The Kansas City Chiefs cornerbacks deserve a fair shot to turn things around
By Matt Conner
The clamoring for new cornerbacks is louder than ever with potential trade rumors floating around, but the Kansas City Chiefs have new faces still settling into place.
It takes the mere mention of a new name to cause a commotion. With every new cornerback to come across the transaction wire, or every new defensive back frustrate with his current team, fans of the Kansas City Chiefs get caught up in a frenzy. Rumors of potential acquisitions swirl. Financials are dissected. Trade compensation is discussed.
At this point, we’re all guilty of it—myself certainly included. Cornerback has been a need for so long at this point that we’re all starved for a major move at the position. The biggest import in the last three years has been Kendall Fuller from the Washington Redskins, but that came in the shadow of the export of Marcus Peters. If anything, Chiefs Kingdom was just hoping Fuller could help bandage the wound of losing Peters at a position that was already a need.
Chiefs fans are tired of that feeling—that cornerback is a need.
An understandable hunger
This last year, the Chiefs underwent a major defensive overhaul that brought in two mammoth imports at pass rush and safety. The additions of Frank Clark and Tyrann Mathieu have been upheld all offseason long as the new defensive pillars for the team. Eric Berry and Justin Houston were released and replaced. In their places stood Mathieu and Clark, the new tandem to captain this team under the leadership of Steve Spagnuolo, the team’s new defensive coordinator.
Even then, the Chiefs continued to tool with the roster. Suddenly safety looked like one of the team’s most loaded positions with a starting duo that could grow into one of the NFL’s best. The linebacking corps had more options than ever, even if they were unproven. The front line looked as talented and deep as anything in the NFL west of Philadelphia.
Then there was cornerback. Brett Veach, the team’s general manager, did a lot of work this offseason, but cornerback remained paper thin in terms of talent and depth—at least on the surface. The only draft investment was a sixth round pick a year after another sixth round pick was made (Rashad Fenton and Tremon Smith, respectively). A series of veterans on one-year deals has been the operating mode for fixing (or hopefully fixing) cornerback for quite some time. A quick list:
This doesn’t include odds and ends like Terrance Mitchell or Kenny Acker or Will Redmond, other attempts to bolster the overall ceiling and depth.
In short, it’s easy to understand why Chiefs fans are hungry for some star power at the position.
Veterans aren’t all the same
Here’s the thing about all of those veterans, however. Not all of them are created equal. Just as David Amerson could’t even make the club, Bashaud Breeland made us all excited. Orlando Scandrick made us cautiously optimistic and now we’re positioned the same way for a post-suspension Mo Claiborne.
Basically, Chiefs fans, myself included, need to stop acting as if each veteran on a one-year minimum just broke up with us. The response by and large is like someone who got dumped by David Amerson and we can’t stand the sight of another short-term vet.
“I told Scandrick I would never let him do this to me again, dammit!”
It’s a bit silly, really. The reality is that each of these guys represent a brand new opportunity to fix an ongoing problem. The Chiefs have had two games to see any difference in a completely remade defense. Two games. Just last game, Breeland and Charvarius Ward came away with turnovers. The Raiders put up a quick 10 and then couldn’t generate even a field goal after the first quarter—on their home turf.
Instead of paying through the nose, both in draft assets and cap commitment, for a lockdown corner, why don’t we wait and see if Bashaud Breeland can indeed lock down one boundary even on an above average level? Why not give Charvarius Ward more than a handful of combined starts before believing the worst about him because other developmental players couldn’t turn the corner as well? Why not wait for the reinforcements already on the roster in Claiborne versus being reactionary in the first four weeks before he arrives? And why not give Kendall Fuller more than two weeks in Spags’ new system to show what he can do?
Breeland deserves a chance to show he can produce as we originally hoped. Claiborne deserves some time to play before being labeled Scandrick 2.0. Ward has the coaching staff’s trust, so we need to extend him some as well.
The NFL’s trade deadline is still a month-and-a-half away. That’s plenty of time for the Chiefs to figure out what’s a real versus perceived need. It’s also time for other teams to realize they will not be competing as expected in 2019 and for the selection of available players to increase. If a helluva steal comes up that requires Brett Veach to make a decision at a moment’s notice to grab an asset, that’s fine. But in the interim, patience isn’t the worst virtue to exercise at this point in the year.
Cornerback has been a consistent problem. Cornerback could be a very real problem in the present. Fortunately the Chiefs have some time to figure that out before they need to respond as if they know it’s true.