In an era of Kansas City Chiefs football that has multiple superstars dominating everyday headlines, it’s easy to appreciate them and overlook the impact made by the quieter or humbler cornerstones of the team.
To feel the gratitude for defensive leaders like linebacker Nick Bolton and cornerback Trent McDuffie, it takes listening to what coaches and teammates have to say. Defensive back Kevin Knowles was an undrafted signing by the Chiefs last spring before working his way onto the 53-man roster by midseason.
He saw defensive snaps in six of the 13 games he played, and gained a new appreciation for the team’s top defensive players. Knowles joined co-hosts Marcus Dash and former Chiefs tight end Jason Dunn on the Chief Concerns YouTube channel to share that experience.
“Nick wows me every day,” Knowles said of Bolton. “Because regardless, he knows what that three-technique needs to be doing, he knows that the cornerback is supposed to be bailing, he knows the supposed the safety is supposed to be coming down and fitting the A-gap or whatever.”
“One thing about it: Nick [is] going to tell you ‘talk to me, communicate, lets go,’” Knowles continued. “If you make a play, he is going to come dap you up and say something to keep you up. Don’t get me wrong, don’t mess up now… Spags relies on that man a lot, and the defense does, the front end, the back end, even the guys next to him.”
Knowles admitted he believed Bolton was an older player before coming to Kansas City, speaking to the established presence of the Chiefs’ middle linebacker.
As impressed as Knowles was with Bolton, McDuffie — only 25 years old himself — is the player he and many young defensive backs truly look up to.
“Trent’s the blueprint, Trent does everything right,” Knowles declared. “Us doing everyday drills, he’s going to show you how to do it and let you know ‘lets pick it up a little bit.’”
“Trent paved the way for a lot of people in that room,” Knowles emphasized. “Whether it’s answering questions that has nothing to do with him, answering questions about the defensive line, answering questions about a screen that we’d never see.”
“I don’t think he knows, but there are a lot of people that got eyes on him, a lot of younger guys got eyes on him, especially me… me and Nohl Williams [say] ‘Trent doing this, we got to do this.’ It’s little things like that.”
Two of the defense’s top players feel like coaches on the field to teammates, and that points to the impact the actual coaching staff has. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has always valued “teaching” the game, and Knowles credited he, defensive backs coach Dave Merrit and senior defensive assistant Matt House for that.
“They teach it, they truly sit you down,” Knowles explained. “We’ll go over one thing for a whole week until you get it. Merrit [will] throw you on the board; he’s going to ask you questions out of the blue. It’s like ‘if you don’t got it, you’re [going to] sit here and do it until you get it.‘”
The persistence was needed for Knowles, who acknowledged the difficulty of learning the scheme.
“I started off a little shaky,” Knowles admitted, referring to understanding the defense. “It took hours and hours of me truly diving into that playbook until I truly got it, until things started to stick. I’m not going to lie, it probably didn’t start sticking until middle of the season. Then, you know how the game comes… game adjustments are totally different.”
After being elevated from the practice squad multiple times, Knowles was signed to the 53-man roster before Week 8. He didn’t start impacting the defense until the final five-game stretch of the schedule, but he was ready at anytime.
“That’s where mental reps come in,” Knowles reflected. “I was on the sidelines, I was playing special teams, I wasn’t playing any defense. Mentally, I had to lock in and see what I was doing because when my name is called, it wasn’t ‘oh I got to get ready.’ If you aren’t ready, it’s next up.”
Knowles became an intriguing player to think about moving forward after flashing as a slot defender for the Chiefs’ defense. According to PFF Premium Stats, Knowles allowed only four catches over the 12 passes thrown his direction in coverage.
Knowles’ flashes of playmaking are paired with a leadership group around him that could bring the best out of the young defensive back in his NFL career.