Regeln » The Kansas City Chiefs had the Cardinals‘ Josh

KANSAS CITY Long Sleeve Nick Allegretti Jersey , Mo. — Rosen seeing red last week. As in a whole lot of red jerseys right in his face.The Chiefs sacked Arizona’s rookie quarterback five times in their 26-14 victory. They hit him 13 times, forced a fumble and generally made life miserable on a cold afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.No wonder Rosen was asked, quite sympathetically, how he felt after the game.Probably like he went through a trash compactor.But that performance by the Chiefs’ much-maligned defense was closer to the norm than anything special this season. They already have 31 sacks to match their total from all last season, even though their highest-paid player and top pass rusher, Justin Houston, has missed four games to injury.That puts the Chiefs in a tie with Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Green Bay for the NFL lead.“Defenses right now are stretched in the National Football League. You’ve seen it every week,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “To be able to get the pressure that we did on the quarterback (against the Cardinals) was a huge part of it. Stepping up with big plays when needed.”The Chiefs struggled last season to pressure the quarterback, and there was little reason to think that would change this season. They brought back most of the same cast, though Tamba Hali stepped into retirement after an unproductive year and rookie Breeland Speaks took his spot, and defensive coordinator Bob Sutton was retained after coming under intense scrutiny.But the Chiefs did make a couple of other important changes to the coaching staff, replacing their longtime linebackers coach Gary Gibbs with Mark DeLeone and Mike Smith. DeLeone handles the inside guys and Smith handles the outside linebackers, and by splitting up the duties, both are able to give more one-on-one time to their players’ skill-specific needs.The progress is easiest to see in Dee Ford Nick Allegretti Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys , the Chiefs’ former first-round pick who had battled injuries and inconsistency his first four seasons. The Chiefs picked up his fifth-year option — that was no guarantee — and he has flourished when it comes to getting after the quarterback.He has nine sacks to trail only the Rams‘ Aaron Donald — who will be on the field against Kansas City on Monday night — and the Vikings‘ Danielle Hunter. His total is also tied with J.J. Watt, Myles Garrett and Von Miller, leaving the always-upbeat Ford in some pretty select company.“I don’t think anyone in this league can block him coming off that edge one-on-one,” said Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, who has tried several times with little success in practice.Ford isn’t just getting sacks, though. He has also hit the quarterback an astounding 20 times and has four strip-sacks to give the Chiefs the ball in some crucial situations.“Every week, that’s really what we preach. When you pressure the quarterback, mistakes happen, turnovers happen,” Ford said. “This is just our way of playing defense.”The Chiefs’ Chris Jones has seven sacks, including one in six straight games, and fellow defensive tackle Allen Bailey has a career-best five. Houston has only three sacks because of injuries, but he was back to near-100 percent against the Cardinals, picking off Rosen at the line of scrimmage.“Just hitting the quarterback, affecting him in any type of way Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys Stitched ,” Jones said. “Helping the back-end guys out — we affect the quarterback with tips, overthrows. They could be incomplete passes or interceptions. We kind of complement each other.”Indeed, the Chiefs’ aggressive pass rush has been doubly important after their secondary had to go through some growing pains. Kansas City traded away top cornerback Marcus Peters, star safety Eric Berry has been out all season with a heel injury, and fellow safety Daniel Sorensen only recently returned to the field after breaking his leg in training camp.In other words, it has been a mishmash of next-man-up lineups in the defensive backfield, putting even more pressure on the guys up front to help them out.“We say every week that we’ve got to be willing to win the game however it presents itself, whether it’s on offense, defense or special teams,” Ford said. “Defense actually met this week and that’s one thing we spoke on: Let’s take it to another level. We can’t really rely, especially late in the season, off of a lot of points from our offense.“They’re tremendous,” Ford added by way of clarification, “but we can be tremendous also, and the same goes for special teams. Once we play like that as a unit Nick Allegretti Jersey nfl draft , this team can be really great.”NOTES: SS Eric Berry (heel) and C Mitch Morse (concussion) did not practice Thursday. … Reid said the change in venue for Monday night’s game from Mexico City didn’t change his preparations. “Other than going to a hotel in Los Angeles,” he said. “That’s about it.”100<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:View from the sidelines: NFL cheerleaders 2018Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports | Raj Mehta The Kansas City Chiefs released veteran linebacker Justin Houston on Sunday after they were unable to drum up enough trade interest, ending the tenure of one of the best pass rushers in club history.The Chiefs had made it clear they would trade or release Houston this offseason, primarily because of his cost. He was due $15.25 million and carried a salary cap hit of $21.1 million, numbers that would have made it nearly impossible to make other much-needed upgrades to their defense.The move means the Chiefs will free up $14 million and make the four-time Pro Bowl selection a free agent when the period begins Wednesday. The Chiefs will also take on $7.1 million in dead money.“Justin has made a lasting impact on this franchise and I can’t thank him enough for his contributions over the years,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said in a statement.“These decisions are never easy,” Veach said. “I have a great deal of respect for Justin as a player and person and I wish him and his family the best moving forward.”The 30-year-old Houston was a third-round pick of the Chiefs out of Georgia who quickly became a fan-favorite, not to mention one of the team’s most visible leaders. He wound up starting 96 of the 102 games he appeared in over eight seasons, and his best season came in 2014, when Houston shattered the franchise record with 22 sacks and was voted a first-team All-Pro.He parlayed that season into a $101 million, six-year deal in 2015 that was at the time a record for a defensive player. But he has been slowed by injuries the past four seasons, and despite continuing to pile up sacks, Houston has been unable to keep up the pace that landed him the lucrative deal.As the Chiefs try to rebuild one of the league’s worst defenses, and provide some help to one of the NFL’s best offenses, it became apparent that Houston’s days in Kansas City were numbered.“Over the last eight seasons we’ve had the ability to watch Justin grow into a leader on and off the playing field Super Bowl Nick Allegretti Jersey ,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. “His passion helped him become one the most successful pass rushers in franchise history. We appreciate his contributions to our team and community.”Houston departs Kansas City with 78 1/2 sacks, trailing only Derrick Thomas (126 1/2), former teammate Tamba Hali (89 1/2) and Neil Smith (85 1/2) for the most in franchise history.He should have no shortage of suitors after seasons of 9 1/2 sacks two years ago and nine more last season, provided he convince a club that he can remain healthy. Houston has experienced with elbow and knee injuries that have allowed him to play 16 games in a season just twice.The Chiefs used their franchise tag on fellow pass rusher Dee Ford, though it’s possible they could still trade him. Other premier edge rushers that were franchised include DeMarcus Lawrence, Jadeveon Clowney and Frank Clark, and that could create a more robust market for Houston.Working against him is the fact pass rusher may be the most stacked part of April’s draft.“You can never have enough of that,” Veach said. “It’s a really intriguing class. I think it’s been mentioned multiple times throughout the first few days, the defensive line this year is really deep. There are a lot of players, pass-rushers, interior pass-rushers, run players, there’s a lot of depth at that position. I certainly think there will be a lot of names from those defensive players called early on.”