When the Kansas City Chiefs signed linebacker Drue Tranquill to a one-year deal this offseason, many viewed it as a luxury move to raise the ceiling of the position group.
Little did they know that due to injuries to Nick Bolton, the floor would also be brought up quite a bit.
Bolton has played in just four of Kansas City’s first 11 games this season.
Earlier in the year, a high-ankle sprain suffered in Week 2 ended up bothering him for multiple weeks to come.
In a Week 7 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, the third-year man dislocated his wrist.
Now over a month removed from surgery, Bolton has been designated to return from the injured reserve list but isn’t activated back on the 53-man roster.
It’s shaping up to be another Tranquill-heavy week as a result.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has no problem with that, praising Tranquill for stepping in and stepping up this season.
“To me, that might be one thing that goes unnoticed,” Spagnuolo said. “I think the guys as a group are playing really well — except for that beginning quarter of the last game, I still can’t forget that.
What I think gets lost in the whole translation here is we lost a really good football player in Nick Bolton for a number of games here and yet, I think I’ve said this before, we slid Drue in there and really haven’t skipped a beat in terms of having to cut things back, the communication, you guys know that the back end and linebackers have to be like this (hands together motion), the chemistry.
“We didn’t lose that at all, and sometimes that happens.
I’ve been down that road before where the MIKE linebacker who’s been the communicator and the signal caller, we’ve lost them, and it takes a little while.
But we didn’t skip a beat with Drue; we’re really fortunate we got him.
I mean, Brett Veach and his crew identifying him as a player we could get and him being willing to come here knowing that we had a lot of linebackers. He’s a team guy.
I know his teammates love him, and I love what he’s doing for us so I can’t say enough about Drue.”
Playing on a $3 million pact, Tranquill is serving as one of the NFL’s best value contracts at the linebacker position.
The 28-year-old has done a bit of everything on defense this season, recording 70 tackles (six for loss) with 3.5 sacks, five quarterback hits, two forced fumbles and a pass broken up.
According to Pro Football Focus, he has 33 “stops” this year as well.
That leads the Chiefs’ defense by nine. The gap between Tranquill and second-place Mike Danna (24) is the same between Danna and seventh-place Chris Jones (15).
Filling Bolton’s role as MIKE linebacker is no easy task. It takes not only the willingness to come down and play good run defense, but a lot is being asked of Tranquill in coverage as well.
To top it all off, he’s responsible for relaying communication to the rest of the defense and ensuring that everyone is aligned properly before the snap as the “green dot” linebacker.
Safety Justin Reid, the leader of the secondary, is well aware of how difficult that checklist of tasks is to complete.
“Ah, man,” Reid said. “To come into this defense and to play MIKE ‘backer and all the different checks and coverages and responsibilities getting the defensive line set the right way, making audibles on what coverages we’re playing and where to send the pressures at based on the looks you’re getting… it’s a lot on the mental side of it.
But then to also pair that with the physical ability to go in and attack centers, beat running backs on blocks, tackle tight ends and sometimes guard receivers too, he’s done a phenomenal job for us to be able to come in and do it. But that’s the reason why we brought him here.”
Entering the Chiefs’ Week 13 game against the Green Bay Packers, there’s another opportunity for Kansas City to send a statement in front of a national audience.
The football world is quickly beginning to notice how elite the Spagnuolo-led defense is, even without one of its best linebackers on the field for an extended stretch.
Thanks to Tranquill, as Spagnuolo referenced, the Chiefs haven’t skipped a beat there. Once Bolton eventually returns, it’ll make the linebacker room even more talented.
