Kansas City Chiefs have a very bright future at cornerback

Rashad Fenton

There was a stretch of the Chiefs season where it all could have fallen apart—at least in the secondary. Bashaud Breeland had not yet returned from his suspension to start the year and Sneed had been injured halfway through the Chiefs suffocating win over the Baltimore Ravens. It was here that Rashad Fenton stepped up in a way no one could have ever expected.

Fenton was already a solid story for the Chiefs as a sixth round pick who made the team. Such late picks are always a longshot to even make an NFL roster, let alone one that just won the Super Bowl, but Fenton made good on Veach’s vision for him by providing quality reps in defensive subpackages in 2019.

Heading into 2020, the worry was that Fenton was just a young bit player and nothing more, and few projected that he might be able to actually grow into a much larger role. Yet when forced into action, Fenton stretched our imaginations to make us all believers. Fenton started three of the first four games of the season, playing nearly every defensive snap outside along the way, and the results were very, very good.

Pro Football Focus had Fenton rated as their 5th highest graded corner after Week 5 (after he’d made his final start) and Fenton has kept up the solid work since then, even in a more part-time role upon the return of Breeland and then Sneed.

The good news is that even after Breeland likely departs in free agency this spring (he’s due to receive much better offers this spring than last year), the Chiefs have another young player in Fenton who can jump right into a starting role either outside or in the slot—at least through 2022—all for under $1 million per year. But of course we’re also forgetting about someone else.

Signed through: 2022