The Kansas City Chiefs Defensive Staff

The end of the Carl Peterson era has brought in a new era in Kansas City Chief’s football. The Scott Pioli and Todd Haley show has received much of the headlines this offseason with the draft, and combine. Our defense was miserable, and our defensive staff has been vastly overlooked.

This article will take an in depth look at our Defensive Coordinator, Clancy Pendergast, the rest of his staff, and how they expect to improve the defensive side of the ball. The Kansas City Chief’s defense was absolute horrendous in 2008 racking up only 10 sacks (NFL fewest sacks in a season) and ranked 31st in total defense.

Clancy Pendergast

Clancy Pendergast is probably best known for his time with the 2009 Arizona Cardinals and their ultimate loss in the Super Bowl.

Take one bad play call by Todd Haley and/or execution by Kurt Warner which ended with Steelers defensive end James Harrison running back an interception for a touchdown; then you have Clancy Pendergast, and Todd Haley both wearing Super Bowl Rings.

In 1995, the Houston Oilers gave Clancy Pendergast his start in the NFL as a quality control assistant. This position essentially composed of Pendergast breaking down film of upcoming opponents, scouting these upcoming opponents, and acting as an assistant coach during practices.

The Dallas Cowboys offered up a quality control position to Pendergast in 1996, which developed into a defensive assistant and linebackers coach.  Pendergast was later given the responsibilities for the Nickel defense, and secondary. One of Clancy Pendergast’s pet projects was five time Pro Bowl safety Roy Williams.

Clancy Pendergast was brought into the Browns staff in 2003 as a linebackers coach. He impressed Jeremy Green during this time that his father, Dennis Green, hired Clancy as the Defensive Coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals in 2004.

He continued to be the Defensive Coordinator until Feb. 2009, when he was fired after the Super Bowl loss to the Pittsburg Steelers.

During his time with the Arizona Cardinals statistically ranked No. 25 in total defense, and surrendered 14.0 points per game, which is fifth lowest in the league. Clancy was able to decrease the average of points surrendered by a little over half since the average in 2003 was 28.3 points per game.

Last season the Arizona Cardinals ranked 22nd in passing yards allowed and 16th in running yards allowed. Since 2003, the Arizona Cardinals have run a modified 3-4 defense sometimes called the 4-3 under/over.

Pendergast introduced a drill, in which every player on the unit must track an offensive player for 25 yards, into the end zone. If any player loafed on the five-minute drill, the entire unit must repeat the drill until it was performed perfectly.

Pendergast had stated, "Those first practices in the spring we'd have maybe half the guys chasing the ball. And so everyone had to do it over. By summer, we had maybe cut down to 'repeats' to two or three. With our first unit now, there is really almost never a call-back, because guys know what is expected of them."

It appears that Clancy Pendergast might coach the defense similar to Herm Edwards coaching style. "He makes you feel like you're prepared for everything," acknowledged middle linebacker Ronald Mckinnon.

“He gets your respect and attention without screaming at you. He points out the reasons behind things, why they will work, and, hey, they've worked. And he definitely keeps you on your toes."

Gary Gibbs

Most of Gary Gibbs career has been coaching at the college level. Gary Gibbs started off playing linebacker at Oklahoma University, and eventually worked his way up the ranks of the coaching ladder at OU. Gibbs had short stints at Georgia, and LSU for a year each.

Eventually the Dallas Cowboys picked Gary Gibbs up as a linebacker coach in 2002-2005. During this time, the Cowboys had seen a spur of inspiration under the helm of Bill Parcels. The second year with the Cowboys gave the Dallas Cowboys, and Gary Gibbs a trip to the playoff with a 10-6 record.

The New Orleans Saints hired Gibbs in 2006 as a Defensive Coordinator. In the three years Gibbs took over the defense ranked 23rd in passing and third in stopping the run in 2006(which was an improvement from 2005), and when he finished with the Saints in 2008 they ranked 23rd in passing and 17th in stopping the run.

Tim Krumrie

Tim Krumrie is a former two time defensive tackle with the Cincinnati Bengals. He is currently one of the few coaches left over from the last season, and will be heavily scrutinized on the defensive line. Other than the position with Kansas City Tim’s only coaching position has been a defensive line coach for Cincinnati, and Buffalo.

In conclusion, the Kansas City Chiefs should be able to pull of 22 individuals off of the street and win more than two games in a season. Thankfully we will have some young professionals and a much improved defensive staff that will help bring us up to a .500 season.

None of the above coaches have been top tier defensive coaches. These coaches might not be the top tier, but they are a vast improvement from the coaching staff that we had last year.