COMMENTARY
Chiefs’ defense is not a pretty sight
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star
RIVER FALLS, Wis. | Pro football, more than any other sport, is like a woman. The moment you think you have the game figured out is the very moment the game makes a complete fool out of you.
Saturday afternoon I spent much of the day thinking back to how the Chiefs arrived at this point — 20 years of Carl Peterson and an expansion roster. It can all be traced to Dick Vermeil, who was convinced he had the NFL completely decoded when he arrived in Kansas City in 2001 fresh off a St. Louis Super Bowl run.
Vermeil was positive the fast-break offense he and Mike Martz developed in St. Louis would get the Chiefs to the Super Bowl in two years at a minimum, and within five if there were small hiccups.
Well, we know how that all ended. The Chiefs detonated a lot of fireworks without generating much bang for Lamar Hunt’s bucks. The game, like a diva-ish woman, humbled Vermeil.
And the natural reaction was to enlist an old-school, by-the-book playa to fix things.
The unpredictable nature of professional football creates head coaches like Herm Edwards, a man committed to a conservative, defensive approach. Defensive-minded coaches lock up their prom dates in early December, well before Christmas, and then they spend January, February and March secretly prospecting for an upgrade.
It’s a proven approach. Year in and year out a coach like Herm Edwards is always going to have a solid date for homecoming and the prom, and the same girl is likely to invite him to the Sadie Hawkins, too.
What most people never do, though, is take a look back at Herm’s dates in junior high, the third cousin from the town 90 minutes away who was driven over by an aunt just so Herm wouldn’t be dateless for the eighth-grade social.
We’re going to see her this year. There’s a chance that this year’s Kansas City defense will be as bad as any of those neglected and ignored units Dick Vermeil used to throw on the field while he and Al Saunders formulated the next set of plays for Trent Green, Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez.
On Saturday, I talked about all the prayers the Chiefs are hoping the football gods answer on the offensive side of the ball. Well, Gunther Cunningham is on his knees, too. This defense is a mess.
This offseason when Herm said defensive tackle Alfonso Boone would move to defensive end — basically replacing Jared Allen — I assumed Herm was joking. He wasn’t. Boone is actually lining up as the strongside defensive end at training camp.
Longtime readers of this column know that I have a hard and fast rule about 300-pound defensive ends. Except for Reggie White, the greatest defensive player in the history of the league, they stink. Reggie was a physical freak of nature. He doesn’t even really count. Years ago the Chiefs tried to make Chester McGlockton a strongside defensive end. The experiment flopped.
Boone at end will be worse. He’s a decent defensive tackle. He’ll be overmatched athletically against offensive tackles.
And that’s just the beginning of Kansas City’s defensive shortcomings. I’m not convinced Tamba Hali is a legit pass-rusher, and we’re unlikely to find out this season if he is.
Prayer No. 1 for the Chiefs is Glenn Dorsey needs to be a beast as a rookie for the defense to have any chance at survival. I don’t think he’s in good enough shape. He has been compared to a young Warren Sapp. The difference is Sapp had a totally different lower body when he entered the league. He was more athletically built. He had bounce, explosion. Dorsey has power. I’m not sure he’s a three technique. But that’s just early speculation. Dorsey hurt his left knee during the tail end of Saturday’s practice.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.
