Inside the Play: Steve Spagnuolo 3rd down call for Kansas City Chiefs

It cannot be overstated how integral Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been to the Chiefs championship runs over the past several years. His ability to maximize various body types and skillsets, while also schematically challenging offenses, mitigating their weapons, and making them play on the back foot, has propelled him forward into the conversation as one of the greatest defensive minds of all-time. And having him holistically run the defense, allows head coach Andy Reid to invest the heavy majority of his time into the offense.

In the Chiefs opening night win vs the Baltimore Ravens to kick off the 2024 NFL season, Spags’ creativity and penchant for manipulating offenses was on display on a 3rd & 8 call, with 2:00 left in the 2nd quarter.

The Chiefs start out in a two high coverage shell, with safety Justin Reid in a split field alignment to the boundary side. As the snap nears, Reid moves forward and aligns in the left A-gap, next to the nose tackle. Along with linebacker Nick Bolton, cornerback Trent McDuffie, and linebacker Leo Chenal also lurking around the line of scrimmage, their presence creates a 7 man pressure look when added with the 3 down lineman.

This causes quarterback Lamar Jackson to bring tight end Isaiah Likely into the formation to help with protection. But as Lamar checks, and Likely shifts, the Chiefs defense makes a check of their own. Reid drops out of the A-gap and into an off ball linebacker position, and McDuffie drops off the edge and into an apex position. Some nice/somewhat standard gamesmanship, before getting to the real treat in what Spags does with linebacker Drue Tranquill in conjunction with Reid.

Reid covering the middle hook/curl as an off ball linebacker, leaves Tranquill to cover the deep half as a split field safety with the Chiefs running cover 2 post snap. Tranquill on this play, despite being an athletic linebacker and former safety, is operating in a space that is uncommon for him (or any linebacker) in the NFL. But this switch in role between Reid and Tranquill isn’t just happening for the sake of uniqueness and creativity, it’s happening because of Spags being able to tap into his players’ skillsets and use them schematically to dictate to an offense.

The pre-snap pressure showing from the Chiefs defense causes the Ravens to adjust protection, and keep an eligible pass catcher (Likely) in as a blocker. Which is a waste for the Ravens because the Chiefs only rush 4.

Furthermore, because of that pre-snap pressure look, the Ravens have running back Justice Hill executing a check release (looking for pressure/penetration, and if there’s none, releasing as a pass catcher).

So essentially, the Ravens keep in 7 players initially to have an answer for pressure, and send only 3 out into the route distribution vs the Chiefs 7 defenders. Even when Hill releases, it’s still advantage Chiefs with 7 defenders vs 4 eligible pass catches, plus Hill releasing late means the defense can rally and tackle him short of the first down even if he is targeted. So it plays out kind of like 7 Chiefs defenders vs 3.5 Ravens pass catchers.

The pre-snap look attacked the Ravens protection, forced their hand, and allowed the Chiefs to check into a favorable numbers advantage in a known passing situation. Spags then coupled that with using multiple defenders (Reid and Tranquill) in non-traditional alignments/ways to further muddy pre-and post snap coverage keys/clues. But he did so, without setting either player up for failure.

Reid is comfortable operating on the second level and in the interior of a defense, and because it was cover 2 with only 1 initial eligible receiver to his side, Tranquill gets to play over the top and have help underneath with the cornerback in a trail technique.

Chiefs games are littered with nuggets like these from Steve Spagnuolo. And he gave fans a treat by diving into his bag of tricks early in 2024.