The Kansas City Chiefs had five rookies play a significant number of snaps for their defense in 2022, and battled through steep learning curves and lapses in judgment early in the season as they got their first-year players acclimated to life in the NFL.
Safety Justin Reid was also new to coordinator Steve Spagunolo’s system last year, and while he was a seasoned veteran entering the Super Bowl campaign, he too took time to adjust to the new defensive scheme. Reid spoke to reporters after practice on Saturday, telling the media that he believes that the defense’s improved confidence is evident heading into their second year together, as communication and speed have vastly improved.
“[We have] a whole lot [of confidence] across the board,” Reid said. “We watch the film from this time last year to right now, especially with the first team – not nearly as many busts, windows are tight. I know [in] previous training camps it used to be when the offense wasn’t scoring a lot of points, it [was assumed] that the offense had a bad day. But this year, the defense is playing well too. We are trying to make it hard on the offense – we give them a lot of looks, they give us a lot of looks – it’s competitive and it’s back-and-forth every day.”
What Reid described in his comments is what makes this Chiefs team so intriguing ahead of their 2023 campaign. In the past, it was the offense that carried the team, while the defense fell behind.
Now, it is a well-balanced team that can win a football game in multiple different ways. Trent McDuffie, Bryan Cook, Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson, and George Karlaftis, among others, are entering their second seasons in the NFL — giving Kansas City’s fans reason for optimism that this Chiefs defense can be a top-10 unit in the league.
