The 10 best cornerbacks in Kansas City Chiefs history

You know you're referencing a loaded position for a franchise when the list of those who didn't make the top 10 is quite impressive. When considering cornerbacks for the Kansas City Chiefs, it would make sense to mention the likes of Charvarius Ward and L'Jarius Sneed, Brandon Carr and Eric Warfield, Willie Mitchell and Duane Wood. But you'll find none of them here.

Instead, we have a list that features the team's brightest young star alongside the best tandem in team history and some Hall of Famers. There's also one player who did his best to be a secret agent after signing with a rival. It's quite a list, so let's get right to it.

Criteria for Selection

For the most part, we allowed a player's stats to do much of the heavy lifting, including interceptions, pressures, completion percentage allowed, touchdowns allowed, etc. In many cases, longevity won out over short-term performers since the position of corner can be rather volatile from year to year due to so many factors (quality of competition, health, talent of surrounding defenders, officiating).

The 10 best cornerbacks in Chiefs history

10b. Trent McDuffie

Most of Chiefs Kingdom would likely tell you Trent McDuffie will end up much higher on this list when all is said and done. We're inclined to agree, but given that he's played a total of 1.5 seasons in the NFL so far (remember he was injured for the first several games of his rookie campaign), it's going to have to be enough that's he's eked into the top 10 halfway through his rookie deal.

The truth is that McDuffie has been revelatory in his role as a lockdown corner for the Chiefs. While no one doubted his NFL readiness after he was so well-coached at the University of Washington, it's still hard to believe just how well he's played in Steve Spagnuolo's defense—oftentimes against much bigger receivers when tasked to play on the boundary.

Some outsiders might wonder why so much has been made of a guy who has yet to intercept his first NFL pass, but McDuffie's five forced fumbles in 2023 and 14 career deflections prove his knack for making plays on the ball. And as for coverage, McDuffie can shut down the best of them. Case in point: Super Bowl LV, in which he allowed nine yards on seven targets thrown his way. He made his first All-Pro team in 2023, but it won't be his last.

10a. Brandon Flowers

Alongside the likes of running back Jamaal Charles and offensive lineman Branden Albert, the 2008 Chiefs draft class brought the Brandons to Kansas City—a pair of cornerbacks taken in the second and fifth rounds who both became Day 1 starters for head coach Todd Haley.

Brandon Carr was the longer shot of the two as a fifth-round, small-school prospect. For our purposes, Brandon Flowers was the more certain prospect of the two as an accomplished player out of Virginia Tech taken in the second round.

Flowers went on to play six full seasons in Kansas City before being allowed to leave in free agency in 2014—when he signed with the Chargers. During his nine-year NFL career, he earned two lucrative extensions—one from each team—due to his consistent ability to keep the play in front of him. He closed his tenure in K.C. with 17 interceptions and one Pro Bowl appearance. He signed a one-day contract with the Chiefs in '22 to retire with the team.

9. Kevin Ross

Perhaps the scariest secondary ever witnessed by Chiefs fans came during a stretch in the late-'80s when Albert Lewis and Kevin Ross anchored the boundaries. Together with safeties Deron Cherry and Lloyd Burruss, all four were Pro Bowl performers at some point and made life miserable for most opposing quarterbacks.

For his part, Ross enjoyed the chance to play opposite Lewis (we'll get there) for so many years, and he made quarterbacks pay for deciding to throw his way instead. His physical style upset the timing and routes of even the best receivers, and Ross' 30 interceptions serve as proof positive that he could make plays on the ball too.

As a defender, Ross had a rare nose for the end zone with five interceptions returned for a score. He also had touchdowns on two blocked field goals, a blocked punt, and one fumble recovery. For a seventh-round selection, that sort of return is a rare gift, and it's why he was the 2011 inductee into the Chiefs Hall of Fame.

8. Jim Marsalis

When the Chiefs made Jim Marsalis their first-round selection in the 1969 NFL Draft, they were hoping the Tennessee State product (then known as Tennessee A&I) would provide commensurate value down the road. To their surprise, Marsalis had the goods to make an instant impact at the professional level.

Marsalis went right to work in the Chiefs secondary and came away with the Defensive Rookie of the Year award following a campaign in which his physical style of play gave receivers fits. He went on to make the Pro Bowl in his first two seasons and helped the Chiefs put away the Vikings for their first Super Bowl title in '70.

Marsalis started every game for the next four seasons and played a total of eight years in the league, his last with the New Orleans Saints. He had six fumble recoveries and 14 interceptions in his career with the Chiefs.

7. Dave Grayson

It's a shame the Chiefs couldn't hang on to Dave Grayson, because we might have a different person at the top of this list.

Grayson came into the NFL as a player deemed too small to succeed in the NFL (5-foot-10, 187 pounds), but Dallas Texans head coach Hank Stram was asked to look into a diminutive defensive back and returner with a track background and came away impressed enough to sign the undrafted free agent to a contract. For the next four seasons, Grayson proved to be a true ballhawk for the Texans-turned-Chiefs.

Unfortunately, the Oakland Raiders offered up Fred Williamson, affectionately known as the Hammer, in a player-for-player swap, and the Chiefs accepted. Just like that, they lost the AFL's all-time leader in interceptions for the next six seasons as the Raiders transitioned the former corner to free safety.

Between his tenures in K.C. and Oakland, Grayson went to six Pro Bowls and earned five All-Pro nods with 48 career interceptions (five returned for touchdowns). He also holds the AFL's all-time record with a 99-yard interception return.

6. Gary Green

If you want to know how dangerous Gary Green could be for an opposing offense, just know that former Raiders great Cliff Branch once admitted the team's primary rule coming into Arrowhead was to never throw Green's way.

The Chiefs took Green at No. 10 overall in the 1977 NFL Draft and were rewarded with seven total seasons of high-caliber coverage in the secondary. He intercepted 24 passes and made five All-Pro rosters and four Pro Bowl teams.

The Baylor grad eventually found himself traded to the Rams to play out his twilight years, but not before he had enjoyed a truly spectacular career with the Chiefs.

5. James Hasty

Longevity is a rare thing in the National Football League, but some players age like a fine wine—an odd Benjamin Button sort of gift with which a player puts up his finest seasons far after his twilight should have come calling. James Hasty is one such veteran.

The Chiefs kicked off free agency in '95 by signing three former New York Jets, the best of which was Hasty. The 1988 third-round pick had a streak of 103 consecutive starts before joining Kansas City, so few expected him to play another 94 games for the Chiefs. However, Hasty settled right into Gunther Cunningham's defensive scheme and played his best football.

Hasty went on to make his only two Pro Bowls with the Chiefs in 1997 and 1999 and led the NFL in interceptions in the latter with seven. With 21 interceptions in K.C. after grabbing 24 with the Jets, he put up the sort of career totals that warrant conversation for all-time greatness. Here, he settles into the Chiefs' top five as an unlikely vet who played lights-out football through his mid-30s.

4. Marcus Peters

Some fans will have a hard time with pretty much anywhere Marcus Peters lands on this list because of the mercurial cornerback's relationship with Chiefs Kingdom and some of the fan base. But it's impossible to ignore the tremendous talents of the 2015 first-round pick.

John Dorsey had the right vision in mind for the sort of on-field impact a pick like Peters would provide for the Chiefs defense. Peters was nothing short of sensational in his first couple of seasons in the league with back-to-back first-team All-Pro appearances to go with a Defensive Rookie of the Year award for leading the NFL with eight interceptions during his first season.

Peters was a machine at creating turnovers, and even though his style was too much for the more risk-averse, there was no denying his ability to shift a game's momentum at any moment. Unfortunately, dealing with him as a person proved to be too much for the coaches involved, and the front office took action by flipping him to the L.A. Rams for draft assets.

Peters made three more appearances on Pro Bowl rosters and All-Pro teams from 2018 to 2020, seasons spent between the Rams and Ravens in his prime. These days, he's a free agent waiting for an employer after starting 12 games for the Raiders a year ago.

3. Dale Carter

Marcus Peters isn't the only entry around here with character concerns. But fortunately for the Chiefs, Dale Carter saved most of his questionable decisions for his stint with the Denver Broncos.

When it comes to his on-field talents, no one can question placing Dale Carter in the top three corners to ever play for the Chiefs. He was the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year after the team made him its first-round selection (No. 20 overall) in the 1992 NFL Draft. That season, he had seven fumble recoveries and seven interceptions with weekly lessons for opposing quarterbacks to believe the reports that said to avoid him.

Carter made four consecutive Pro Bowls from 1994 to 1997 and two All-Pro teams in that span during a run of greatness that's rarely been matched. In his prime, he was a lockdown corner anchoring the Chiefs secondary—as good as any corner in the league in the mid-'90s. And as he came to the end of his 20s, after seven seasons in K.C., Denver lured him away with a big-money deal.

As for his time with the Broncos, it's almost as if Carter was still a Chief at heart with an uninspired level of play in his first season compared to previous years before being suspended a full year for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Given his ability to disappoint a rival and eat up so much of their salary cap, we think Carter has this third slot locked up.

2. Albert Lewis

There's a real Hall of Fame case to be made here, even if it's a bit out of the norm.

For the uninitiated, it's important to first establish Lewis as a dynamic cornerback whose 38 career interceptions rank fifth all-time on the Chiefs' career lists—second among cornerbacks. Shortly after the Chiefs drafted him in the third round out of Grambling State in 1983, he went right to work as a long-term asset in the team's secondary—to the tune of 150 games in 11 seasons.

While Lewis was a exemplary corner who was named to four Pro Bowls from 1987-90, he was also an all-time great special teams player. In fact, his mark of 12 blocked kicks (11 punts, one field goal) is an NFL record. Gil Brandt ranked Lewis among his best 24 cornerbacks ever, while Tony Dungy said Canton should come calling for Lewis one day.

Lewis went on to play another five seasons for the Raiders, giving him nearly two full decades in the league. Such longevity mixed with his impact on defense and special teams make him the second-best corner to have ever played for the Chiefs.

1. Emmitt Thomas

What makes Emmitt Thomas so amazing is not just his astronomic career numbers that place him atop franchise all-time lists. It's the fact that even fans of this current golden age of Chiefs football are still applauding his excellent work—this time as a coach.

Thomas is not only the greatest cornerback to ever play for the Chiefs in their storied history but also a vital positional coach in the secondary for K.C. from 2010-18. During that time, he worked with the likes of Marcus Peters, Sean Smith, Marcus Cooper, Kendall Fuller, and Charvarius Ward—instilling in them what he'd learned in decades as a player and coach.

As for Thomas's on-field production, he's No. 12 on the NFL's all-time list of interceptions leaders with 58—a total that also ranks as the best in Chiefs history. After leading the entire AFL with 12 in 1969, he also proved his mettle in bigger games with an interception in Super Bowl IV.

Considering Thomas worked at the coordinator level for years in Washington, Philadelphia, and Minnesota, the Chiefs were so fortunate to have an accomplished figure like him in a positional role. Together with his playing days, it means he is unquestionably the top corner in the team's history.