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[warthog]

Posted on Sun, Jan. 15, 2012
Chiefs anticipate being special on defense next season
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Between changing their head coach and then their quarterback late in the year, the Chiefs experienced so much drama that this little fact slipped through almost unnoticed: By season’s end, the Chiefs had one of the NFL’s best defensive teams.

Opponents over the last six games struggled to move the ball and score points against the Chiefs.

It wasn’t lost on Romeo Crennel. He said recently that things worked so well at the end of the season that he would in effect continue to serve as the defensive coordinator even though he’s now the head coach.

Crennel also indicated he intends to retain the rest of the defensive coaching staff.

This could just be the beginning of the good news for a defense that next season will welcome back one of its best players, safety Eric Berry. He missed all but the first few plays of last season because of a knee injury.

The Chiefs will retain all of their significant defensive players, with the possible exception of cornerback Brandon Carr. He will be an unrestricted free agent if he doesn’t re-sign before the start of the signing period in March.

With all of this news taken as a whole, the Chiefs believe they’re setting themselves up to be something special on defense next season.

“I kind of feel we got what we wanted,” Pro Bowl linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “Definitely no complaints. It will all be open arms.

“We’ll make strides to be even better, especially after getting Eric Berry back. I can’t wait for that guy to come back. We’ll be good. We’re a young team and defensively, we’ll be even better. We’ll be really good next year.”

Crennel, 64, is generally considered one of the NFL’s best defensive coaches. He was a defensive coach for five Super Bowl-winning teams and worked wonders when he arrived in Kansas City two years ago, taking over one of the league’s worst defenses from 2009 and making it into a competitive group.

“The thing I’ve noticed about Romeo, and it’s different than some of these young hotshots, is that Romeo doesn’t have a huge ego,” former Chiefs quarterback Rich Gannon said. “If he thinks the thing he needs to do to win a game is to play his base defense the whole game and not blitz a lot, that’s what he’ll do. A lot of coaches out there, they can’t help themselves. It’s almost an ego thing with some other guys that if you’re going to throw it, they’re going to blitz.

“Romeo is about playing winning football and being sound defensively. If you study his defenses over the years, that’s the thing that jumps out at you. They’re fundamentally sound, and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”

Crennel needed just a few days after being promoted to permanent head coach to decide he would continue to call the defenses. That’s a departure from the way he did things when he was the coach in Cleveland from 2005 through 2008.

He had two different defensive coordinators during that time. Only in Crennel’s first season did the Browns rank in the NFL’s top half in both scoring and total defense.

Perhaps that’s the reason he’s going to call his own defenses with the Chiefs.

“I never understand why these coaches who are so good at what they do that when they finally get a head coaching job, then they hand that responsibility off to someone who isn’t as qualified,” Gannon said. “Why would you do that? So the fact he’s calling the defenses again, that’s a big thing for the Chiefs. That’s really important.”

Despite a miserable start to the season, the Chiefs finished 11th in the league in yards allowed and 12th in scoring defense. Over the final six games, they were third in both total defense and scoring defense.

Crennel took over as the interim head coach replacing the fired Todd Haley with three games left. The Chiefs won two of those games, beating the high-scoring and previously undefeated Packers for one victory and Tim Tebow and the Broncos for the other.

“Look at how they played against Green Bay,” Gannon said. “That was pretty impressive. Nobody else really had any answers for Aaron Rodgers and that Green Bay offense, and yet they were able to get pressure on him, they mixed coverages well, and they won.

“You’d think they’ll be pretty good on defense again next year. They need to add another big guy inside, another big body to stop the run. But I think they’re headed in the right direction.

“He’s a very good defensive coordinator, and I think he’s put together a good staff. They’ve got to get better in the run defense, but they’ve done a nice job of developing talent. Look at Derrick Johnson and how well he’s played, and Tamba Hali. They’ve got playmakers at every level of their defense, and they’ll continue to add on that side of the ball.”

To reach Adam Teicher, call 816-234-4875 or send email to ateicher@kcstar.com. Follow him at twitter.com/adamteicher.

© 2012 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com

[sekchiefsfan]

I think that if everyone stays healthy and we pick someone up to play inside, we can easily be a top 5 defense.

The obvious missing piece to this team is QB. Give us an elite guy and we're immediate contenders.

[AssKickingBoots]

sekchiefsfan, on 16 January 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

I think that if everyone stays healthy and we pick someone up to play inside, we can easily be a top 5 defense.

The obvious missing piece to this team is QB. Give us an elite guy and we're immediate contenders.

Almost every team is an immediate contender with an elite QB.

Still, yeah, a marked improvement at QB, RT, and general depth and we would be an instant contender with some of the playmakers we have assuming we keep a couple key players (Bowe, Carr).

[HG]

Well after reading that, it sounds to me like we have been givin a clue as to what position we are going to draft first this year

[sekchiefsfan]

I know he's a bit of a hot head, but I would love to see us pick up Burfict from ASU. That would make our LB corps ridiculous.

[warthog]

BTW, I am watching 'Invincible' on TV and there was just a part where the radio announcer said, 'it appears that Dick Vermeil's coaching staff is focusing on defense'. I had to laugh. I guess there might have been a time when he did do that.