Steve Spagnuolo has developed into one of the finest defensive coordinators of his era, leading the Chiefs to one of their best defensive units in their legacy case.
The Kansas City team have reached their fourth Superbowl since 2019 and this year’s prevailing theme is defense.
Veteran defensive end Chris Jones believes his unit can nullify the 49ers offense.
“I just more so think it’s guys growing and maturing,” Jones said of the defense’s evolution. “You know we’ve got a lot of young guys who we’ve asked to play a lot of reps this year. Like a guy like Trent McDuffie, his progression from Year 1 to Year 2 is astronomical.
“A guy like L’Jarius Sneed, you watch his base of work for his four years since he’s been here. It’s been extremely proud of those guys.”
Head coach Andy Reid has seen a new generation of defensive players in the past five years and praises the front office.
“I would tell you age was some of the factor in this world of the NFL and free agency, things change,” coach Andy Reid said of the turnover.
“(General manager) Brett Veach has done a nice job of bringing an influx of young guys into the program. Those young guys, a bunch of them were in that secondary. And they’ve gotten better here with time, so we took some bumps and bruises early last year, but they’ve gotten better.
“They got better toward the end of last year and then they just picked up on it and have done a nice job working under this year. I would tell you that the job Brett does, between free agency and the draft, is second to none. He does a great job with all that.”
But special mention goes to Spagunolo, especially from the players.
“I think with Spags, it all starts about how much he cares about the guys,” defensive end George Karlaftis said. “We can see that he truly cares about us. He loves us. He’s like a father figure, if you will. It starts with that. He’s a man that instils faith in our defense, just trusting in one another and everything goes from there. We love Spags, we love playing for Spags, his game plan, the stuff he’s able to dial up speaks for itself. He’s just a great human being, I’d have to say that before anything else.”
Drue Tranquil is a newcomer but is amazed at how the DC and his staff coach match winning blitzes.
“I just think he does a really good job teaching,” Tranquil said. “We’re very multiple in our blitzes. We have overload pressures, we have double edge pressures, we have middle pressures. I think when you have a group of guys that can execute a plethora of different blitz schemes, it makes it challenging on a quarterback to ID protections. When you make it challenging on them, and you do things that are simple for you, you can find success.”
