GRETZ: Mitchell in the Middle

[CyberBull]

GRETZ: Mitchell in the Middle

Aug 01, 2005, 8:24:30 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

RIVER FALLS, WI – Those Chiefs fans who like to dial up the sports yakkers and fill up internet message boards with their opinions aren’t going to like this news coming out of the north woods.

Kawika Mitchell is the Chief starting middle linebacker. A favorite whipping boy for the red and gold fans, Mitchell is running with the first team and running hard.

“I’ll just have to change their opinions,†Mitchell said.

Mitchell has gone a long way in changing in the opinion of the man who counts the most: defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham. Mitchell showed improvement at the end of last season. But when the off-season started, Cunningham wasn’t sure Mitchell was the guy who could play the middle in his defense. It wasn’t as much a question of talent, as it was whether he had the demeanor to be the defensive leader.

Cunningham questioned Mitchell’s toughness. He showed him tape of missed tackles, or plays where he reached for ball carriers instead of throwing his body into the play. There were not the collisions that are so necessary to playing the middle linebacker position.

“I think there reached a point where he was ready to kill me,†Cunningham said.

That was the point. While Cunningham wasn’t trying to pull some head game routine on his middle linebacker (â€ÂEverything I said was true,†Gunther said) he also wanted to see Mitchell’s reaction. Would he pout? Would he try to prove him wrong? Mitchell picked the second option.

“I didn’t like what I heard,†said Mitchell. “I had to find a way to prove to him that I could be the type of player who can not only play this defense, but run it on the field.â€Â

Cunningham wonders about that less and less these days. When asked if there was any doubt Mitchell was his starting middle linebacker, Gunther said “none.†But he added: “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but Kawika has done what we’ve asked and he’s getting better and better.â€Â

Right now, there’s nobody even close to pushing him for the starting job. NFL Europe Defensive Most Valuable Player Rich Scanlon has looked good in the early going, but he’s working with the third-team defense and generally running up against the third-team offense. Rookie draft choice Boomer Grigsby has struggled with the second-team defense, especially against the run. Too often, he’s getting blocked and taken out of plays, while he’s looking for the football, rather than filling his assigned gap.

But Mitchell isn’t cruising into the position. He earned the middle linebacker spot with his off-season work. The improvement has continued here in River Falls. He’s getting to the ball, he’s making plays and he’s directing the defense. Not only that, but he never leaves the field; when the Chiefs go to their sub defenses, he’s on the field for all of them, whether it’s nickel with an extra defensive back, or their four-linebacker set.

In effect, he’s doing all the things Cunningham wants his middle linebacker to do on the field. He’s even talking loud enough that his voice can be heard on the sidelines.

“I’m not a real vocal guy,†Mitchell said. “So I’ve had to change that. But it’s been easier every day because I feel more comfortable every day. I feel comfortable in my understanding of the defense and in my understanding of what Gunther wants to get done on the field.â€Â

Comfortable enough that he’s taken charge in the huddle and even asked his defensive coordinator to remove himself from the group. “He threw me out,†Cunningham laughed.

What caught Cunningham’s eye even more were back-to-back plays in a practice this past weekend. Center Casey Wiegmann snapped the ball and came out to block Mitchell. “Kawika took his head off,†Cunningham said. “Casey said something to him about it and on the next play Kawika went right after him again.

“That’s what we are looking for from our guy in the middle.â€Â

Last year, Mitchell struggled with picking up Cunningham’s scheme, largely because it was so different from what he’d played under during his rookie season under Greg Robinson. In an oversimplified explanation, Cunningham wants his linebackers to read and move forward, while Robinson was more interested in his linebackers reading and then going side to side.

Mitchell was not sure of himself and that led to his biggest problem: his tackling. Mitchell missed some ball carriers early in the season that hurt the Chiefs.

“It wasn’t until the end of the season that I really felt like I knew what I was doing,†said Mitchell. “I think late in the year my play improved and that was due entirely to me having a better understanding of what Gunther wanted and how it all fits together. That’s no longer a problem, so tackling should no longer be a problem.â€Â

Mitchell was just the poster boy for an overall team problem with tackling that Cunningham is working on in every single practice. Under Robinson, the defensive player were told to tag off on the ball carrier, meaning get to the ball and then touch the player on the hips.

Gunther is on his guys to wrap up the ball carrier. Even though there is no real tackling in training camp, he wants his players to stop the momentum of the guy with the ball.

“One of Kawika’s problems is he reaches,†said Cunningham. “It’s something that all the guys that were here before do. It’s part of what I mean when I say we are trying to change the culture here, change the way they think about playing defense. We don’t reach, we hit.â€Â

Kawika Mitchell has gotten that message, loud and clear.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years before heading up KCFX-FM's sports department. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. His column appears three times a week during the season.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2005/08/01/gretz_mitchell_in_the_middle/

[bulls96go]

nice to hear!

hope he excels and explodes this year!

will nicholas be the next "great" NFL linebacker from usf