The Chiefs’ defensive rebirth starts with how Steve Spagnuolo handled a ‘year off’
The break spanned about 55 weeks, the longest stretch of unemployment in Steve Spagnuolo’s NFL career. For three-plus decades, the conclusion of one job had coincided with — or at least been closely followed by — the commencement of the next.
But last January, after being fired from the New York Giants, as teams offered Spagnuolo positions on their staff, he had an unusual thought.
“What if I take some time off?”
On Sunday afternoon, Spagnuolo leads a revitalized Chiefs defense into the AFC Championship Game, the spot last year in which that unit was bludgeoned so badly that as a coin twirled in the air, everyone knew it would decide a Super Bowl participant. Twelve months later, a defense that needed to be just average has been that and then some, finishing seventh in the NFL in points allowed.
How did it get here? Well, that begins with how the man in charge answered the question he posed himself last offseason.
Some time off, huh? Maybe he could relax. Take some vacations during the fall and winter months. Watch football through a fans’ lens for the first time since childhood. View the game less as work and more as a hobby.
He settled on taking a bit of a step back.
A bit.
For the first time since being hired to an NFL staff in 1999, he would spend a season out of football. But he would only shift his work, not lose it altogether. If no one seemed prepared to provide him the exact employment he wanted, he would simply invent a new job.
One that would pay him nothing.
The trips to NFL Films headquarters
On most mornings, Greg Cosell walks into his office before 6 a.m. at the NFL Films headquarters in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. He comes alone, employees trickling in over the next couple of hours.
On several Mondays last fall, a longtime friend arrived shortly afterward.
Spagnuolo.
He lived in Philadelphia, only a 45-minute drive from the NFL Films complex, and he needed a favor — access to the film. Maybe a desk, too. He promised to stay out of the way.
“He’d come in with a specific plan for that day for what he wanted to watch,” Cosell said. “He’d be in the room next door doing his thing and study something specific.”
On a typical week inside the Chiefs facilities, Spagnuolo pores into film. He analyzes it at home, too. There’s always a purpose to it. Always a next game. Always a team to scout and a plan to implement. For weeklong stretches, he assumes the role of a teacher.
On these Mondays last fall, he returned to being a student.
“One of the first things I remember doing — I believe in trying to improve your weaknesses,” Spagnuolo said. “I’d had a lot of experience on defense at the linebacker and defensive back level. So I wanted to hone in on defensive linemen and technique — what was working, who were the good players. So I spent the better part of that first month with the film watching defensive linemen technique and pass rush. I just felt like I needed to improve in that area.”
The to-do list adjusted every week after that initial month, and it’s important to remember Spagnuolo remained without a job or even the guarantee one would come. In fact, he feared the decision to stay out of the game for a full season would place him at risk to get lost in the shuffle in 2019.
Couldn’t think about that, though. Had to plan as though one would come. Unemployed, he would spend the full day at NFL Films, narrowing his scouting to one aspect. On some days, he studied the best pass rushers in football. On others, he analyzed the top red-zone or third-down defenses.
He borrowed a desk belonging to Ron Jaworski, a longtime NFL analyst who has been around the league since 1973. “He’s very messy, by the way,” Jaworski quipped. “I’d always have to clean up after him.”
Spagnuolo took notes as he watched. Picked up on things he had never studied before. Not to this intricacy, anyway.
“Beg, borrow and steal,” he said.
He stashed them in a folder for later.
Just in case.
Blossoming with the Chiefs
The film studies comprised the bulk of Spagnuolo’s education. He looked inward. He looked across the league. And between those film sessions, he supplemented his studies with visits to NFL sites, including Chiefs camp.
All to pursue ... well, he wasn’t exactly sure.
“You just hope the phone rings,” he said.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid called in January with the offer to take over a struggling defense on a team that finished one overtime shy of the Super Bowl. Given their previous relationship, which even predates their days together in Philadelphia, it was a move that “just made sense,” Reid said.
In more ways that can be tallied, Reid added the exact guy he expected, the one he first met in 1992. In others, he added someone ready to re-enter the NFL with an altered approach than when he exited it 12 months earlier.
“I think I wish I had done this in 2012, when I left St. Louis,” Spagnuolo said of taking a year off. “I think that’s exactly what there are — benefits. Now you have to be fortunate that the year after, someone wants you to come back, because that’s a fear. That’s a real fear. But you can learn some things. It worked out for me. I’m blessed.”
Spagnuolo and Reid spent those first days putting a staff in place, and Spagnuolo will credit the assistants with much of this late-season success. The roster also experienced a bit of its own overhaul, led by general manager Brett Veach.
It required time to come together. But as it’s melded into a group that allowed only 11.5 points per game during a six-game winning streak to close out the regular season, the players have consistently pointed back to the man in charge.
Even with a defense that features three Pro Bowl selections — two of them offseason additions — perhaps the most valuable change came in the man pulling the strings.
“He’s a believer, and I think ultimately he believes in us,” Chiefs All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “I can remember earlier instances in the season where we weren’t necessarily playing well. He continued to be positive. Obviously he detailed things much more.
“I think he’s always been about us. He’s always been about the group. I think he has a good feel for putting his guys in good positions and positions that favor their abilities the best.”
The foundation of Spagnuolo’s philosophy has not changed much, he said. But as the season has progressed — and the Chiefs have put up statistics ranking them among the league’s best defenses — he has tweaked personnel, assignments, positioning, scheme.
Some of that derives from his decades of experience. Other parts, and he’s understandably not providing exact details here, come from the self-imposed trips to NFL Films.
The job that paid nothing, in other words, continues to provide extra layers to the one that has him two wins shy of a second Super Bowl ring.
“I’m speaking for myself and not for him, but I think it served him well to take a deep breath and look back on his own choices,” said Jaworski, who also calls Spagnuolo a close friend. “When he came back, I think it changed his perspective a little bit, not only on coaching but how to deal with people. He’s probably a better person for it — and he’s always been a terrific guy with a passion for football. When you step back, you look at things a little differently.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "The Chiefs’ defensive rebirth starts with how Steve Spagnuolo handled a ‘year off’."