There’s a certain jump that is expected from between your first and second year as an NFL player. A lot of the times college programs aren’t suited toward transforming a body for NFL level play. So once these college athletes reach the NFL, there thrust into things right away, but it’s not until that first offseason after the rookie year that they’re expected to work on transforming their body.
That apparently hasn’t happened with Chiefs’ second-year defender Breeland Speaks. He showed up to the start of OTAs looking more like a defensive tackle than an edge rusher.
Now it’s not the most uncommon thing in the world for players to show up out of shape at the beginning of offseason workouts. Tamba Hali was notorious for showing up a few cheeseburgers too heavy, but he was also a veteran when he did that. This leads me to believe that Speaks’ size is perhaps a deliberate decision by the Chiefs’ new defensive coaching staff.
Maybe the Chiefs plan to use Speaks more on the inside than outside, but most indications we’ve seen from the Chiefs thus far suggest he’ll play defensive end. During the 2018 season he played outside linebacker and he genuinely looked like he was playing out of position. Brett Veach said at the combine that he believed the Chiefs’ scheme change would be good for Speaks because he’d transition to playing defensive end. Andy Reid weighed in on Speaks recently, and it sounds like he could be playing along the interior some during 2019.
“So one thing in college, Breeland (Speaks) played everywhere,” Reid said. “Last year, he had the opportunity to play the outside backer, but he played everywhere on the front. He played inside, he played outside. We feel like he can do the same thing here. He’s just got to keep working and growing in the scheme. But he’s working hard, we’ll see how he does.”
New defensive line coach Brendan Daly has a history of getting the most out of his players. I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be able to find a use for Speaks’ skill set. It’ll be curious to see where he lines up most of the time given his size. Will it be on the inside or outside of the defensive line? We’ll likely find out more about this within the next few months.
