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The Kansas City Chiefs defense looked a bit different in Week 9 and part of that was because it is.
Steve Spagnuolo’s unit featured a brand new addition, edge rusher Melvin Ingram III. The former Los Angeles Chargers pass rusher is currently in the midst of his 10th year in the NFL and at age 32, he has put together quite the resume.
- 120 games played.
- 50.0 career sacks.
- 371 total tackles (72 for a loss).
- 114 quarterback hits.
- 14 forced fumbles (seven recovered).
- Three interceptions (29 PDs).
Ingram had been receiving fewer and fewer snaps with the Pittsburgh Steelers behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith but in his first game with KC, he earned a solid 29 defensive snaps according to Pro Football Focus — and the results speak for themselves.
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Ingram Acts as Catalyst for Chiefs Pass Rush
The Chiefs’ defense only finished one sack in Week 9 but Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love was under pressure all game long. In their second-best pass-rushing effort of the season, Kansas City totaled 28 quarterback pressures, per PFF.
Chris Jones led the franchise with seven but Ingram was able to tie Frank Clark and Daniel Sorensen for second (four pressures) off 21 pass-rushing snaps. That means the veteran applied pressure on 19.05% of his snaps rushing the quarterback. All four of those pressures were categorized as QB hurries.
Team reporter Matt McMullen noted that “the Chiefs pressured Jordan Love on 49% (!!) of his dropbacks” on Twitter.
One could argue that Ingram and the defense have to do a better job at getting home but when the opposition only puts seven points on the board, you can’t get too picky. Tyrann Mathieu registered the lone sack of the outing, although Clark and Jones did account for five QB hits combined.
The fellow edge rusher, Clark, spoke on the newcomer during his postgame press conference. “I like Melvin,” he began, “even before he came here, I was a big fan of Melvin. We always had conversations and always talked to each other. He’s like my big bro. Having Melvin added to the bunch is only going to help us out in the long run. He does some special things. Some of the things everyone gets to see, here with the Chiefs. The way he is going to be utilized in the future is only going to be a benefit.”
Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed — who had a monster performance in his own right — added that he “can tell you [Ingram] is hungry [and that] he has come to work.”
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Andy Reid Discusses Ingram’s Role Moving Forward
Head coach Andy Reid was encouraged by the pass rusher’s inaugural appearance when discussing it during the postgame media window.
“I thought he did well. Sometimes I’m on the bench, sometimes I’m up, so I don’t get to see every snap, but what I saw in practice I liked, and it looked like it carried over. He’s very, very smart and he’s got good leadership, and I could feel that today on the ones that I was watching. Then, he was bringing it. He did a nice job. Our guys welcomed him in, which isn’t always the case with teams. Then, Brendan [Daly] used all of them. He used all the guys. So, everybody had a chance to get out there and rattle it around a little bit,” the Chiefs HC stated.
Yesterday on November 8, Big Red was asked about his “vision” for Ingram moving forward, to which he responded:
“I mean, you see how we do it, we rotate everybody. So, we’ve got all these different packages. We try to keep throwing fastballs at the offense, so all the guys are going to play. I don’t know how that works out. He came here to play and that’s what he wanted to do, so first game he gets 29 snaps. I can’t tell you what he gets next time, but he’s been a starter in this league, and I think as long as he’s playing a lot, I think that’s what he wants to do. He’s getting in that twilight part of his career, but he still can play, and he knows all that, but he loves playing man. We got a taste of that yesterday. We got a chance to see it which was kind of fun.”
Based on these quotes, the belief is that the veteran will turn into a major cog in this pass-rushing rotation. As Coach Reid put it, the more “fastballs,” or fresh edge rushers, the better.
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