Is the Kansas City Chiefs' Defense Underrated?

The Kansas City Chiefs' offense takes center stage when people think of the franchise. Possessing stars in quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce will do that. However, when it comes to winning championships, the Chiefs know it takes more than the offensive front.

The Chiefs casually have one of the best defenses in the National Football League. Since the offense gets talked about so often, many forget how crucial the Kansas City defense has been to the franchise's success. After all, the defense did rank within the Top 10 of average defensive yards allowed per game.

Kansas City pulled off close game after close game in the 2024 campaign. Winning several one-score games was very impressive, but when taking a deep dive into those victories, it's the defense that kept the team in the game after the lack of explosiveness on the offensive side of the ball.

The Chiefs' defense allowed the fourth fewest points per game on average last season, with 19.2. The offense, on the other hand, averaged 22.6 points per game. Yes, the points scored were more than the points allowed, but the margin was very slim.

Going into the new season, the Chiefs added several new players to the defense while retaining as many players as they could. The outlook for the defense in Kansas City is high, especially since they still have defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo leading the way.

Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis felt very strongly about the outlook of the Chiefs' defense. Recently joining SPEAK, Karlaftis was asked if he believes the defense in Kansas City is underrated, to which he responded fairly quickly.

"Yeah, I mean, we're not doing it for the opinions of other people," Karlaftis said. "We know that we have a great quarterback, and if we play well, we always have a chance at winning a game. We want to win games at the end of the day. Whether we get the credit, the offense gets the credit, whoever. It's about winning games and that's kind of the culture we've had as a defense and as a team. It doesn't matter who gets the credit. As long as we win games, we're happy."