If Joseph and Barwin were out...

[ArrowheadRage58]

I am just trying to get a grasp as to how much KC missed Tamba and Flowers and how much is we aren't as good as expected on D.

How would you guys expect to do against an offense like the Falcons if Joseph was replaced by Jacque Reeves and Barwin was replaced by an average/non pass rusher backup? Of course we had several other key injuries on D, but those were the major guys missing.

I won't lie, when I found out Flowers and his backup were out, I totally prepared myself for the Falcons to put up 30 or 40...now 3 scoring drives were less than 10 yards and we actually had more total offense and held them under 400, but it was still rather easy for them. Should I have expected more if the D is truly top 10 or is that just too much to overcome against a top offense?

...and maybe you have better depth at CB than we do (well I know you do). Pioli was blasted for it before the season began, especially with the drafting of another nickel corner/safety instead of a CB when we had nothing proven or even really promising outside of Flowers/Routt. We also have nothing but a scrub backing up DJ...any other defensive spot, we have a suitable backup.

[Wolf6151]

Losing Joseph would hurt alot. KJ is playing better than he did last year and much better than he did 2 yrs. ago but he's a #2 CB at best. Our other CB depth (Carmichael, Harris, McCain, Ball, etc..) is just that depth. We have no one that could really replace Joseph but few teams in the NFL have more than one #1 CB on their roster, they're just too expensive. If we lost Joseph our pass rush would have to step up big time and get more pressure on opposing QB's so that our weak secondary wouldn't be exposed for so long.

Losing Barwin would hurt but not near as bad. I think we'd slide Reed over to the strong side and plug Mercilus, our 1st round pick this year, into the weakside OLB position. If we lost Barwin we'd still have a good pass rush.

[PAtexansFAN99]

Without Joseph and Barwin I think the Texans D is still top 10.. McCain has steadily improved throughout his entire career, KJ looks really good, and I'm pretty sure Brandon Harris and Alan Ball are ready to go too.
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LORK88

[mse326]

I really like Barwin but think we can withstand that. He's a decent run stopper and eh in coverage (surprising as he is an ex-TE). I think Mercilus would do ok filling a pure rush role and with a fairly stacked front 7 (at least from a pass rush standpoint) we'd be ok.

If we lost Joseph and had to go against White and Julio we'd look like the 2010 secondary.

Against most teams we may be able to deal because Quin and Manning are far better than any safety combo we had and Kareem is better now than he was in 2010, but against wideouts like the Falcons have and then Gonzo to boot we'd be in trouble.

Personally I'm not reading too much into the Chiefs defense based on week 1.
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