[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbwa53mtds520q2 player_id=none image=https://chiefswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
Tyrann Mathieu has been nothing short of fantastic during his two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The All-Pro defensive back is entering the final year of his contract, but it appears he is more focused on unfinished business from last year. Mathieu, like many of his teammates, was already working for next season with OTA’s underway. He spoke about his lingering frustration from last season and his plans to use it as motivation in 2021 during his press conference with reporters.
“Yeah, I think any time you lose, you have a bad taste in your mouth,” said Mathieu. “It could be a Super Bowl, it could be Week 2, Week 9; I think any time you lose a game and you have to sit on it for a while, it can kind of stay with you for a while. But you just try your best to use it positively. Just try to dig deeper. Like we were talking about earlier, just try to find new ways to get better, whether that be individually or whether that be as a unit.”
Mathieu has continued to hear critics discuss the Chiefs’ rough Super Bowl performance defensively, especially his passionate battle with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. He’s channeling his frustrations and focusing on correcting the Chiefs’ defensive woes in the red zone ranking last in the NFL last season.
“Just talking about being better, I think we could be better in the red zone,” Mathieu explained. “I felt like we were pretty much at the bottom of the pack really in every red zone statistic. Teams are going to be able to put drives together on us—I think it’s up to us; it’s up to the players to really go out there and try our best to keep guys out of the end zone. I think that’s going to give our team a greater chance to win if we’re able to make teams throw the ball in the end zone instead of running the football in. We’ve been harping on it. Coach Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) has really been harping on the details of it, but that’s something that I would love to see us really get better at going forward, especially during the season.”
Mathieu is coming off his third First-Team All-Pro season, but it is clear from his statements that he wants to help spread that success amongst the team. He and his fellow teammates are in preparation for a bounce-back year and the foundation for their performance is in the process of being built at OTAs.
“So, we’ve got a lot of motivation right now,” Mathieu said. “We’ve got a lot of things that we feel like could get us back to that stage and then capitalize on it, so it’s all about us putting that work in, really believing in each other, and helping each other to get better each and every day.”
[vertical-gallery id=93440]