Steve Spagnuolo addresses potential plans to replace an injured player - Chiefs Wire

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo spoke with reporters on Thursday. He addressed potential plans to replace injured linebacker Cooper McDonald in the lineup for the next few weeks.

"Jack's (Cochrane) has always been a reliable, steady football player for us. He's one of those guys in this league, and every team has one or hopes to have one that plays linebacker and plays all the spots and can learn all the spots without getting a lot of reps," said Spagnuolo. "That's what Jack is for us. So he'll get in there, (and) Jeff Bassa, we used a little bit in the game. He's going to pick up a little bit of that slack for Cooper. It was really sad to see Cooper McDonald get hurt like that. I mean, he was the guy that was going to play the SAM linebacker, and now I'm going to lose him for a little bit. But yeah, hopefully Jack and Jeff can fill in there."

The Chiefs placed McDonald on injured reserve Wednesday with a knee injury, and he will now miss at least four games. He sustained the injury during Monday's win over the Denver Broncos.

"It's not easy right now. I mean, it was thin, and now it's thinner with Cooper out. Sometimes we end up with two linebacker defenses instead of three," said Spagnuolo. "We don't like to do that, and I think this team's (Indianapolis Colts) going to come in. They've got a bunch of tight ends so that they can end up in the two tight end, two wideout stuff that we need base, and they can put three tight ends in. So we're gonna need some linebacker bodies to put in there. I can't do it anymore."

Kansas City hosts the Colts on Sunday Night Football for Week 2, with many eyes on the linebacker position.