The Kansas City Chiefs have had a very different season this year. Yes, Patrick Mahomes is still there leading the offense, but the Chiefs began the year 3-4. The offense was all out of sorts while the defense was getting shredded. But something changed defensively midway through the season. As the offense still took another month or longer to correct itself, the defense dominated and won games for Kansas City.

Chiefs Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu shared who he believed was arguably the biggest part of the defensive turnaround.

Prior to the trade deadline, Kansas City acquired former Pro Bowl linebacker Melvin Ingram III for a 6th round pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ingram III was in the middle of his first season with Pittsburgh after many successful seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers.

According to Mathieu, Ingram helps the defense as much off the field as he does on it, as noted by Chiefs Wire writer John Dillon.

“He just has a knack for really understanding blocking schemes and what offensive lines want to do, what coordinators want to do, and it kind of helps him anticipate what’s coming… He’s a great leader, he’s a great communicator as well especially in the classroom with the coaches so he’s a guy that we feed off. Not just on the field, but off the field in the classroom as well so he’s been big for us,” Mathieu said.

Kansas City is set to host the AFC Wild Card matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night. Ingram surely will be a big help in the film room again this week.