Everyone knows that the Kansas City Chiefs offense gets most of the headlines and credit for the Super Bowl victory, but what about the guys on the other side of the ball?
Chiefs DE Frank Clark recently touched on the returning playmakers and his new teammates on defense. Expectations are high but how good can this defense become? Clark definitely sees the sky as the limit, so long as they all stay in tune with each other.
“Me and Tyrann and some of the other guys like Hitch [Anthony Hitchens] and a whole bunch of other guys are leaders on the defensive side,” Clark said. “Me and Tyrann’s main thing is just staying in tune with each other. I feel like that’s the biggest thing that happens when guys have success and get to win a Super Bowl. You have prima donnas, a guy wanting to go off and do this, guys coming into work with different mindsets that aren’t focused on the one goal which is to win a championship. I feel like that’s where our strength is, and we haven’t wavered from that. We have that short-term memory. Yeah, we won the Super Bowl last year but that was last year.
“Some guys get cocky, they love that feeling and that emotion of winning and they carry that into the next year and it doesn’t really do (anything) for them on the field. This year, after us being champions last year, nobody really cares about that. I know our coach doesn’t care about that. It’s nice and cute and all, but we have stuff to do this year and a whole new set of goals. We’ve got to win the AFC Championship and that’s where it starts.”
It’s a full reset for Kansas City. The Chiefs Kingdom might be holding onto the Super Bowl LIV win, but the players already have their eye on the next prize. A prize that will be a lot easier to achieve with Chris Jones happy and under contract in Kansas City. That was a move that had Clark smiling this offseason.
“We talk all the time and we look at each other and understand what is asked of us and what type of pressure is put on players like us,” Clark said of Jones. “We embrace it too. It’s all fun. I tell him, ‘Have fun with it. Don’t let it stress you out too much.’ He tells me the same. He says that we’re going to be the best defensive linemen teammates to ever play together and that’s what we always talk about. We have a few years to do something great. That’s the reality of the game. You have a few years in that window to do something great and be the greatest you can be.”
It is clear that the players on this defense want to be the best it can be, which is a mentality that the other 31 teams in the league share. The main difference with the Chiefs is that they have the talent and motivation to back it up. Were they the best defense in the league in 2019? No. Did they play better down the stretch? Yes. Can they grow into the best? They definitely have the mentality and ambitions to do so. With players like Clark out there trailblazing, it’d be foolhardy to doubt their ability to do so.
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