Chiefs LB Leo Chenal ready to unleash 'Death Row' on NFL in Year 2
Kansas City Chiefs LB Leo Chenal has always prided himself on being, "one of the most violent guys on the field at all times." He brought the "Death Row" mentality from his Wisconsin Badgers with him to the NFL, but his first season in the league included a bit of an adjustment period. He flashed the requisite speed, […]
Kansas City Chiefs LB Leo Chenal has always prided himself on being, "one of the most violent guys on the field at all times."
He brought the "Death Row" mentality from his Wisconsin Badgers with him to the NFL, but his first season in the league included a bit of an adjustment period. He flashed the requisite speed, physicality, and football IQ at times, but the transition was a process for the rookie. Things didn't really begin to slow down for Chenal until late in the season, with some standout performances in the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LVII.
Ahead of Year 2, Chenal told reporters that he's expecting to be more active as opposed to reactive within the play-calling and scheme of Steve Spagnuolo's defense.
“It’s really night and day," Chenal explained. "This year just having that whole offseason –even the longer season in the NFL, you start to feel those things you wouldn’t feel after a year or whatever in college because it’s so much longer. Entering into this season, this offseason, I have been able to be more like, ‘Okay, I know what I’m doing for the most part. Now let’s work on the little things like technique.’ Those little things I wouldn’t be able to work on before, I now can because I’m not stressing about like, ‘Oh shoot is that my job? Where’s my guy at.’ It’s a lot better tunnel vision on what I’m doing.”
Chenal firmly believes that he and his rookie teammates from a season ago are well ahead of where they were this time last year.
"Yeah, I think so," Chenal told reporters. "You've got all these rookies (from last year) going into the season, how heavily we contributed last year, like I talked about, having that confidence in our job. We're that much better. I think we're playing a lot faster. We're communicating a lot better than we were last year."
The second-year linebacker noted that his comfort level dropping into coverage in a pattern-match scheme has significantly improved. He understands what opposing quarterbacks want to do and the timing of routes much better than he did as a rookie.
While that's an area that Chenal has clearly sought to improve heading into Year 2, his greatest strength has always been attacking in the run game and rushing the passer. Chenal and his teammates in the linebacker room have been doing a bit more lining up on the edge and rushing the passer during training camp this year.
“Yeah (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Steve) Spags (Spagnuolo) is having us try out different positions on the line, dropping from inside the line as that joker role," Chenal said. "We’re just trying to get better day in and day out with that. It’s something – an unfamiliar position to be in as an off-ball linebacker. Willie (Gay) and I have been taking that role of getting on the line and rushing. A guy like him, he’s got a ton of speed, so just learning from each other, learning from guys like George (Karlaftis), you know that’s been really nice.”
Just as he had to do at Wisconsin, Chenal is still having to earn his stripes with grit, hard work, and physicality on the football field. His level of comfort within the scheme this year should allow him an opportunity to better showcase that violence that earned him a shot in the NFL as a third-round pick just a season ago.
3 defensive standouts from Chiefs training camp so far
The Kansas City Chiefs completed their tenth open training camp practice at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri on Thursday. The players are starting to get back into the swing of real football again, which also means that several of those players are beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. […]
Featured image via Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
