(Low) Key Chiefs to the 2025 season, Part 1; Jaden Hicks is an educated bet
Examining what the 2nd-year safety did last year, and why Spags was comfortable moving forward with him at safety.
One wonderful thing about the offseason is that the lack of new games each and every week gives us one of the most precious things in the world; Time. In this case, time to do more in-depth film reviews that span the course of multiple games. While we do some of that in-season here, the reality is that with new film (and narratives) constantly coming it’s tough to find the hours necessary to grind away hundreds of snaps on a player.
Well, in June, that’s not an issue. And so every offseason I examine multiple players (always including Mahomes) in deeper detail across multiple games from the previous year. This offseason, I want to take a special look at multiple players across the roster who will be (low) key to the Chiefs improving from last year, or at least maintaining their status as serious Super Bowl contender. Why “low” key? because it’s pretty obvious that Mahomes, Kelce, and Jones will be wildly important pieces (though there’s an argument to be made for reviewing their film as well, and I’ll likely do so separate from this series).
I want to start with second-year safety Jaden Hicks, who is (in my opinion) one of the most important players on defense this season in terms of determining its ceiling (though perhaps not its floor, with a veteran like Mike Edwards back on the roster). The primary reason for this is that Justin Reid, who has been the leader of the safety group and the “do-everything” guy that Spags always wants on the back end, departed in free agency following the 2024 season.
While the Chiefs have safeties they like in Bryan Cook, Chamarri Conner, and the newly-signed Mike Edwards (who, again, played a heavy role in 2023 and has shown comfort in Spags’ system as a 2-high coverage guy), Hicks is the very obvious replacement for Reid’s role on the defense. This is especially true given how often Reid was utilized in the box and as a strong safety last season, an area where Hicks is the most ideal fit.
So the question becomes this; What did Hicks’ rookie season film look like, and is that faith the Chiefs appear to be placing in him justified? As you all know, there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to check the film.
Most Chiefs fans probably remember this play, and it’s a good representation of what Hicks brings to the table at the catch point in terms of size, length (at nearly 6’2” and 211 pounds, Hicks is a big safety), and physicality. It also may be one of the only plays people remember of his besides his team-leading (!) three interceptions.
To be perfectly honest, when I stet off to review Hicks’ film I was pretty nervous about Reid’s departure. He’s been an underrated part of Spags’ defenses having a terrific run from 2022-2024, and his brains, versatility, and tackling will be missed.
But the more I learned (from snap count, to progression in role, to Hicks’ film), the more I’ve come to think of the Chiefs’ faith in Hicks as not a blind one, or even one based solely on “potential.” Rather, it’s a very educated bet on Hicks not “expanding” his role from last year, but rather doing all the things he already did last year… just more frequently. Yes, that’s a form of expansion, but it’s different to ask a player to do something they’ve already done well more frequently than to ask them to do something entirely new.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves to the end game (you can skip to the “TLDR; Takeaways from Hicks’ 2024 snaps” at the end if you must). First, let’s talk about what I took away from Hicks’ film.
First and foremost, Hicks played quite a few more snaps than I realized last season. I think there were a few reasons this flew under the radar. First, that they revved up his role in the defense slowly and then that the “Chiefs win via heart attack” and “RIGGED” and “threepeat” narratives swallowed up everything else. Let’s talk about that “revving up” statement. Hicks only played about 30% of the defensive snaps last year. However, when you look at his snap counts on a game by game basis, you see the plan emerge to incorporated Hicks into nearly the entire defense by the end of the year.
(NOTE - I’m leaving out the Week 18 meaningless game in order to not skew snap counts)
Games 1-6; Hicks played 5.5% of the snaps
Games 7-11; Hicks played 19.1% of the snaps
Games 12- 19; Hicks played 58.6% of the snaps
Technically, one could argue Hicks made a mini jump after games 12 (35.3%) and 13 (43.3%), as for the remainder of the season (again, not including the second Denver game) Hicks played 64.9% of the defensive snaps for the rest of the season. However, it was in Week 12 where his snaps noticeably jumped up, so I’m going with three groupings here. And you can see the plan at each stage.