Chiefs draft pick was an extremely rare miss in the secondary

The Chiefs hardly ever miss when it comes to defensive backs, but not everyone can bat 1.000.

Every year brings a new success story in the Kansas City Chiefs secondary.

Somehow a team that graduates one Pro Bowl-level talent after another in free agency is able to continue to employ one of the best young defensive backfields in the entire NFL. It's a testament to the team's incredible organizational health—the accuracy of the front office's scouting work combined with the acumen of their coaching staff to develop those players.

The Chiefs' incredible track record

Think of the defensive backs lost by the Chiefs in the last few years. There's Tyrann Mathieu and Charvarius Ward, Kendall Fuller and Juan Thornhill. This year's key departure was L'Jarius Sneed, a man who literally locked down the best wide receivers in the game last year on a weekly basis as the defense helped carry the Chiefs to their third Super Bowl in five seasons.

Even some of those fleeting stars were examples of the Chiefs' unmatched ability to reload. Sneed himself was a former late-fourth-round find from Louisiana Tech who was handed a tough Week 1 starting role in the wake of Bashaud Breeland's suspension and never returned to the bench. It's Jaylen Watson and Nazeeh Johnson in the seventh round —the same, literal final round. You get the picture.

This year, Chamarri Conner is the man expected to rise to the occasion, last year's mid-round versatile choice who has the coaches raving about him. And of course, even Jaden Hicks from this yera's rookie class is already trying to push others out of the way.

Whether taking a big swing in the first round with Trent McDuffie or Marcus Peters (can't deny the on-field production), or looking in the later rounds, the Chiefs simply don't miss. Or at least they don't miss often. So when they do, it's a bit startling.

So what happened with Kamal Hadden?

Kamal Hadden was the Chiefs' sixth-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, and it's important to make a couple of disclaimers from the outset.

1. Hadden was a sixth-round pick and a late one at that—as in 210 other college football players were taken in the '24 draft before him. Two hundred and ten. No one should be getting too bent out of shape over any team missing anyone taken that late in the draft.

2. In this same draft class, the Chiefs already look like they have a long-term left tackle, a pro-ready safety, and their new deep threat for years to come. That's not to mention whatever Jared Wiley contributes at tight end or whether a couple of young versatile OL prospects can fill depth roles. This is shaping up to be an exemplary draft class.

Beyond that, however, it is weird to see Kamal Hadden on the outside looking in of the Chiefs organization before the season even started.

Hadden came to the Chiefs as a lengthy corner with a nose for the ball and a proven track record of production at a high level as a two-year starter for Tennessee. However, scouts had questions about technique and speed, and it didn't help his draft stock to enter the draft season straight out of shoulder surgery.

The preseason competition vs. Hadden

Hadden came into a position ripe with young talent, even with Sneed in Tennessee, but the recent draft pick status should have given him a slight edge over holdovers or fringe roster players. Instead, it never seemed like Hadden was able to rise above the fray and stand out to spectators or coaches at St. Joseph.

At the time that roster cuts were due, the Chiefs went with last year's seventh-round choice Nic Jones and a rookie free agent in Christian Roland-Wallace as their choices to round out the depth chart. The Chiefs then claimed another corner on waivers in Eric Scott (from the Dallas Cowboys) and cut Jones.

When reassembling their practice squad, it made sense to find Hadden's name there, but here's where things get confusing. Instead of keeping such a recent pick around to see what he can offer, Hadden was simply discarded before his rookie season even began. Three months after taking him, the Chiefs were done. The only DBs on the practice squad were Deon Bush and Keith Taylor.

Hadden's own Twitter tells the story at this point.

It's been quite a while since the Chiefs waved goodbye to a defensive back so soon after drafting him—likely the great KeiVarae Russell back in 2016. Fortunately this is a very rare occurrence for a team so used to scoring big at the position.