KANSAS CITY, MO – NOVEMBER 03: Inside linebacker Anthony Hitchens #53 of the Kansas City Chiefs gets set on defense against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at Arrowhead Stadium on November 3, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images)
The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions ,but which 10 players are the most important to the team’s recent success?
The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV because they have the best team.
They also had a number of star players that were especially critical to the team reaching its potential. We thought it would be fun to rank the top 10 Chiefs players in order of importance.
Let’s dive right in.
10. Anthony Hitchens
A lot of Chiefs fans were disappointed in Hitchens’ performance when he came to the team in 2018. Hitchens signed a rather large deal when he came to Kansas City, inking a five-year, $45 million contract that included $25 million in guaranteed money and a $14 million signing bonus.
Then Hitchens finished the 2018 season with a Pro Football Focus grade of 40.6, which ranked 92nd among linebackers.
So why is Hitchens on this list? For starters, Hitchens played much better in 2020, as did the entire Chiefs defense. It is no secret that the 2018 defense was awful and certainly had an impact on Hitchens’ play in his first year with the team.
In 2019, however, after a really rocky start, the Chiefs defense showed significant improvement. Early in the season, Kansas City was getting gashed in the running game. By the playoffs, however, the Chiefs had shored things up, shutting down Derrick Henry and a Tennessee Titans running game that had been running wild over the NFL.
As essentially the quarterback of the defense, Hitchens is crucial to the unit’s success.