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NEW ORLEANS -- After losing in the AFC title game to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs entered the offseason with a lot of work to do. Specifically, they had a lot of work to do in the defensive backfield. They had four different starters or high-level contributors entering free agency, with Charvarius Ward, Tyrann Mathieu, Mike Hughes and Daniel Sorensen each seeing their contracts expire at the end of the year.
And because the Chiefs had spent so much money and draft capital dramatically re-shaping their offensive line after the previous year's Super Bowl loss -- signing Joe Thuney, trading for Orlando Brown Jr., drafting Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith -- they were going to have to reshape the defensive back room on a budget. There wasn't a lot of money to throw around.
So, the Chiefs did something fairly unusual: They threw almost all of their draft capital at the problem. Kansas City had 10 draft picks in 2022, and used FIVE of them on defensive backs: first-round cornerback Trent McDuffie, second-round safety Bryan Cook, fourth-round corner Joshua Williams and seventh-round corners Jaylen Watson and Nazeeh Johnson.
When you remake an entire position group in one offseason, there's always going to be a sense of pressure, but there's also opportunity.
"Our coach, he told us from Day 1 that we're gonna do something special for this franchise," Watson said. "Of course, we didn't think it would be to this extent, but it's been great. You get to come in with your brothers, you're not a lonely rookie in the DB room. We all got to learn together. It was a great thing."
Three years later, McDuffie is one of the small handful of the NFL's best corners. Cook is a starter next to Justin Reid at safety. Watson had the best year of his career when he wasn't out with an injury, and his return coincided with Kansas City's defense showing late-season improvement after a mid-year lull against the pass. And according to McDuffie, it all started back in that 2022 offseason.
"Going back to rookie year, OTAs and minicamp, just how much we bonded, how much we stuck together, how much everybody truly just wants the best for each other," McDuffie said. "I've never been in a place that's surrounded by people like that, that come in each and every day as pros and as people that want to get better, but also just want to see each other succeed."
They've all succeeded to varying degrees throughout their respective careers, with McDuffie being the most decorated among them.
He was an immediate starter and has developed into an All-Pro, making first team in 2023 and second team in 2024. He's shown the ability to play both on the perimeter and in the slot, to cover at an elite level, to blitz and to make plays in the run game. There is, in short, apparently nothing that he can't do.
"He's just a technician, man," Watson said his teammate. "He does everything the right way. In the building, on the field, off the field. He just brings it every day and you see it on the field."
Cook, meanwhile, was the team's third safety as a rookie and has been a full-time starter since, and this season played a career-high 90% of the defensive snaps. Williams has been a rotational contributor for all three years of his career, while Watson began as one but this season took over the starting job across from McDuffie and excelled in the role. Johnson, meanwhile, didn't play a single defensive snap in 2022 and missed the 2023 season, but played nearly half the team's defensive snaps this year while filling in for Watson when he missed time with an injury.
"Everyone brings something different," Watson said of the group. "Cook, he's the voice of the room. He knows how to get everyone going. Josh is the one that keeps the whole room laughing and keeps positive energy. And so does N.J."
When you have so many players from the same position group come into the league at the same time, though, there is naturally going to be some stratification in roles. Not everybody can be on the field at once -- especially when four of them play the same position. But that apparently hasn't affected them at all.
"The biggest thing I'm grateful for is that everybody stuck together," McDuffie said. "When five [defensive backs] are drafted, you know some guys will start, some guys only play in certain situations. But in my three years here, my experience is that everybody's a pro. Everybody wants the best for each other and everybody's waiting for when their moment comes."
