Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo reveals progress on last year's rookie DB class
The Kansas City Chiefs are making some crazy progress in one of their biggest areas for the 2023 season.The Chiefs took a huge risk last season, and to me, it doesn't really get talked about enough. After the 2021 season, the Chiefs elected not to bring back Charvarius Ward, Dorian O'Daniel, Rashad Fenton, Mike Hughes, […]
The Kansas City Chiefs are making some crazy progress in one of their biggest areas for the 2023 season.
The Chiefs took a huge risk last season, and to me, it doesn't really get talked about enough. After the 2021 season, the Chiefs elected not to bring back Charvarius Ward, Dorian O'Daniel, Rashad Fenton, Mike Hughes, Daniel Sorenson, Armani Watts, Tyrann Mathieu, and Deandre Baker. Instead, they rolled into 2022 with a secondary made of almost entirely rookies.
And the best part is, it worked.
Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson, Justin Reid, Juan Thornhill, Bryan Cook, and L'Jarius Sneed saw the bulk of the snaps.
Sure, things started kind of rough. If you remember, Stefon Diggs torched the young secondary in Week 6 for 10 catches, 148 yards, and a touchdown. Gabe Davis and Dawson Knox also had touchdowns through the air.
But when the playoffs rolled around, the secondary was playing some of its best football, and they carried that over to the Bengals, which, at the time, was one of the biggest games in the Chiefs' history, not including Super Bowls.
The rookies stepped up, and in fact, two of them had interceptions in Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson, and one other in Cook had the pass deflection leading to the interception.
So what does next year hold, because it's hard to top what they have already accomplished? OTAs have shown it's only going to get better.
"I was somewhere with them a week ago, and they're like light years ahead," defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo told the media Thursday. "And they feel it and it's different. And they're confident. The first day we went out there for a walk-through. I'm including Justin Reid in that because last year was all new for him too even though he was a vet, the system was new. And those guys just from a verbal and being kind of tied into that standpoint. They were just, they were just gelling."
Hearing that they are "light years" ahead is something that is just icing on the cake for what is already an exciting offseason for this defense. The now sophomores are the future of this defense and the future of the team.
Featured Image Via Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
