Iowa football: Anthony Hitchens to rebound from tough first year in KC

Former Iowa football player Anthony Hitchens has certainly outperformed his 4th round draft status but is needing to rebound after a bad 1st year in KC.

Anthony Hitchens had an interesting journey while with the Iowa football team, joining the Hawkeyes out of high school as a running back before transitioning over to the defensive side of the ball at safety. After finally settling in at linebacker, he went through his share of bumps and bruises before putting it all together his senior season when he took home Second Team All-Big Ten honors by racking up 112 tackles (13.5 of which were for a loss), 2 sacks, and 1 interception.

Despite having a successful senior season, Hitchen’s was not highly thought of heading into the NFL Draft process, yet he still was drafted in the fourth round by the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones can make some boneheaded decisions, but he did a pretty good job with his pick of Hitchens on day three.

The former Iowa football player started 11 games as a rookie for the Cowboys totaling 84 tackles with 1 interception and 4 passes defended. The next year, he dropped down a bit to 9 games, but in his final two seasons, he secured a full-time starter’s role with the Cowboys starting every game that he wasn’t injured. After his fourth year where he had 84 tackles (9 of which were for loss), Hitchens headed home to the Kansas City area and signed a monstrous 4 year/$45 million deal.

Unfortunately, Hitchen’s homecoming didn’t go so well (at least on the defensive side of the ball). Kansas City’s defense was absolutely horrendous, and Hitchens wasn’t much better himself.

He did have 135 tackles in 15 games, but he rated as one of the worst linebackers in the league according to Pro Football Focus with a 38.2 grade, which is considered below average by PFF.

This year, expect to see a different version of Hitchens. The Chiefs have a new defensive coordinator and they brought in talented reinforcements in Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark to aid a weak defense. Hitchens showed in year one with the Chiefs that he isn’t the guy who can carry the team, but if his time in Dallas showed anything, it’s that he can play fantastic team football.

My prediction for Hitchens is fewer tackles than last year, so around the 110 range with 2 interceptions and 8 tackles for loss. Without the pressure of having to be the guy, I fully believe Hitchens will thrive in Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.