3 coaches who could be pried away from Kansas City Chiefs

Dave Merritt

Of all of the potential offseason losses to the Chiefs' staff, this one feels the most likely.

Dave Merritt has been working magic with the Chiefs secondary for the last five years. For a while he was sharing credit with Sam Madison, but now that Madison is coaching defensive backs with the Miami Dolphins, the credit alone belongs to Merritt. That's a key development for his desirability as a potential coordinator.

After a five year career as a player, mostly with the Arizona Cardinals, Merritt went right to work on establishing his coaching resume by coaching linebackers at UT-Chattanooga in 1997. From there, he worked his way back to the NFL level as an assistant with the New York Jets in 2001. He went to work with the New York Giants by 2004, and it's there that he worked alongside Steve Spagnuolo, who joined the Giants staff in 2007.

Merritt stayed in New York through 2017, but accepted an invitation from Spags to join him in K.C. after he was hired in 2019 and Merritt has been with the Chiefs ever since.

Consider the tremendous work that Merritt has done with the secondary in his time with the Chiefs. Charvarius Ward went from an undrafted free agent to a rich young cornerback with the 49ers. L'Jarius Sneed was a fourth-round pick from Louisiana Tech and now he's going to cash in as well. Jaylen Watson was ready to play in Week 1 as a seventh-round rookie, and Trent McDuffie is finding his incredible ceiling as an impact player.

The bottom line is that there's not a single position on the Chiefs on either side of the ball that is deeper or more talented overall than the secondary and Merritt deserves a lot of credit. Now as a 52-year-old assistant, he seems primed for a promotion to defensive coordinator.