Kansas City Chiefs: Offense and Defense Expectations

Herm Edwards was the leader of the team last season, and led the Kansas City Chiefs as they lost two starting Quarterbacks’s and any resemblance of a defense. The 2008 Chiefs could arguably be considered the worst defensive team in the NFL ever, yet alone in the franchise's history.

The dismal season that the Chiefs, and Chiefs fans experienced last year created a torrent of events. Carl Peterson decided to hang up his cleats as King Carl of the Castle. Scott Pioli was the top General Manager looking for a new home and found it here in Kansas City. Thanks to Clark Hunt.

As any General Manger knows: the first rule of coming out of a losing season is cleaning house. Scott Pioli is no exception as he promptly let Herm Edwards and much of his coaching staff go. Kansas City Chiefs "Ole Reliable" Gunther Cunningham didn’t even make Pioli’s cut with his horrendous Tampa 2 defensive schemes.

If it is true that “22 players off of the street could win two games in the NFL,” then it is reasonable to believe that a change in our defense and offense should yield an 8-8 season.

Lets take a look at what we can expect our offense, and defense to look like in the 2009 season.

In 2008, the Kansas City Chiefs ran a Tampa 2 defense. This scheme relied on our secondary to play zone as our defensive line was incapable of putting pressure on the QB or stuffing the run. A large part of the defensive line’s woes was Glen Dorsey lining up across from the center.

This created a road block in Glen Dorsey’s path instead of shooting the gaps of the offensive line. Essentially, Glen Dorsey was put into a Nose Tackle position with the help of Alfonso Boone at his side.

It has been stated over and over again that we are moving to a 3-4 hybrid defense this year. I understand that we will be running a defense that is similar to the 4-3 under/over. This defense will have Glen Dorsey lining up at RDE, Tank Tyler at Nose Tackle, and rookie Tyson Jackson at LDE. Glen Dorsey playing the gap should help out tremendously.

There's a new addition; Glen Dorsey’s former LSU teammate, Tyson Jackson, who specialized in the 3-4 DE position, and was ranked No. 1 in the position. Tyson Jackson should have a decent first year, but we shouldn’t expect his full potential for a couple of years. Tank Tyler is a large man that fits the prototypical nose tackle, whether he can play the position has yet to be seen.

The loss of our top two quarterbacks in the middle of the season ment that we had to rely on a seventh round pick Tyler Thigpen to start. In his debut start in a professional offense Tyler Thigpen failed miserably throwing three interceptions in an eventual 38-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Chan Gailey quickly assembled the "arrowspread" offense for Tyler Thigpen. Larry Johnson was out for four games, during this time, and it was Tyler Thigpen's responsibility to control the game.

Tyler Thigpen was fairly successful with this new offense that many proclaim isn’t a viable pro offense. The offensive line was pretty solid with Brandon Albert and Brian Waters on the left side. The right side of the offensive line could be classified as pitiful. Rudy Niswanger, Damien McIntosh, and Adrian Jones were responsible for the duties on the right side.

It appears that we will be running an offense similar to what Belichick and Cowher operates. This offense requires the QB to make multiple pre-snap reads, which creates an audible intensive system. The wide receivers will need to step up their game in Todd Haley’s offense. There will be no excuses for Dwayne Bowe dropping passes, or Devard Darling running the wrong routes.

The offense lost our "go to" guy Tony Gonzalez in the offseason. The only receiver that we have picked up that will help fill in these shoes was Bobby Engram. It can be expected that TE Brad Cottam and Bobby Engram should take up Gonzalez’s production. Overall our corp. of wide receivers is quite talented, if they can stay healthy.

The offensive line should be vastly improves with Brandon Alberts and Brian Waters returning on the left side. Mike Goff has been brought in to help shore up the right guard position. Barry Richardson should see considerable amount of playing time at right tackle this year, and hopefully will be a great surprise to the line.

Overall, Scott Pioli and Todd Haley have done a pretty decent job at rebuilding the throne at Arrowhead. Our defense should see a vast improvement from a different defensive scheme and the additions of DE Tyson Jackson, and Linebackers Zack Taylor, and Mike Vrable.

Our offense should be slightly improved, and we should expect Chan Gailey, and Todd Haley to play to our strengths on offense. Our offensive line has added depth, and should be able to give Matt Cassell plenty of time to run the ball and/or scramble for his life.