@MichiganPacker2 posted:It's a good comparison, here's the difference.
In 2018, the Chiefs were 12-4, had a first round bye, and lost in the AFC title game in OT by giving up 37 points. Their defense was atrocious in 2018. They had games where they gave up 54, 43, 38, 37, 33, 29, 27, and 27 during the year. They were the second worst defense by yardage in the league and fired their DC after the season (Bob Sanders) and replaced him with Steve Spagnuola.
In the off-season prior to the 2019 season, the Chiefs felt they were close given they had 3 Pro-Bowl skill players on offense: a superstar QB, a superstar WR (T. Hill), and a superstar TE (Kelce). They knew they had to get better on defense, so they signed 4 new defensive starters: Tyrone Mathieu, (Pro Bowl safety) Breeland (CB), Damien Wilson (LB), and Alex Okafor (DE). In the draft, despite already being loaded on offense they used one of their two second-round picks to get a WR that ran a 4.33 (Mecole Hardman) and the other to draft a safety (Thornill) that started every game as a rookie. In the third round, they drafted a 324 pound DL rotation guy that played about 30% of the snaps that year (Saunders). In other words, they upgraded at 6 defensive positions and made sure their offense stayed similar in personnel (by subbing Hardman for K. Hunt).
In the off-season prior to this season, the Packers must not have felt they were close. The similarities are there. 3 Pro-Bowl skill players on offense (Rodgers, Adams, and Jones). The Packers had a much better offensive line and arguably more high-end defensive talent coming back than the Chiefs did the previous year (Alexander, Z. Smith, and K. Clark). The Packers replaced Bulaga with Wagner (a downgrade on a per-game basis but more availability) on offense and did nothing else on offense in free agency. The Packers replaced Martinez with Kirksey and did nothing else on defense in free agency. They then used the top 4 rounds of the draft to draft 2 guys they are currently redshirting (Love and Dillon) and a project guy at TE (DeGuara).
The Chiefs thought they were close and aggressively tried to improve. The Packers likely could not have done less to improve this year had they been trying to do just that.
Excellent points all Michigan,
However, it is worth noting that the Chiefs also sent their 2019 1st round pick and more to Seattle in exchange for pass rusher Frank Clark. (I know players TRADES to improve the roster are anathema to Gute just like they were to his boss Ted so forgetting about this avenue for adding talent to the GB roster is understandable).
Furthermore, KC added Terrell Suggs and Mike Pennell (remember him in GB?) to bolster an underperforming defense after the season began in 2019 ... rather than standing pat and adopting the "we like our guys" approach to the roster that has predominated in GB for the past decade once the season began.
One organization seems to be intent on winning as many SBs as possible while having an elite QB (recall that KC recently added LeVeon Bell to support a lackluster running game) while the other has seemingly been content to capture NFC North titles.
I mean does anyone really think that, should he remain healthy, Patrick Mahomes will only get to a single SB during his career with the Chiefs like Rodgers has with the Packers?
