or the Chiefs to make a move in the secondary — but it might not be necessary"It’s likely you already know that with Dee Ford Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys 2019 , Chris Jones and Justin Houston, the pass rush was one of the few bright spots on the Chiefs defense in 2018.The unit tied the Pittsburgh Steelers with 52 sacks on the season, which was good for first in the league.But like so many other volume stats, that figure can be misleading.The Chiefs ranked only eighth in sack percentage — that is, the number of sacks divided by the number of passing attempts — at 7.6%.This is because the Chiefs faced 632 pass attempts in 2018 — more than any other team in the league.So while the Chiefs racked up the most sacks, they weren’t the most effective team at getting them; the large number of sacks the Chiefs collected actually said more about the plays their opponents ran than it did about the Chiefs’ ability to get to the quarterback.You can probably already guess why this was the case: with the Chiefs’ high-flying offense behind Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs scored early, fast and often.Opponents were frequently playing from behind — which naturally led to more passing attempts.And that led to more passing yards — another volume stat that tells a misleading picture of the Chiefs defense.The Chiefs allowed 4,374 yards passing in 2018 — 31st in the NFL.Without looking more deeply, someone might easily conclude that the Chiefs secondary was awful.Many fans (and media members) have apparently done just that and reached that conclusion. But the deeper numbers say it wasn’t awful.Even using the traditional (if somewhat flawed) passer rating statistic, you can see this was true.In 2018, the Chiefs defense allowed a passer rating of 92.7 — tied with the Houston Texans for 12th in the league.That’s right: 12th.Not great.Not even good.But solid.And way better than 31st.If your quarterback is Mahomes — whose passer rating was 111.7 in 2018 — that 92.7 opponent passer rating will win you a lot of games.Whatever problems the passer rating statistic may possess — and it has quite a few of them — it does correlate pretty well with winning games.A 19-point differential between your quarterback and your opponent’s will definitely indicate wins are likely — maybe even quite a few of them.Looking at other passing statistics leads to similar conclusions.For the three primary passing yardage statistics — yards per attempt Juan Thornhill black jersey , net yards per passing attempt and adjusted net yards per passing attempt — the Chiefs came in at 7.5 (16th), 6.4 (12th) and 6.3 (12th) respectively.Football Outsiders — whose top-level DVOA statistic ranked the Chiefs defense 26thinstead of 31st — rated the Chiefs pass defense at 4.7%.That’s a bit below average — negative numbers are better than positive ones — and that figure was 12th-best in the league.But what’s even more interesting is what you see when you look at how FO rated the Chiefs passing defense against different types of pass receivers.Chiefs' 2018DVOA Against Receiver TypeWhat this shows is that against first- and second-tier wideouts, the Chiefs actually did very well in 2018 — ranking ninth and fifth against them — but poorly against other types of receivers.This means that in 2018, Chiefs cornerbacks tended to play pretty damn well — certainly better than most people realize — and against the pass, Chiefs safeties and linebackers tended to play poorly.Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty ImagesI’m not going to go through the numbers on run defense.The volume stats are awful, and so are the numbers that provide more context to them.The 2018 Chiefs run defense was just... bad.But with this information in hand, the moves the Chiefs have made in free agency and the draft may come a little more clearly into focus.Moving on from Ford and Houston was probably mostly about creating salary cap space and acquiring players better suited to Spagnuolo’s 4-3 Under scheme — players like Frank Clark, Emmanuel Ogbah and Alex Okafor.In total, these moves should bolster the run defense without a significant drop-off in pass rushing.Eric Berry’s release also freed up space, and created a roster spot for Tyrann Mathieu — a player who is much like Berry was in his prime: a multifaceted safety who can cover and also provide run support.If Veach selected well with Juan Thornhill — which early indications say he did — the Chiefs should have a solid player to pair with Mathieu.But if not, they’ll have Jordan Lucas, Armani Watts and Daniel Sorensen from whom to choose.Since the Chiefs haven’t made big moves at linebacker Juan Thornhill Jersey Mens , you could conclude the team is satisfied with the linebacker corps as it stands for the 4-3 scheme — or that another move might be yet to come.But the relative lack of inactivity at cornerback might now make more sense than it did when you started reading this article.In essence, the Chiefs have replaced Steven Nelson with Bashaud Breeland at cornerback.They could conceivably stand pat with Kendall Fuller and Breeland as starters without seeing a significant drop-off in coverage — especially with the Honey Badger now on the field — and still have players like Charvarius Ward, Keith Reaser or Rashad Fenton backing them up.We can’t say with certainty that the Chiefs aren’t planning a big move to acquire another player in the secondary; one thing we’ve learned about Brett Veach is that he is unpredictable.But what the data shows is that the defensive secondary might be in better shape than we have imagined — or at the very least, the Chiefs may see it as the part of the defense that doesn’t need further attention.The Chiefs could do nothing, and be just fine. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kelvin Benjamin went from catching passes from Josh Allen and Nathan Peterman on a Bills team going nowhere to hauling in heaves from Patrick Mahomes on a Chiefs team barreling toward the playoffs.Not a bad finish to a tumultuous week.Benjamin signed a one-year contract with Kansas City to finish out the season Friday, just days after the 2014 first-round pick was released by Buffalo. It brought an end to yet another disappointing run in which Benjamin struggled with one of the highest drop rates in the NFL.“I guess you could say I saw it coming,” Benjamin said after his first workout with the Chiefs, who are preparing to play the Ravens on Sunday. “(The Chiefs) came pretty quick. I came for a visit, I liked what I saw. I liked what I heard.”He liked everything about the situation.Mahomes has already proven himself to be one of the league’s most vibrant quarterbacks, and Benjamin called the Chiefs offense “dynamic.” He also has the support of Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who said he liked the former Florida State standout out of college and thinks that one more change of scenery might finally unlock the potential that Benjamin has been scratching at for years.“He’s been good against us Bashaud Breeland Jersey , No. 1,” Reid said. “A big, physical player. You add him to the mix, he comes in, he’s experienced and he’s been a good football player at this level.”Reid said there is a chance Benjamin could be ready to play by next week, even though it will be a quick turnaround for a Thursday night game against the Chargers. But time is of the essence because the Chiefs could be without No. 2 wide receiver Sammy Watkins for a while.Watkins has been bothered by a foot problem for several weeks, and he aggravated the injury while pushing off in Thursday’s practice. An MRI exam came back negative, but the prognosis is unclear.Watkins has 40 catches for 519 yards and three touchdowns in 10 games.The 27-year-old Benjamin had a promising start to his career, catching 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns as a rookie with Carolina. But he battled weight issues, problems with drops, and clashed with several people in the organization Anthony Sherman Jersey , ultimately resulting in his trade to Buffalo last season.He had just 23 catches for 354 yards and one touchdown this season.The Bills released Benjamin when they decided to use the remainder of another disappointing season to look more closely at younger players. He was making $8.5 million in the final year of his contract and will be playing for a fraction of that down the stretch for Kansas City.But he could be playing for a Super Bowl title, too.“By next week he should have a pretty good feel for things,” Reid said. “He’s in great shape. He’s a big kid but he’s in phenomenal shape. And sometimes a change of scenery can be good for a guy.”NOTES: TE Demetrius Harris remained out of practice Friday with an illness, though Reid said it’s possible the backup could play Sunday. … The Chiefs signed OL Austin Reiter to a two-year deal worth up to $5.5 million, locking up one of their most versatile backups. Reiter has started four games for the Chiefs because of injuries. “For me, it just means keep doing what I’ve been doing and be ready to play,” said Reiter, who would have been a restricted free agent after this season.