Several Kansas City Chiefs wasted an opportunity against the Steelers

The Young Cornerbacks

If you polled 100 Chiefs fans on what position is the biggest area of concern for this 2019 team, I believe at least 90% or more would answer cornerback. The recent signing of Morris Claiborne helps the depth at the position, but with him suspended for the first four games, there is certainly a need for at least one more corner to step up and prove they deserve a spot on the roster.

Kendall Fuller, Bashaud Breeland, and Charvarius Ward are all locks to make the team but after that things are pretty wide open. That means two more corner spots are open to start the season which will drop to one when Claiborne is eligible. The top contenders for those two spots are Rashad Fenton, D’Montre Wade, Herb Miller, and Mark Fields.

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, none of them have taken advantage of their opportunity to lock up a spot yet. That’s not to say that they haven’t all looked good at times, but I don’t think any of them have produced consistently enough that anyone would feel good if they had to play meaningful snaps in an actual NFL game that mattered.

Miller probably has the most highlights through two games with an interception (on an end-of-half heave) and a forced fumble to go along with a couple of nice tackles. However, he’s also looked a little stiff in coverage and was beat deep badly on a play on Saturday.

Wade got some first team reps early in camp but has struggled in coverage at times as well. He gave fans a Steven Nelson flashback (not in a good way) when he failed to get his head turned around on a deep pass.

Fields looks like a player that could benefit from a year on the practice squad. On one snap he’ll stay right on his man’s hip and look great in coverage; the next, he’ll get beat or be out of position. I still think he has upside but since he didn’t even get a ton of playing time at Clemson, he’s just raw. I think asking him to contribute as a rookie would be dangerous.

The player I think is most likely to make the team at this point is sixth round draft pick Fenton, who hasn’t flashed a lot on defense but he hasn’t stood out for bad reasons a lot either. It appears that Fenton is Fuller’s primary backup at this point in the slot. He also has seen a lot of special teams snaps. The combination of being a draft pick, being the primary back up in the slot, and playing special teams probably makes him the most likely candidate to make the team, but it doesn’t help the Chiefs much on the outside where they have struggled at times.

With none of the young corners performing well enough to lock up their roster spot this is another position where I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Chiefs make a move when roster cut downs happen. If there is either a veteran corner that is suddenly available or a young corner who Brett Veach covets gets cut I don’t know that any of K.C.’s current young guys should feel their job is safe.

So that’s my list of players that dropped the ball (in some cases literally) in Saturday’s game against the Steelers. Do you agree that these players missed a golden opportunity to help their status on the team? Are there other players that you would put on the list before any of these guys? Were you even able to stay awake through that snoozefest? If so, I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below.