Chiefs’ Mathieu a game-changer
Star safety part of an improved team under defensive co-ordinator Spagnuolo
MIAMI If Chris Jones has used the term “Sack Nation” once this week, he’s used it a hundred times.
Doesn’t matter that he didn’t get to the quarterback as often this season, nor did his teammates. For the Chiefs nose tackle, it’s Sack Nation this, Sack Nation that.
“Apparently, I’ve been inducted into Sack Nation,” said Chiefs strong safety Tyrann Mathieu. “I think I had two for the season.”
Funny thing is, sacks don’t seem to matter with the Kansas City defence.
In 2018, the Chiefs finished tied for the league lead in the category, yet were ranked second worst in the NFL. The Chiefs won 12 games and were an offside penalty from going to the Super Bowl, and their defence was generally putrid.
Just a reminder of how good quarterback Patrick Mahomes was in his first year as a starter.
That season was still warm when Andy Reid fired defensive co-ordinator Bob Sutton in early 2019 and replaced him with Steve Spagnuolo, a former head coach of the St. Louis Rams (2009-11) who was also the defensive co-ordinator of the New York Giants when they won Super Bowl XLII.
Spagnuolo brought in his 4-3 defence and Reid made some important additions to the roster. The most important was the 5-foot-9 Mathieu, who became known as “Honey Badger” for his tenacity and toughness against much larger opponents — as well as his knack for making big plays — when he was a Heisman Trophy finalist and SEC champion in 2011 with LSU.
In 2019, the Chiefs’ defence finished 11th in sacks but made some dramatic steps elsewhere, improving from 31st to 17th in yards allowed per game, and from 24th to seventh in points allowed per game.
In four of their last 10 games, the Chiefs kept the opponent’s side of the scoreboard to a single digit.
Unquestioned is the importance of the strong leadership provided by Mathieu, who was the only player to take the podium after Reid on Thursday, Kansas City’s last day of availability. The day before, it was Mahomes.
“I joke to people that we have this key and this cage, and we just unlock the cage and let the Badger out on game day,” Reid said this week. “He loves playing, man. He brings it every play. He’s fun to be around.”
In other words, just the type of leader “Chiefs Kingdom” so desperately needed.
Mathieu, however, is trying to shed the Honey Badger handle. His Twitter bio consists of two words: Kingdom Landlord. And not just because he covers a lot of real estate. “I felt like I got caught up in that Honey Badger character,” Mathieu said. “It began to consume me. I wanted to turn over a new leaf and reintroduce myself.
“I think this Landlord thing is kind of blowing up in Kansas City,” the 27-year-old added. “People outside of Kansas City are starting to realize, too, that they may have to pay rent one day.”
Spagnuolo says Mathieu makes his job easier because of his reliability to do things the right way. Even as a first-year player with the team — jumping over from the Arizona Cardinals to sign a threeyear, US$42 million deal that’s now looking like quite a bargain for the Chiefs — the respect he had in the locker-room was almost instantaneous.
“There have been a number of times during the year where I’ve sat in my office and said I need to convey some message to these guys, somehow, some way. And, ultimately, what I normally do is go to him,” Spagnuolo said. “I say, ‘Look, can you steer them a little bit this way?’ And then usually it’s, ‘I got it, coach,’ and we roll. It’s good to have that.
“I think the other guys really feed off him and so when you have that in a player, a guy they respect, they know at some point he’s going to make a play to help win the game. That bodes well for us.”
That ability has people drawing comparisons to another guy of Mathieu’s stature who is on the Hall of Fame ballot — former Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu.
Mathieu said Polamalu was the “epitome” of a big-play defender.
“For the most part you’ve got to make the right decisions … we do a lot of guessing,” he said of players at his position. “I feel like Troy guessed the right way his entire career.”
When the Jacksonville Jaguars were looking to trade Jalen Ramsey during the season, there were whispers that Kansas City would be the landing spot. The Chiefs, it was believed, needed to shore up their secondary. Well, Ramsey went to the L.A. Rams, and the Chiefs’ pass defence finished the regular season eighth overall.
“You can tell we created this culture here on the back end, that we go out and win some football games, because of our secondary. That’s how we feel,” Mathieu said.
Many are expecting the San Francisco 49ers to stick to their formula for success in the NFC championship game by sticking to the run on Sunday, but Mahomes is sure to score points, even against the staunch San Francisco defence. That means Jimmy Garoppolo is going to have to throw the ball in the neighbourhood of The Landlord and a Mathieu-george Kittle matchup could be key to the outcome.
For his part, Jones has already stated the Chiefs are “1,000 per cent” in favour of putting the game on Garoppolo’s shoulder.
“Chris has missed a few games, and he’s extremely proud and excited to get on the stage,” Mathieu said, “and really introduce the world to Sack Nation.”