In recent seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs‘ defense has grown in popularity. Part of that coincided with some decline on offense, but Steve Spagnuolo’s group legitimately deserves the respect it currently gets around the league.
If you ask the Chiefs, one of the major reasons why is linebacker Nick Bolton. Regarded by many as the leader of the defense, Bolton gets nods as Kansas City’s on-field coach frequently.
Early in 2025 training camp, though, Spagnuolo is taking that praise to an entirely new level.
Steve Spagnuolo Compares Nick Bolton to Patrick Mahomes
Speaking to the media following practice on July 23, Spagnuolo dropped the comparison to end all comparisons. He likened his leading linebacker to quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“Yeah, he’s just about everything,” Spagnuolo said. “He’s Patrick Mahomes for us. I’ve said this before and we’re pretty multiple defensively, so if we don’t have that guy, it gets really challenging. You know back when we didn’t know we were getting Nick – I had to in my mind, I was preparing, if we don’t have Nick, what do we do? It’s just not the same. So, thank God he’s here.”
The latter part of Spagnuolo’s statement is referring to earlier this offseason. Following the conclusion of the 2024-25 campaign, the Chiefs found themselves needing to either re-sign Bolton or find a suitable replacement. Those potential avenues – free agency, trade and the NFL Draft – are much riskier than bringing back a proven commodity.
Luckily for the team, Bolton wound up re-signing on a three-year, $45 million deal that makes him one of football’s highest-paid linebackers. His $15M average annual value is tied with New York Jets standout Jamien Sherwood for the fifth-most for a deal in the NFL.
Since joining the Chiefs back in 2021, Bolton has done quite a bit in his career. In four seasons, the former Missouri star already has 458 tackles (32 for loss) with 15 passes broken up and 4 interceptions. After missing half the 2023 regular season due to injury, he bounced back last year by logging over 1,000 snaps from Week 1 through Super Bowl LIX.
Bolton Tasked With Helping Kansas City Maintain Excellence in 2025
Bolton is one of the smartest players in the sport. The league views him as a top-five linebacker, and he’s got plenty of prime years left. As long as he’s in the middle of the defense, Spagnuolo has an extension of himself on the field. The Chiefs will certainly need that again in 2025-26 if they are to maintain a standard of excellence on defense.
After ranking second in both points and yards allowed on defense in 2023, the Chiefs “slipped” to fourth and ninth, respectively, in 2024. According to SumerSports, they were roughly an average unit with an 18th-ranked EPA/play allotment. With that said, they buckled down when needed. On fourth-quarter passing plays, their -0.15 EPA/play average was fifth in all of football.
Bolton complements fellow linebackers Drue Tranquill and Leo Chenal well. Up front, Chris Jones remains a dominant force against the pass and Kansas City invested a second-round draft pick on rookie Omarr Norman-Lott. Safety Justin Reid may be gone in the secondary, but Kristian Fulton could help offset that at cornerback. He must first come off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, though.
Outside of Jones or cornerback Trent McDuffie, there may not be a more important player to that operation than Bolton. Judging by Spagnuolo’s comments, he seems to feel that the star linebacker takes the cake.
