There may not be a position that the Kansas City Chiefs need more desperately than cornerback. Several had a great combine, but which might fit in KC?
The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs have several positions of need entering the offseason, but I don’t think any is as glaring as their need at cornerback. Bashaud Breeland, Kendall Fuller, and Morris Claiborne are all poised to be free agents. That leaves the Chiefs with just Charvarius Ward and Rashad Fenton left at the cornerback position in a league where you need at least four corners you feel comfortable with playing on a regular basis.
With the Chiefs having limited salary cap space to work with, the NFL draft may be the perfect place for them to find at least one of the multiple cornerbacks that they need to fill out their roster. During the 2020 NFL Combine in Indianapolis there were several cornerbacks that had great showings that the Chiefs may want to consider.
As I said last week in my similar piece on linebackers, “winning” the combine certainly isn’t a guarantee that a prospect will succeed in the NFL. That having been said, there were a lot of cornerbacks that helped their stock with a good showing. So this week I’m going to do a quick overview of some of the cornerbacks that had a great all around showing at the combine that the Chiefs might want to look at. That’s not to say that they can’t target someone not on this list, but with the combine still fresh in our minds, I thought it might be a good time to look at some of the guys that shined.
Before we talk about the guys that did make the list, let’s take a second to talk about who isn’t going to be in this post. First, Jeffrey Okudah of Ohio State had a great combine with a 4.48 forty time and explosive jumps in both the vertical and broad jumps, but the Chiefs have absolutely no shot at landing Okudah who will definitely be a top 10 pick. There’s not much point in profiling him here. I REALLY wanted to profile CJ Henderson of Florida as a first round option for the Chiefs, but after his 4.39 forty time and 20 bench press reps I think he’s probably cemented himself as a top 20 pick, and I just don’t see the Chiefs giving up more picks in order to trade up for him.
There were several corners that the Chiefs might consider that had solid combines. Guys like Kristian Fulton of LSU, Noah Igbinoghene of Auburn, Jeff Gladney of TCU, and Jaylon Johnson of Utah are all guys that the Chiefs might look at in the first couple of rounds. While they all had solid combines I don’t know that any of them really improved their stock like a guy like C.J. Henderson did. I think they mostly just held steady with where they already were. So I’m going to focus more today on slightly lesser talked about guys that boosted their stocks at the combine.
Finally, there were some guys that really helped their stock that I don’t think will be the type of guys that the Chiefs are looking at. Javelin Guidry of Utah, Essang Bassey of Wake Forrest, and John Reid of Penn State all had great combines that helped their draft stock. However, I think they are all clear inside nickel corners in the NFL and I personally believe the Chiefs will be targeting outside guys this offseason. Rashad Fenton looked really good as a rookie playing inside in the nickel spot and the Chiefs also have Tyrann Mathieu that can play in the slot as well. They only have Ward on the outside though, so I think that is where they will focus this offseason.
So now let’s talk about the cornerbacks that had a great combine that I think the Chiefs may take a closer look at, starting with a couple of late round options.