A Chiefs fan’s guide to the NFL Draft: The Cornerbacks

The 2018 NFL Draft is about a month away and there are several key positions the Chiefs are likely to target. This week let’s look at some cornerbacks.

As the NFL free agent signing frenzy begins to die down most fans of the Kansas City Chiefs are beginning to turn their full attention to the upcoming NFL draft. I love this time of year. I love the NFL Draft and I love going into the draft with a list of players that I like for every position that I believe the Chiefs may even consider drafting.

Do the Chiefs always draft one of the players off my wish list at that position? No, but it doesn’t keep me from making these lists every year. If nothing else it adds more excitement to the draft when I see if my favorite team and I see eye to eye on some of these prospects. So for the next four weeks I’m going to share some of these lists with you as we get closer to the draft. We’ll start off this week with the cornerbacks.

First off, unless the Chiefs make an unexpected signing at cornerback before the draft, I think it is highly likely that we will see KC select a corner at some point in this draft. That is partly because their depth at the position behind Kendall Fuller, Steven Nelson, and David Amerson is a laundry list of guys with no proven NFL track record. The other reason I find it highly likely that they will draft a corner is that the depth at that position in this draft is relatively strong. So there will be good players that can easily make the 53 man roster available when the Chiefs select in rounds two, three, and four (if not later). Of all the positions available in the draft I would probably go so far as to list cornerback as the most likely position for the Chiefs to draft next month.

Finally, before we get to the prospects I like for the Chiefs, I should clarify that I focused on corners that I believe have the tools to (eventually) start on the outside in Kansas City’s press man scheme. Yes, there are talented slot corners available in this draft as well, but with Fuller and Nelson both being under six feet tall and Amerson coming off a season where he really struggled I feel like the Chiefs are desperately in need of bringing in a corner (or two) with the ideal size and skill set to play outside.

Does that mean the Chiefs wouldn’t draft a short slot corner if he was by far the best corner on their board? No, they still may do that, but you won’t find any of those guys on my wish list. So if you are a huge fan of someone like Kansas State’s D.J. Reed, I’m sorry but while he’s a good player he’s not making my list of targets for cornerback in this draft class. Not when there are numerous guys over six feet that I like too.

Let’s get to the list: