Kansas City Chiefs fans, get ready. Your organization is all in on winning in 2016. And they are all in big.
Depending on perspective, this team is solid in all phases on both sides of the ball with solid special teams. Kansas City does have holes to fill, as it needs to rebuild it’s depth in the defensive backfield, and needs to address depth areas at quarterback, but for the most part this team is built to win now.
The biggest weakness on this team, and right now it’s glaring and rather concerning in an immediate, is the defensive backfield. Currently, the Chiefs have Marcus Peters coming off what was perhaps the greatest rookie season at cornerback in this organization’s history, and past him is very little.
Fans will point to Phillip Gaines, the third-year corner who missed most of the previous season with a knee injury. I will point out simply that Gaines was bad his rookie season, and was better his second season, but the pass defense in those first three games was below average and certainly not at a level that you win a championship with. He still has a long way to go.
Past him, you have to look long and hard to find special-teamer Jammell Flemming and second-year player Steven Nelson. I’ll say this, if either of those players are being expected to contribute significantly in 2016, our expectations should lower. This is a position that needs likely a starting level player as well as a depth players. We all saw what this Chiefs pass defense looked like without Sean Smith at the start of last season, which wasn’t pretty.
The other issue, and it’s on defense, is with the safety position. Past Eric Berry, the only other safeties on the roster are Daniel Sorensen and Ron Parker. Tyvon Branch is off to Arizona (who was underrated and will be missed) and remains to be seen what happens with Husain Abdullah.
Next: Berry overpaid?