Kansas City Chiefs stock report: Rookies shine against Bengals

Stock Up: Bashaud Breeland

The Kansas City Chiefs have some issues at cornerback. That’s not breaking news to anyone. The Chiefs recently signed Morris Claiborne to help add some depth and competition to the position.

Going into the season my hope was that Kendall Fuller would return to form as a top slot corner and Charvarius Ward would pick up where he left off last season as a promising young outside corner. That left Breeland simply as a veteran place holder on the outside, who I was just hoping would be solid enough to not be a liability. Following that same line of thinking, I wondered if Claiborne could potentially take Breeland’s starting spot should he struggle.

Fast forward to Saturday’s game and it seemed pretty clear to me that Breeland was the best corner on the field. He came up and made a fantastic open field tackle at one point and showed great closing speed and timing to break up a pass on a throw where it looked like he had been beaten deep. The Chiefs don’t need their corners to be elite to win games, they just need them to be solid and Breeland looked solid on Saturday.

Stock Down: Charvarius Ward

As I mentioned above, at the end of last season, Ward looked like a promising young corner. You could make a pretty strong argument that he was the Chiefs best corner in the playoffs last year. The hope was that he would continue to develop and improve as opposed to taking a step back, like other promising corners such as Marcus Cooper and Terrance Mitchell before him. Unfortunately, he looked more like those other two versus the Bengals than he did the future of the position for the Chiefs.

Ward was consistently a step behind his man in coverage, and it isn’t like he was going against A.J. Green or some other elite wideouts. While I originally thought Claiborne could challenge for Breeland’s starting job if they continue to play like they did on Saturday, it may be Ward that needs to worry about his starting spot. Ward is still just a second-year undrafted player, so I certainly am not giving up on him, but I am hoping that he looks better next week.