Preseason injuries could put Chiefs defense in a tough spot to begin the season

The Kansas City Chiefs defense will face a huge challenge right off the bat of the regular season against the Baltimore Ravens.

As if that wasn't a tall enough task in of its own, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's starting unit didn't play together throughout training camp or preseason. Safety Justin Reid has just recently begun practicing after suffering a quad injury during the offseason, and linebacker Nick Bolton missed the entire preseason with an elbow injury.

Defensive tackles Chris Jones and Derrick Nnadi also sat out the preseason, but in Jones' case it was mostly out of an abundance of caution. The good news is everybody is now healthy and will be good to go against Baltimore baring any setbacks. The first order of business will be getting everyone on the same page and rebuilding their chemistry, as Spagnuolo told reporters on Monday.

"Listen, it's the first game," Spagnuolo said. "It's been a long training camp, you know, we're anxious to hit somebody else. And then the other thing is, we really haven't had our guys, you know, the starting crew out there very much. So, we got a lot to kind of figure out on the go, which is what the first game is all about. You don't know what you're going to get. They haven't shown us much. You know, we haven't shown them much. And it's kind of the in-game adjustments that are really important in this game."

Figuring things out on the go doesn't sound ideal against a team the caliber of the Ravens, but that's something that Spagnuolo excels at. It's not uncommon for the Chiefs' defense to start slow and give up some points early, but after Spagnuolo makes adjustments, his unit usually settles and begins to dominate.

As far as chemistry goes, hopefully that is something the defense can regain mostly during practice. Reid, Bolton and Jones are veterans and know how to make sure everyone knows their role, but it's possible that there's some rust and miscommunication early. It's worth noting that the Ravens didn't play most of their starters at all during preseason, making rust a possible factor for them as well.

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