KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With plenty of fresh faces this year and as deep a playbook as ever, Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has helped lead the team to Super Bowl LVII.
Spagnuolo spoke one-on-one with KSHB 41 Sports reporter Hayley Lewis ahead of Sunday about the work the Chiefs defense has put in to get to this point, and what they need to accomplish to take down the Eagles.
Q: You brought a new scheme here. It was hard, every player we've ever talked to has said that your playbook is one of the deepest playbooks.
Did you ever think that your success here in Kansas City would be so quick and so consistent or did you think at maybe one point 'OK I think this may be a little too hard, maybe I need to switch it up a little bit?'
"What's really good is Brett Veach identifies guys that we think fit, from the chin to the hairline and all the things we talk about mentally.
"When they come from different places there's always a learning curve. It's a little bit easier for some than others.
"I just think our staff coaching-wise does a great job just continuing to pound the basics, and we pretty much stay with what we do, but we try to be multiple enough that it gives the offenses a little bit of a headache, and it keeps our guys not making mistakes.
"You might see early mistakes because it's new to our guys. Let's face it, we brought a lot of new faces in this year. When the turnover isn't as high as it was this year, usually at the beginning of the year it goes a little bit smoother, but I like what the guys have done and happy with the success we've had up to this point."
You've had a lot of rookies and they really showed out.
"Really proud of those guys."
Q: Did you expect them to be as good as they are?
"You never know what to expect when you put young guys in an AFC Championship Game and they've never been in it before, but really all of them haven't blinked when we've asked them to go in.
"One of the good things, they were kind of forced into that early. It wasn't like they were sitting behind a bunch of veterans and they weren't getting very reps and all of a sudden a vet gets hurt and they're jumping in there. These guys have been part of what we've been doing for all 18 games, whatever it's been."
Q: And they're young, it's going to be a Super Bowl, it's distracting, are you going to check the beds [laughs]?
"I'm not going that far because they're adults, but there's some educating.
"The good thing is a bunch of the coaches on the staff, myself included, have been through it before, so we know some of the land mines they can hit.
"There's a lot of educating but the guys have been good."
Q: We're going to talk to Trent (McDuffie) and Jaylen (Watson) here in a little bit, two of those rookies we were talking about.
Has there anything that's specifically stood out (about McDuffie and Watson)? Even when I talked to Trent he seemed so mature for his age and he does not seem as young as he is.
"What's really impressive about Trent, and I think we lose sight of this, he came here, worked in the OTAs, training camp, they got hurt early, like the first or second game. There was a stretch there he wasn't in at all.
"All of that experience Trent didn't get, and yet when he came back he didn't miss a beat and we asked him to play two positions. He's playing nickel, he's playing corner, some weeks he's inside some weeks he's outside.
"Jaylen has stayed outside most of it. He's kind of been in and out with Josh (Williams). But there's been some ups and downs for him.
"You're right about Trent and his maturity and Jaylen's getting there too and however many there are of those rookie DBs, they really work well together and have gelled and let's just hope that continues."
Let's talk about the guy you're going to go up against, Jalen Hurts. It's kind of like a college offense when you really look at it. A lot of RPOs, that's not something we see as much in the NFL.
It's really hard to take him down. You might get around him, but it's really hard to pull him to the ground.
"Something I thought I heard is that he squats 600 pounds or something really dynamic like that. And he's a strong, strong quarterback.
"There is some college aspects to it, which makes it real challenging for us defensively, and yet, if he needs to be a drop-back quarterback and throw it down field he's got great weapons.
"If it was just one way or the other, if it was just a run game in your face and not a pass game that'd be one thing, but he's multi-dimensional and I think their offensive staff does a great job with what they do.
"They've made it really hard on defenses to this point, I'm just hoping we can find a couple of wrinkles in there and our guys can play well, find a way to slow them down a little bit."
Probably Chris Jones is one of the guys who can find a way, we saw him last week.
"We need him to play like he did last week. We need him to be that dominant.
"Listen, we need all our good players to play really good, or play their best. That's what competitors do, that's what great competitors do, so hopefully we'll rise up and meet the challenge of this particular game."
You've spent a lot of time in the northeast.
"You can probably tell by my accent right?
Never would've known.
Q: Weren't you talking about a bar that you frequent in Philly?
"There's a bar in South Philly called (Big) Charlie's Saloon that is all Kansas City Chiefs.
"Somewhere along the way a family had a corner bar in Philadelphia, and I don't know if they're from Kansas City or they just became Chiefs fans with Len Dawson years ago.
"It's just been that way forever. They've got a small collection of people in the city of Philly. It's a great group of people, it's a small little corner bar.
"This shrine they have in there of Chiefs paraphernalia is unbelievable. My wife and I last year bought them a replica of the Super Bowl we won two-three years ago, and they're special people. They're really good.
"It was a real nice connection when I got the job here. I really had not been there until I became part of the Chiefs."
Good luck. We'll be watching from afar and everything.
"Thank you so much. Keep our fingers crossed, right? Keep em' healthy."
