Chiefs Remember What Tyrann Mathieu Meant To Their Defense

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has not texted or called Tyrann Mathieu, following the do-everything safety’s retirement on Tuesday.

That’s not a knock on their relationship. Spagnuolo said he loves him.

“T5 is like one of his favorite players,” Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones said.

But Spagnuolo is waiting for the right moment to reach out. He wants to contact him when Mathieu is not getting inundated with messages.

Mathieu came in at exactly the right moment for the Chiefs too.

He and Spagnuolo both joined the Chiefs in 2019, transforming a defense that had ranked next to last in yards allowed the year before. As a result of that unit’s improvement, the Chiefs reached the Super Bowl in Mathieu and Spagnuolo’s first year with the team, marking the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 50 years.

“Special, special guy,” Spagnuolo said, “He was a key piece to what we were doing.”

The Chiefs signed Mathieu to a three-year, $42 million deal in March of 2019, and the versatile safety lined up all over the field, starting 47 games for the Chiefs from 2019 to 2021 and earning All-Pro honors in 2019 and 2020.

Jones credits the physicality that belied Mathieu’s 5-9, 190-pound frame — along with his intangibles — in helping create the championship culture in Kansas City.

“He brought a sense of leadership,” Jones said, “a sense of tenacity that this team was missing to get over that hump and win a ring.”

Two years after he won that ring, though, the Chiefs chose not to re-sign him, and Mathieu ended up signing a three-year, $28.3 million contract with his hometown New Orleans Saints instead.

Despite that parting of ways, Mathieu, who spoke while at the “Glow Up Classic” flag football game benefiting New Orleans’ 18th Ward during the week of Super Bowl LIX in his hometown, said he still roots for the Chiefs and that there was “no bad blood.”

“Great memories,” he exclusively shared. “I’ve been in this league long enough to know it’s just a business.”

Before making a business decision and announcing his retirement on Tuesday, Mathieu was slated to earn $4 million on a one-year contract with the Saints in 2025 and join Justin Reid, his former Houston Texans teammate who also replaced him in Kansas City.

“The question I got when I first signed with Kansas City was how am I going to be the next Tyrann Mathieu,” Reid said. “I was like, ‘There’s no chance. I have no shot at being the next Tyrann Mathieu. There’s no way I can do what he’s done, but I can be the best Justin Reid I can be.’”

Along with playing next to Reid on the Texans in 2018, Mathieu played five years for the Arizona Cardinals who drafted him in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

During his 12-year career, he played with a ferocity that fit his nickname of “Honey Badger.”

But Mathieu didn’t love the moniker at first, preferring his original nickname of “T Rex.”

“It was hard,” he said, laughing about it. “I went from one of the biggest, most deadliest creatures of all time.”

In his social media post announcing his retirement, the Honey Badger said “this isn’t goodbye — it’s just the next chapter.”

Spagnuolo concurred.

“He’ll do something great going forward,” Spagnuolo said. “He might end up being the president.”