Kansas City Chiefs star reveals one key factor to team’s winning formula ahead of Super Bowl LIX
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and co. are heading to New Orleans on February 9 to face the Philadelphia Eagles, but have something they don’t.
The Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls when they face the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans on February 9 in Super Bowl LIX. The AFC West champions secured their spot by defeating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game.
Chris Jones reveals Chiefs' secret to success
One of the pillars of the Chiefs is defensive tackle Chris Jones, who knows the winning formula behind the team’s success so far. The three-time First-Team All-Pro stated that the secret lies with Steve Spagnuolo, Kansas City’s defensive coordinator.
“As long as they keep letting Spags be our defensive coordinator and don’t hire him as a head coach, we’re going to keep winning,” Jones told ESPN after the game against the Bills. “To me, he’s one of the best assistant coaches I’ve ever been coached by. If you look at his résumé, he’s one of the best. He always finds a way to close out games. That’s what Spags does.”
Jones recorded just one tackle and two quarterback hits against the Bills, but his impact was more significant. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the defensive lineman had an average distance of 4.38 yards on plays where he pressured Josh Allen.
Who is Steve Spagnuolo?
Spagnuolo shines more as a defensive coordinator than as a head coach. The 65-year-old coach has been on the sidelines since 1981, when he was 22. He started as an assistant for the Massachusetts Minutemen and in 1983 became a fellow for the Washington Redskins.
His first major NFL opportunity came in 1999, after a year in NFL Europe with the Frankfurt Galaxy, under Andy Reid, who was then the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, as a defensive assistant coach. After stints as a defensive backs and linebackers coach, Spagnuolo moved to New York as a defensive coordinator in 2007. He played a key role in preventing the New England Patriots’ perfect season by winning Super Bowl XLII.
In 2009, he got his first — and so far only — opportunity as a head coach with the St. Louis Rams. He tried to rebuild the team with Sam Bradford as quarterback, but the management lacked patience and fired him after three seasons, during which he accumulated 10 wins and 38 losses. In 2017, he served as interim head coach for the New York Giants, posting a 1-3 record. After a year-long hiatus, Reid convinced him to join the Chiefs in 2019, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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