Kansas City Defense: 1984 Was a True 3-4

With Kansas City being one of many teams making a transition to the popular 3-4 defensive scheme I thought it would be interesting to look back 25 years to 1984, the Chiefs last year of the 3-4

First of all, this is not your normal group of players by any means, many already being in the Chiefs Hall of Fame, but wouldn't it be interesting to look back to get a better perspective of how it was?

Some of you were in diapers at the time.

As hard as it is to believe, The Chiefs starting three Defensive Lineman were all first rounders, and not only that, they were all drafted in the top five of Round One!

Sound familiar?

Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey have a ways to go to catch these guys

Art Still came out of Kentucky and at 6'7", 253 pounds he appeared almost too skinny by today's standards but I guess steroids were not as popular back then. As a base end, Mr. Still had a total 15 sacks alone.

Mike Bell was the other Base End. Bell also undersized at 6'4", 255 pounds contributed 14 sacks of his own. Bell was the second pick of Round One behind Earl Campbell

The photo above was their Nose Tackle Bill Maas. Its hard to believe he played NT at 270 pounds but he was so tough it didn't matter (Remember Jack Lambert of the Steelers made the Hall of Fame as a tall 220 pound MLB.) Maas contributed five sacks.

That's quite amazing—34 sacks from their front three starters? It's true

The beneficiaries of these sack machines were their stellar secondary of Albert Lewis, Kevin Ross, Lloyd Burris, and Deron Cherry. All they did was intercept 19 passes as a group.

Ross and Lewis of course were shut down Corners, a couple of mid round draft picks that may be the Chiefs best tandem. Cherry and Burris were the Chiefs greatest Safeties of all time. Cherry was drafted as a Quarterback. Ross was barely drafted at all

Linebackers were not as impressive with only Gary Spani, a good little plugger that stood out. Even so, their starting four contributed another 10 Sacks

You would think that nobody could score on these guys right?

Wrong

Kansas City placed only in the middle of the pack on Defense in the league ranking 15th. Sure that included the run but how many backs could run against Maas and their 2 greatest Safeties of all time? What these linebackers lacked as rushers was made up for against the run

It would be nice to think that someday Dorsey, Jackson, and Magee could combine for 34 sacks but they'll be lucky to get even half that amount. The same holds true for their present Defensive Backs

And what are my conclusions? I have none. Lets just say that if this is a Defense that only was "average" by league standards then...............