bunch of them. They’ve got some speed over there. We know what Fuller is like, Cooks they added to the mix. I’ve always felt Randall Cobb was a good football player.”

The Chiefs will face off against the Texans for the seventh time since O’Brien took the reins and 2014 but this time is unlike any other.

With no preseason, teams are in the dark about what opponents play to do or what the team looks like heading into Week 1. While that can be a challenge, Spagnuolo said there’s always a bit of unknown heading into the first game of the season.

“Without any film to go off of, we’re not really sure where they’re headed in terms of what they’re going to put out there but we’re going to need to figure it out quick,” Spagnuolo said. “That’s a lot of the chess game in the first game of the season, even when you have the preseason games there’s still a lot of things you’re trying to figure out.”