The Kansas City Chiefs failed to grab a cornerback in the deepest draft class at the position in years. Now PFF says it’s their biggest need.
Free agency is largely settled. The NFL Draft is in the books. Teams have made the bulk of the moves they’re going to make heading into the 2017 season, which is why a number of sites and NFL analysts have even started to make predictions on how the season will unfold. At this point, it’s fairly easy to size teams up.
When it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs, the opinion is that the team is largely stocked at most positions with their biggest weakness coming in at cornerback. It’s an interesting point to be made since the draft was stocked with the best cornerback class in years, but the Chiefs chose to forgo the position, save for the hybrid selection of Leon McQuay III in the sixth round. Pro Football Focus says it’s the most obvious need for the Chiefs at this point:
"In a draft with a plethora of quality cornerbacks, the Chiefs opted to stay out of the pool entirely and are currently looking to start journeyman and former seventh-round pick Terrance Mitchell at RCB. In a division with budding star QB Derek Carr and the multitude of offensive weapons the Raiders have, and Philip Rivers throwing to a healthy receiving corps that also added top-10 pick in Mike Williams, the Chiefs will have their hands full defending the pass. Doing so with uncertainty at cornerback could be a big detriment. While WR depth is an issue as is ILB, shoring up their CB depth is of the utmost importance."
PFF is right to bring up the high-octane passers in this division and despite the uncertainty of the Broncos at quarterback, they still enjoy Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas as playmakers, which makes them dangerous nonetheless. The Chiefs had 10 total selections but chose to package those picks together to get prospects they wanted at other positions: quarterback, wide receiver, running back, defensive end. It will be interesting to see how well these selections shake out compared to the other players who were available to them at the time.