Chiefs’ Justin Reid pulls back the veil on Steve Spagnuolo’s many defensive looks

The Chiefs’ defense is ranked fifth in yards given up this season, fourth in points allowed and No. 3 in stopping the rush, too.

The last time the Chiefs allowed 28 points was in Super Bowl LVII when they beat the Eagles. That’s a stretch of 29 straight games without allowing an opponent to reach 28 points.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is one of the NFL’s top assistant coaches, and his name is mentioned during nearly every KC game.

While on Richard Sherman’s podcast last week, Chiefs safety Justin Reid pulled the veil back on what makes Spagnuolo a great coach.

“The ultimate leader, the ultimate mentor, the ultimate man of faith,” Reid said. “But really, his mentorship, he comes about things from a deeply educational (spot) and (will) coach you to do things the right way. You do it this way, and his defense is going to work. He spends so much time in the film room, and he cares about his guys and using guys’ strength to put them in the right situations. And he has that effect that legendary coaches have, in which you want to do right by him, you want to make him proud, you want to do things in a way in the vision that he sees things.

“And you just know it’s going to work, but he pulls guys to the side, one-on-one during practice to do individual drills with each guy on something that he thinks they can work with. He’ll pull guys in one-on-one for meetings over tape.”

Reid, who started his career with the Texans, said Spagnuolo’s playbook is bigger than any he’s seen in the NFL. And Spagnuolo is always tinkering with the defensive plays.

”You know he’s always going to throw something new at whoever we’re playing every week,” Reid said. “So it’s hard for teams to be prepared for it.”

Reid then blew Sherman’s mind while detailing all the different formations that can be found in the Chiefs playbook.

Sherman was a three-time All-Pro during his 11 seasons in the NFL with three teams. His eyes widened as Reid discussed the different looks the Chiefs can throw at teams.

“We have 20 different versions of cover zero and that is not an exaggerated number. That is not an exaggerated number, bro,” Reid said of a formation that features no deep safeties. “And then we have fire zones. We have tangos. We have half fire zone. Have cover twos, cover threes, cover ones, cover fives, coverages that switch from one coverage to the next. Covers with motion or alignments.

“Coverage checks on if the quarterback is in gun or if he’s under center. We will check into a blitz. We’ll check out of a blitz. Every week is just so different. And I think that the other strength is that we have the guys that can handle that informational load and get everyone on the same page so there isn’t coverage busts.”

Interception breakdown

Reid had an interception against the 49ers in the Chiefs’ 28-18 win on Oct. 20.

Sherman asked Reid to share more on the interception, and he talked about how the Chiefs defended the 49ers on the play.

“That was an alternative version of a cover one to where we know San Fran, ... (running plays) with (Kyle) Juszczyk and with (George) Kittle ... they kind of use those guys interchangeably,” Reid said. “One guy might be a fullback, one maybe a tight end. We want to do some things when we give certain looks that they’re in I-formation that would allow one guy to maybe slough off and be like a robber technique, let the linebackers take him. ...

“We tried to hold the two shell as much as possible, just not give it away (that) we’re in one high, and we knew out of the film study and formation recognition that they were in an I-back. They liked play action out of it, random play action. I saw George Karlaftis have pressure in Brock’s face. And what I was taught actually, back from my days with Lovie Smith, was if you’re in the post and a quarterback has pressure in his face, you can dive out of the post. So, saw that he had pressure in his face, that gave me the green light that I can dive out of the post. Saw the over route by Kittle and just went and robbed it.”