The Kansas City Chiefs' secondary is in rough shape, to say the least. The team traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams and then lost Jaylen Watson to the Rams as well in free agency, leaving them with a very thin group at cornerback.
While the team will surely add cornerback help in the draft at the end of the month, the Chiefs did add some help on Thursday, signing Kaiir Elam to a contract. The name might sound familiar to Chiefs fans because Elam was the Bills' first-round pick 2022 and was a massive bust for them.
Elam, the 23rd overall pick by Buffalo in 2022, spent three years with the Bills before they moved on from him in the 2025 offseason. Buffalo traded Elam to the Cowboys and things didn't go any better for the former Florida standout in Dallas. He was waived by the Cowboys in November and spent the end of the regular season with the Titans playing in four games for them.
Elam's next stop is in Kansas City and fans are hoping the team has other moves up their sleeve at cornerback and that this isn't it. Elam has struggled during his time in the pros and while Steve Spagnuolo is one of the best defensive coordinators in the league, it doesn't feel like even he'll be able to fix what's been ailing Elam.
Chiefs sign Kaiir Elam as depth for cornerback position
Fortunately, the Chiefs still have the draft to address the cornerback position because so far, it leaves a lot to be desired. The starting group right now would likely consist of Nohl Williams, Kristian Fulton, and Kader Kohou, so, yes, Brett Veach definitely needs to work his magic in the draft.
The good news is that Kansas City owns the ninth pick in the draft so a good cornerback should be there for the taking if that's the direction the Chiefs want to go in. They could also use their late first-round pick they got in exchange for McDuffie to find his replacement and could address the position on Day 2 as well.
If Elam ends up playing a significant amount of time in the Chiefs secondary, then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Hey, maybe he'll just be a special teams piece.