KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Chiefs no longer have a shortage at safety, not after their recent signings of veterans Jimmy Wilson and Stevie Brown. Five players played significant amounts last season at safety and the Chiefs were down to three after Tyvon Branch departed as a free agent and Husain Abdullah retired.
Now they're back to five, though that doesn't mean the Chiefs are set at safety or that they won't draft a player at that position in an early round. It's not a given that Wilson, who was released by the Chargers during the season last year, or Brown, who didn't play football in 2015, can help.
The signings of Wilson and Brown mean the Chiefs don't feel the pressure of having to draft a safety. General manager John Dorsey's goal is always for the Chiefs to enter the draft without any obvious needs.
Drafting a safety still makes sense for the Chiefs, even if it's not in the first or second round. They haven't drafted a safety since Sanders Commings in the fifth round in 2013. The Chiefs haven't had a shortage at safety because they've done a nice job of filling in with lower-cost veterans such as Branch, Abdullah and Kurt Coleman.
But those players have all been short-term rentals, though Abdullah wound up signing two contracts with the Chiefs and playing three seasons in Kansas City. The Chiefs are seemingly always in scramble mode for backup safeties because of it.
Drafting and developing a safety this year would get them out of that mode.
