The Kansas City Chiefs are having another excellent season on defense, but if there's one area they could improve in, it's covering tight ends.
The Chiefs’ defense has allowed the most receptions (37) and second-most yards (409) to tight ends this season. It's been hard to pinpoint exactly why it's having this struggles, especially given the talent in its linebacker corps and secondary.
While speaking to the media on Friday, Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton shed some light as to why tight ends have had so much success against Kansas City's defense and what it can do different moving forward.
"Yeah, I think how the game plans have been up to this point, man, I'm kind of taking away guys' best wide outs and make them go somewhere else," Bolton said. "It's just happened to be the tight ends up to this point. So, I mean, just have to keep battling. Some of those guys are getting one-on-ones with other guys getting help. I just got to battle, find a way to get the ball out, and ultimately make them take the long, hard road and get into the red zone and play good defense."
It makes sense that the Chiefs would prioritize taking away the opposing team's top wide receiver to eliminate big passing plays down the field. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has always been a bit of a bend-but-don't-break kind of coach, tightening up in the redzone.
Kansas City's defense is willing to live with quarterbacks dumping the ball off to their tight ends for minimal gain. It's approach this week against San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle will be interesting, who has the second-most receptions and most touchdowns on the team. Bolton explained how Kittle is such a mismatch for defenders.
"Yeah, man, he's a huge matchup problem," Bolton said. "Man, he's bigger than the most safeties and faster than most linebackers. So, we've had to mix it up. Mix our matchups up on him, put some hands on him when we can. Kind of disrupt his timing and hopefully frustrate him a little bit as the game progresses. But, I think there's going to be some different matchups, different guys get on him a little bit. We'll try to rough him up when we can man, and then ultimately just make (the quarterback) make tight throws and live to play another down."
Will the Chiefs prioritize limiting Kittle, or receivers such as Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk? History tells us they'll focus more on Samuel and Aiyuk, but when San Francisco is in the redzone they should probably switch to Kittle being their top priority.
Spagnuolo may even consider double-teaming Kittle, trusting in his cornerbacks to lockdown the 49ers' receivers. If Kittle has a big game, not only will it be tough for the Chiefs to get the win, but they'll know they have a legitimate problem with tight ends that has to be addressed.
