PFF ranks Chiefs’ secondary among the league’s top 10 in 2024
PFF ranks Chiefs’ secondary among the league’s top 10 in 2024
On Tuesday, Pro Football Focus writer John Kosko published his ranking of the NFL’s top secondaries for 2024.
Yes... you remember correctly. PFF has already released their ranking of the NFL’s top cornerbacks (in which the Kansas City Chiefs’ Trent McDuffie was ranked second, while his former teammate L’Jarius Sneed ranked 12th) and their list of the league’s 32 top safeties — which didn’t include any of the Chiefs’ players.
Given this information, we might guess Kosko would rank the Kansas City secondary somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Or ninth.
9. Kansas City Chiefs
The defending Super Bowl champions lost shutdown cornerback L’Jarius Sneed in free agency, but they return most of the core that held the team together back when the offense was trying to get going. Trent McDuffie is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, while the rest of the secondary is underrated. Safety Chamarri Conner and cornerback Joshua Williams are not household names, but both graded above 75.2 in coverage in 2023.
Takeaway
When we shared PFF’s safety rankings, I noted that the service might have missed the boat on Kansas City safety Justin Reid.
Among starting safeties (those who played 80% of the snaps in 2023), Reid’s regular-season PFF grade of 57.7 ranks 23rd. At the 50% cutoff, Reid ranks 53rd. So, by PFF’s standards, it’s a stretch for him to be on this list.
But according to Pro Football Reference (among players with at least 50% of the 2023 snaps), Reid allowed a passer rating of 89.7 when targeted (ranking 23rd), a completion percentage of 62.9 (14th), made 95 total tackles (16th) and had a missed tackle percentage of 6.9 (20th).
Then, when we brought you PFF’s cornerback ratings, I suggested that players like Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson could be adequate replacements for Sneed.
So while we can quibble about the details, one thing stands out: the Chiefs had a pair of top cornerbacks taking care of the secondary’s business last season. With one of them now elsewhere, will Kansas City’s younger players be able to step up?
PFF’s data suggests they will. While neither Joshua Williams or Jaylen Watson were on the field enough to make 2023’s 50% list, both turned in decent (if not spectacular) grades of 73.0 and 66.1 respectively.
In 2023, the Kansas City defense allowed 6.0 yards per pass attempt (ranking third) and 6.1 yards per adjusted pass attempt (ranking sixth in the metric is adjusted for interceptions). The defense allowed opposing quarterbacks a total passer rating of 83.6, which ranked seventh in the league.
While I had some issues with PFF’s previous position rankings for these players, this group ranking seems to be within the range of what we should expect in 2024.