Chiefs Strengthen Linebacker Depth, Sign Drue Tranquill -

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The Kansas City Chiefs have added to their linebacker room. Drue Tranquill will stay in the AFC West, after playing for the Los Angeles Chargers for the last four seasons. According to Jordan Schultz of the Score, Tranquill will have the opportunity to earn up to $5 million with the Chiefs on a one-year deal.

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Schultz also reported that Drue Tranquill chose the Chiefs over five other suitors. As a result, Kansas City must have been pushing hard to acquire Tranquill and his services. The former Charger could have also seen this as his best opportunity to win games inside of a younger defense.

Overall, linebacker was not a top priority on the list of Kansas City’s team needs to address this offseason. What can Drue Tranquill provide for the Chiefs defense? Let’s kick it off.

Living In Space

Interestingly enough, Drue Tranquill was actually a potential Chiefs draft prospect that I wrote about entering the 2019 NFL Draft. To read that, once again, four years later, click here. The key part from that prospect profile article, was the fact that he offers Kansas City key traits to live in space.

Tranquill is a highly impressive linebacker in coverage. While defending the pass, you can see the instinctive prowess of this defender. There are just simply moments where opposing quarterbacks fail to see him flashing into zones. Elsewhere, Drue Tranquill does well with his change of direction skills and flipping his hips, when necessary. The Chargers benefitted from his lateral agility and downhill quickness after finding depth against the pass.

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Meanwhile, Drue Tranquill is sneaky as a run defender. He can offer sideline-to-sideline range and cut off running backs from reaching the perimeter. On top of that, his short area quickness, ability to shed blocks and take proper angles keeps him from getting lost in no man’s land.

Intriguing Depth

Obviously, this move is a bit of a shock. Drue Tranquill injects vital qualities and traits into the second level of the defense. But of course, the linebacker spot appeared to be fairly set with Nick Bolton and Willie Gay. Leo Chenal even found his groove late last season with a slight increase in snaps as a rotational defender.

Outside of the coverage ability and range in the run game, Drue Tranquill could always give Kansas City an option on special teams. Those spots will always be crucial to fielding one of the best teams in the NFL. When looking at the dirty work that Tranquill has done with the Chargers, that is not too far-fetched. One has to wonder, though, how involved will Drue Tranquill be on defense?

Does Tranquill See A Majority Of Defensive Snaps?

In all intents and purposes, Drue Tranquill will likely not be counted on to be the top dog of the linebacker group. Bolton has become a tremendous leader and communicator for the middle of the defense. However, there are obvious skills that Tranquill possesses that Bolton cannot always be counted on to do.

Bolton is generally seen as a downhill thumper at the position. His results in coverage can vary from series to series or game to game, to boot. On the flip side, Gay has improved in spots, but is still not playing 100 percent of the defensive snaps.

You would have to think that Drue Tranquill will be featured heavily in obvious passing situations. With the terms of his contract being a reported max value of $5 million, that means that there are likely attainable incentives to be reached. Perhaps, with his mix of instincts, range and ability to defend the pass, Drue Tranquill is involved in over half of the defensive snaps each week.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis throughout the coming days. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.