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I think all you guys are arguing about depends upon perspective.
Serious question 1: If Brown Jr and Lucas Niang get hurt, are we in a substantially better position than last year when Fisher and Schwartz went down?
Being devils advocate to most, I'd argue that we'll be better suited on the interior but we do remain exposed on the outside due to lack of functional depth yet again. Albeit, the chances of that happening two years in a row are relatively slim.
Serious question 2: Has the pass rush significantly improved, or improved enough to actually create substantial pressure on Brady (or any elite QB for that matter)?
While I really like what Jarran Reed brings as an interior rusher, I don't know that it's enough to consistently affect a QB. If Clark goes down, we have absolute jack and shit on the edges.
Serious question 3: Has the Chiefs' ability to cover improved in any meaningful way, regardless of position (S, CB, LB)?
As it stands, Breeland is out and that leaves a promising Sneed, a stagnant Ward, and a mediocre Fenton at CB with no real influx of talent whatsoever. Safety play remains the same. LB play will be an interesting watch now that Gay should see more snaps and he's more proficient in coverage than Wilson. That's, of course, assuming Gay actually picked up all of his assignments between last year and this year and doesn't get torched for misalignments. While I really do like the pick of Bolton, I'm not sure if he substantially improves the coverage side of things in year one. So really, I don't know if the Chiefs have gained anything, and unless they add a veteran CB I think there isn't any gain/loss in the grand scheme of things.
Add in the fact that the Chiefs are essentially trotting out the same thing at the skill positions in 2021 and there weren't any substantial, position group altering, gains outside of the current state of the offensive line, I would think there is "some" pause for thought here in looking at what Direkshun is trying to convey.
In a nutshell, the Chiefs did not drastically improve their ability to rush the passer nor did they drastically improve their ability to cover, both issues in the Super Bowl. Hopefully, they at least gave Pat a lot more time to find targets outside of Kelce and Reek because they did nothing to change the fact that the rest of the targets can't get open quickly enough to make a meaningful difference otherwise.
I think the Chiefs are a better overall team this year, so long as they don't have anything ridiculous happen again, so long as some of these young guys like Sneed, Niang, and Gay project as planned.
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