Kansas City Chiefs: What do changes at safety mean for secondary?

The Kansas City Chiefs cut down their roster to 53 players on Saturday afternoon, but not without bringing in some players at the safety position.

The Kansas City Chiefs have plenty of concern about their safety positions going into the regular season. It’s obvious considering how the team acknowledges Daniel Sorensen‘s injury and bringing in players from other teams to help in a position of need.

Brett Veach spoke to the media explaining that he hopes Daniel Sorensen will be back and ready for the second half of the season. Sorensen was supposed to be the starting answer at free safety next to Eric Berry after the release of Ron Parker early in the offseason. Unfortunately, Sorensen broke his tibia and tore his meniscus damaging his MCL during training camp.

Kansas City tried many options at the safety position this preseason. Without Berry or Sorensen on the field, the young safeties had every opportunity to win the job. Leon McQuay and Eric Murray spent most of the preseason as the starting duo in the back of the defense, but both failed to show any signs of promise. Rookie Armani Watts doesn’t seem to be as far along as the Chiefs hoped, but looked better than Murray and McQuay if you ask me.

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Given that Andy Reid spoke on Berry’s return as “day to day,” it wasn’t a shock that the team went out and brought in more talent. The first was returning Ron Parker to Kansas City after being cut from the Atlanta Falcons during the 53-man roster cuts. Parker was one of the players that struggled without Berry on the field last year, having the worst season arguably of his career.

Without other options, Kansas City brought back a player that already knows the defense and can step in right away. If Berry is able to go against the Los Angeles Chargers, maybe we will see improvement from Parker over last season. If not, I’m not feeling too high on him returning and taking away snaps from Watts. When Reid was asked about Parker’s return and his expectations, here is what he said:

"“I thought Ron (Parker) really had a good camp. He had that high ankle sprain last year with us and I thought it slowed him down a little bit. He powered through it because that’s Ron. I thought that you could see that he wasn’t as limited during the preseason as he labored through that thing last year. He knows the system and the scheme. He can come in and he’s a good communicator, we got a lot of trust in him. We like Ron.”"

Veach also made a trade with the Miami Dolphins during cutdown period to acquire safety Jordan Lucas. The former Dolphin seems perfect for Kansas City depth as he’s not only a hard working safety that still needs some development, but also a special teams star.

Even after a great preseason showing, Lucas was unable to unseat the starting safeties in Miami. Kansas City might have found a player that they can develop with their other young safeties in hopes of finding a gem in a haystack. Remember, he doesn’t have to be great, but better than what we’ve seen from Murray and McQuay this preseason.

I wouldn’t expect to see Lucas playing on defense anytime soon, however. Veach seems to want him for his special team’s contributions calling him one of Miami’s best teams guy. His development will be interesting to watch as it’s another cornerback converted to safety joining the Kansas City roster.

I’m still not sold on the safety group leading up to the regular season. If Berry is unable to go to start the season off, I worry about what some of these offenses will be able to put together against this weak secondary. I’m hoping that Parker can improve from last season’s disaster, or at least provide enough until Sorensen can return fully healthy instead of rushing him back.

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