7 Numbers To Consider Before Kansas City Chiefs, Tennessee Titans Game
By Ben Nielsen
Jun 17, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Cooper (31) talks with media after the Kansas City Chiefs minicamp at University of Kansas Hospital Training Complex. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
NUMBER: 1
One catch on four targets in 45 coverage plays. Those are the preseason numbers for Marcus Cooper, who quietly had a very strong preseason to start off his sophomore campaign.
The development of Cooper at cornerback is crucial to the Chiefs success this season and beyond. A converted wide receiver who was a waiver wire pickup from last August, Cooper has shown he can flourish in the type of defensive scheme the Chiefs run. He is big (6-2, 192), fast (4.43), and has a knack of getting his hands on the ball (three interceptions). Building him into a player who can take away sections of the field when the pass rush is unsuccessful or taking advantage of errant passes created by the pass rush would make this defense a monster.
Is Cooper there yet? No. But it at least looked like he was building off of his success as a rookie and heading towards being a solid number one corner for the Chiefs. Anything stable in the secondary would do the Chiefs a world of good at this stage of the Andy Reid/John Dorsey process.