The Kansas City Chiefs will now have Tyrann Mathieu manning the back end of the defense alongside Eric Berry, but is the Honey Badger deal a good move?
Watching the Kansas City Chiefs offense in the 2018 season was a thing of beauty. Watching the Chiefs defense — well, it was a thing. After suffering an overtime loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, it was clear that Kansas City needed to upgrade their defense heading into 2019. Tyrann Mathieu should certainly help their cause.
After early reports that Mathieu had turned down a $9.5 million per year offer to stay with the Houston Texans and would explore the NFL free agency market, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Monday night that the Chiefs will sign the star-caliber safety. Per the report, the deal with Kansas City will be worth $42 million over three years after Mathieu played on a one-year prove-it contract in Houston for 2018.
Mathieu will now man the back end of the Chiefs secondary with another big-name safety, Eric Berry. At their best, this could be one of the best safety duos in the NFL, but is that name recognition good enough for Kansas City to get a passing grade for this signing?
As he’ll still be just 26 years old when the 2019 regular season begins, the big reason that Mathieu was only on a one-year deal after entering free agency last offseason was due to his health issues throughout his time in Arizona. In Houston, though, the Honey Badger stayed healthy and again looked to be the player that he was at his best with the Cardinals.
Yes, the Chiefs — who aren’t exactly flush with cap space, even after releasing Justin Houston — are paying quite a pretty penny to land the services of Mathieu. However, this is the type of move that can have a dramatically positive effect on a defense that needs it in a bad way.
Mathieu’s versatility in the secondary will not just give the Chiefs an elite safety tandem, but will allow them to move the Honey Badger around the secondary where they can best use him. Especially if a healthier Berry can return to form, that gives the Kansas City defense a tremendous boost where they need it if they want to reach their Super Bowl potential that they have with Patrick Mahomes helming the offense.
It’s expensive and it’s flashy, but signing Mathieu should be worth every penny for the Chiefs.