Kansas City Chiefs Ranked Last In Sacks In NFL Despite Tamba Hali's Presence

Tamba Hali is tied for 10th in the NFL in sacks with six. As for the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs, they have only three between the rest of the defense. That's a poor enough effort to placed dead last in the NFL in sacks as a team -- and it's not even close.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are next on the list at 12 team sacks. The Chiefs have nine. Wallace Gilberry only has one sack in half a season after 7 just a year ago. Derrick Johnson and Kelly Gregg account for the other two sacks for the season with one apiece. That means blitzing cornerback Javier Arenas doesn't have any. Neither do top five draft picks like Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey. Third round draft choice Justin Houston was chosen to provide the counterpart to Hali on the edge but Houston has 21 tackles and zero sacks thus far. Meanwhile, other rookies like Von Miller and Aldon Smith are among the league leaders.

The Chiefs certainly miss the presence of Eric Berry in the defensive backfield and perhaps he would free up others in the defensive scheme to get at the passer. But every team deals with injuries, so the Chiefs are not alone. In fact, they were eerily lucky last season in their overall team health.

In many ways, the Chiefs defense has been a strength this season and they've won the game several times -- whether it was stopping the Chargers in overtime on Monday Night Football or shutting out the Raiders and providing six interceptions in doing so. But it's clear that one facet of the defense that's missing is a pass rush and that's unsettling since the talent is here to do so.