The Kansas City Chiefs will be in need of a new defensive assistant or two with the departure of outside linebackers coach Mike Smith and inside linebackers coach Mark DeLeone. Both were members of Bob Sutton’s coaching staff and have moved on to join other teams. They’ll both be coaching in the NFC North in 2019 as Mike Smith ended up at the Packers and Mark DeLeone ended up with the Bears. Right now those are the only two defensive assistants who’ve left the Chiefs.

With Steve Spagnuolo taking over as defensive coordinator, the Chiefs will be switching to his 4-3 under scheme. That means they’ll employ three off the ball linebackers. It’s possible to replace both of these coaches with a single linebacker coach. Even though the Chiefs are late to the party for assembling a new defensive coaching staff, there are several good candidates out there to takeover the linebacker coaching gig for the Chiefs. A few of them are even familiar with Spagnuolo and his system.

Bill Sheridan

Bill Sheridan began his NFL career as the linebackers coach with the Giants in 2005. He played under defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 after Spagnuolo left to become head coach of the Rams, Sheridan was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Giants.

From there he spent time as the linebackers coach in Miami (2010-2011), defensive coordinator with the Buccaneers (2012-2013), and linebackers coach for the Lions (2014-2017). His last NFL gig was with the Lions where he coached players like DeAndre Levy, Tahir Whitehead, Stephen Tulloch, Josh Bynes, and Jarrad Davis.

Sheridan is known as a coach that preaches accountability, which is something everyone can agree the Chiefs defense lacked at times in 2018. He’s coached through some pretty rocky situations, and has never really had a ton of talent at his disposal throughout his career. Right now, Sheridan is coaching the linebackers for Boston College. It’s unclear if he’d be willing to make a change, but if the NFL comes calling again it’s hard to imagine he’d refuse the call.

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