Why are the Kansas City Chiefs continuing to search high and low for cornerback talent and depth for two straight seasons when other teams are so loaded?
Comparison is the thief of joy, they say. It certainly robbed me that day.
It began with a closer look at other teams. I was taking a closer look at the secondary riches of the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, searching for potentially talented players who could get cut, when I finally asked myself the more important question.
How did these teams get so rich in the first place?
The Packers and Vikings certainly aren’t the only ones. The Jacksonville Jaguars have an incredible secondary. The Los Angeles Chargers lost Jason Verrett for the season and still have perhaps the best secondary unit in the NFL. The L.A. Rams, Baltimore Ravens, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans all have pass coverage units to behold.
Let’s go back to the Minnesota Vikings for a minute because they are the team that turned me green with envy and stole my momentary joy. Here’s what struck me: The Vikings aren’t secondary rich and talent-poor elsewhere. They’re also not taking advantage of a super cheap QB by hiring immediate talent elsewhere.
Instead the Vikings are a Super Bowl contender. They have a great pass rush and a deep defensive line with solid linebackers. They’re incredibly well-coached. They have a dynamo-in-waiting at running back in Dalvin Cook and perhaps the league’s best wide receiver tandem in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs. Oh yeah, they also just dropped tens of millions of guaranteed money on Kirk Cousins.
In spite of so much talent elsewhere, here’s a closer look at the back end of their defense:
- Free safety Harrison Smith is a former first round pick.
- Cornerback Xavier Rhodes is a former first round pick.
- Cornerback Trae Waynes is a former first round pick.
- Slot corner Mackensie Alexander is a former second round pick.
- Rookie corner Mike Hughes was this year’s first round pick.
- Just to rub it in, this list doesn’t include the ageless Terrance Newman at cornerback, the newly acquired George Iloka at safety or the former undrafted gem at safety they found in Andrew Sendejo who climbed the ranks to start 53 games over the last five years.
That’s four first round picks in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018 along with a second round choice in 2016. At other positions, especially at wide receiver and offensive line, the Vikings are willing to stitch together talent found elsewhere. In the secondary, they continue to rotate in blue chip talent. It helps that they don’t miss.
What’s frustrating with that list is that the Kansas City Chiefs would likely love to have any of those players right now in the secondary—from Smith to Sendejo—assuming they were scheme fits. This isn’t about those specific players but it’s about the fact that the Vikes have so much proven talent that they’re swimming in it while the Chiefs are throwing pasta at the wall to see what sticks.
The Chiefs draft history
Let’s take a closer look at how the Chiefs constructed their current secondary.
- Eric Berry is the only first round pick of the lot.
- Kendall Fuller was acquired via trade, which throws a bit of a curve into any real analysis, but clearly he was a prize they sought out (and we’re so glad they did) with their biggest trade asset in Alex Smith. Veach deserves a lot of credit for this investment.
- Steven Nelson is the only third round pick (and there’s no second at all).
- Armani Watts and Eric Murray are fourth round selections.
- Leon McQuay and Tremon Smith are sixth round picks (with no fifth rounders among the bunch).
- Dan Sorensen is a former undrafted free agent (and a great find, obviously).
- Orlando Scandrick and David Amerson are obvious free agent flyers (we’ll come back to this).
- The asterisk here is that the Chiefs invested a first round pick in Marcus Peters, a third round pick in KeiVarae Russell and another third in Phillip Gaines.
In short, the Chiefs and Vikings operate under very different guiding principles, even if they are not hard and fast rules. The Vikings seem to make a very concerted effort to draft top-tier talent in the secondary on a regular basis. The Chiefs draft top-tier talent wherever it’s available, sometimes in the secondary. The difference here is striking.
The Chiefs strategy (and why it’s fallen apart)
Brett Veach learned under John Dorsey and, one year into his tenure, seems to ascribe to the same method of operation: stitch together your secondary around a couple primary tentpoles.
The Chiefs had the requisite tentpoles in previous years like 2016.
- Despite current fan opinions and (ignorant) hot takes, the reality is that Marcus Peters is a ballhawk of a cornerback who generates turnovers on a historic level (as in, the kind of player you brag about to your children that you got to see him play live).
- Eric Berry is the same sort of player (only even better), a once-in-a-lifetime talent and person whose well-rounded game elevates the entire defense.
Around these two pillars, the Chiefs decided to move forward with some mid-round draft picks and lots of low-risk investments. Here is where John Dorsey’s incredibly shrewd eye would come into play. Remember how great he was at finding random defensive backs who suddenly looked like strong defenders with the Chiefs:
- Ron Parker
- Tyvon Branch
- Husain Abdullah
- Dan Sorensen
- Kurt Coleman
- Marcus Cooper
Dorsey saw something in Peters and landed him. He knew Sean Smith could be much better than he’d ever been with the Dolphins and signed him. He even got some decent stretches from Terrance Mitchell and Jamell Fleming.
Let’s summarize: the Chiefs had some very good defenses in Andy Reid’s tenure shaped around a secondary with two singular talents holding up the structure and several hidden gems being placed in situations where they could succeed. It was a perfectly balanced situation where both front office and coaching staff looked good by getting so much from so little investment.
When a pillar falls
The Chiefs strategy can work but only if all pieces work in concert together. The moment one thing goes wrong, the whole circus comes crashing down. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, both pillars have actually fallen.
Chiefs fans saw this firsthand when Eric Berry went down with an injury. Suddenly Sorensen looks like an out-of-place defender with a contract much too large. Suddenly Eric Murray is in over his head, tasked with reads and responsibilities for which he’s clearly not ready. Suddenly Ron Parker looks a step slower. The Chiefs safeties were identified as a strength heading into 2017 and one year later they’re razor thin. How does that happen?
A pillar falls. That’s what happened.
This year the Chiefs are going to find out what happens when you remove another pillar in Marcus Peters. Kendall Fuller has been set up as a new pillar in the middle of the defense, but it remains to be seen how the secondary will look without their primary playmaker.
This is also what makes another potential injury to Berry so frightening. He’s so pivotal to the entire defense that it’s impossible not to construct a defense around him, even with three season-ending injuries or illnesses in his past. He’s just that good. Unfortunately the Chiefs know as well what happens when when it works as when it doesn’t. This year they need it to work.
When a pillar falls (or even two), it exposes the rest of the bunch. Last year, we saw just how thin the secondary really was for the Chiefs. Terrance Mitchell, Kenny Acker, an aging Darrelle Revis, a disappointing draftee in Phillip Gaines were all given significant reps trying desperately to come up with someone who could hold up the tent that had fallen on everyone. If you wonder how it went, just look at whether any of those players were invited back for 2018.
Fast forward a year, however, and you find a similar group. Can someone really say that the Chiefs are better off than they were with those previous players? David Amerson, Orlando Scandrick, Keith Reaser and Will Redmond sound eerily similar to Mitchell, Acker & Co. Tremon Smith or Arrion Springs might turn out to be something but to actually rely on that in year one is a stretch—and the Chiefs need to be done stretching.
A shift in strategy?
It remains to be seen what Brett Veach is going to do concerning the secondary over the long-term and he deserves a significant stretch of time to show his hand. That said, the Chiefs are entering the current season in much the same way that Dorsey entered previous years—relying on a couple pillars and hoping a new set of low-risk investments can handle the rest.
If anything might help the Chiefs secondary and the pressure they face this year, it’s that the team invested heavily in the front seven this offseason. A stout pass rush will work wonders on the pressure placed on such pillars, and perhaps Veach decided to first invest there before rebuilding things on the back end. Both the actual defensive line and the rotation of pass rushers are deeper and stronger and have a higher ceiling than the previous couple years in K.C., so quarterbacks might have a tougher time even allowing a play to unfold.
Future drafts and free agent frenzies might bring a new level of secondary investments in the future, but for now it’s par for the course in Kansas City. Fans are going to have to hope that a sixth round pick develops fast or an aging veteran can still give it one more go. More than anything, however, we’re all crossing our fingers that the pillars we have can hold up for a full 16 games. Otherwise who knows what will come crashing down.