Kansas City Chiefs: Organization failed to address cornerback during the offseason

The Kansas City Chiefs have a major concern at the cornerback position outside of Kendall Fuller. Did Brett Veach drop the ball on fixing the issue?

The Kansas City Chiefs defense has looked atrocious on the back end of the defense this offseason. The most recent came from the Chiefs loss to the Chicago Bears on Saturday afternoon. Chicago decided to sit their starting players to get a better look at their number two unit against Kansas City’s starting lineups.

The outcome was horrifying. While we can talk about how the game doesn’t matter considering its preseason, it’s impossible not to have a high level of concern when talking about the back end of the defense.

Bears backup quarterback Chase Daniel dominated the starting Chiefs defense throwing for 15 of 18, 198 yards and two touchdowns. He also scrambled for another 47 yards. Even being surrounded by backup offensive talent, Daniel was able to obliterate the Chiefs starting defense.

We can also talk about the players that were missing from the game on the defensive side of the ball and use that as an excuse for being unable to stop the Bears. Allen Bailey, Eric Berry, Daniel Sorensen, Steven Nelson, and Xavier Williams were all out for the third preseason game. Chris Jones was only on the field for a short amount of time.

More from Kansas City Chiefs

While this is true that the defense likely would have looked better with all of these players on the field, it doesn’t get rid of the fact that outside of Kendall Fuller, the secondary looked dreadful.

David Amerson continues to get burned time and time again, Orlando Scandrick bit hard on a double move that ended up being a wide open touchdown, and the safeties struggled for most of the game outside of a couple of flashes. Scandrick is still learning the defense as he just signed last week, but are we expecting him to be the solution to all of the Chiefs secondary problems?

I talked about Scandrick on the Arrowhead Report Chiefs podcast last Friday and why I think that he should be a starter on this roster. While Scandrick is far from being a top cornerback in this league, he’s better than having Amerson get outrun by every single wide receiver that lines up across from him.

The only returning cornerback from last season’s roster is Steven Nelson. For a very short while, the cornerback position looked like it would be a strength until Kansas City dealt Marcus Peters away for very little in return.

Looking at the issue and what the Chiefs had returning, the team should have been much more aggressive at finding talent to fill the secondary with. Instead, the Chiefs kept guys like Keith Reaser and the only real signing in free agency was David Amerson. With the money left over from trading former quarterback Alex Smith, the Chiefs had the room to go out and grab one of the top cornerbacks in free agency.

Guys like Trumaine Johnson, Malcolm Butler, Patrick Robinson, and Aaron Colvin are just some of the names that hit the market this offseason. All of which would be an upgrade over David Amerson and Orlando Scandrick. Instead, the organization spent that money to sign wide receiver Sammy Watkins and inside linebacker Anthony Hitchens.

I’m not against either signing, but the amount of money that each received is concerning.

Sammy Watkins signed a three year, $48 million deal

which includes a $21 million signing bonus. He will average out at $16 million per year.

Anthony Hitchens signed a five year, $45 million deal

Once again, I’m not against signing either player. I think that both are huge contributors come the regular season. Inside linebacker next to Reggie Ragland was a significant need in the middle of the defense. Was wide receiver a position of absolute urgency that the Chiefs needed to spend that much on Sammy Watkins?

With up and coming talent like Chris Conley who never got a chance to shine under with Alex Smith and Demarcus Robinson, I fail to see why the team didn’t spend some of that money on a cornerback. However, I’m excited to see what Watkins can do when he learns more of the offense and develops and chemistry with Patrick Mahomes.

Without addressing the cornerback position in free agency, I thought for sure that Brett Veach would be aggressive finding one in the draft. Instead, he waited until the sixth round to select Tremon Smith and then sign UDFA Arrion Springs following the draft. Both seem like they could be good starting players, but neither are ready to contribute right away.

Must Read. Chiefs 53-man roster predictions 2.0. light

Instead, the team grabbed players that would help up front. Breeland Speaks, Derrick Nnadi, and Dorian O’Daniel all look like potential starters come late season or next year. Nnadi is the most pro-ready player at defensive tackle. Speaks doesn’t look like he is ready to start Week 1 against the Chargers with Dee Ford still in the starting role and Tanoh Kpassagnon showing development from last year.

The draft was loaded with cornerback talent. While the Chiefs didn’t have a selection until the second round, there were still talented cornerbacks that might have been able to start right away. At the very least, be better than David Amerson.

Isaiah Oliver out of Colorado was a player that I was high on as a second-round cornerback. He possessed the aggressive, ball hawk talent that the Chiefs need after letting go of Marcus Peters. He has the length and size to battle with bigger wide receivers as well.

While its still just the preseason and we shouldn’t take anything we see too seriously, I can’t help but be worried about the secondary. Given the fact that the Chiefs have a tough first half of the season, they also play some of the best quarterbacks in the league in the first quarter of the season.

I fail to see how the Chiefs are supposed to win against these playoff caliber teams that they will face during the first half of the season if their cornerbacks are consistently getting torched. It’s not the fact that the team traded away Peters for close to nothing in return, it’s the fact that the organization failed to bring in talent to help the position after letting their top five NFL cornerback leave.

Fuller is a great addition, but we are once again looking at a cornerback group that is one player and a bunch of other guys. That was the primary issue last year as they struggled so much that they felt the need to sign Darrelle Revis late in the season. Now we see Orlando Scandrick being signed halfway through the preseason.

Top 15 Wide Receivers To Target In 2018. dark. Next

If Kansas City’s secondary looks like it did last season, we could blame Bob Sutton to only some extent. At some point, we have to look at Brett Veach and why he didn’t address likely the most significant need for the team all offseason.

Home/Kansas City Chiefs