Pro Football Focus has released their ranking of all team’s secondaries in 2016 and the Kansas City Chiefs come out as the tenth best in the National Football League. With an exception or two, I would agree. Here’s what PFF had to say about the Chiefs secondary:
“Safety Eric Berry finished 2016 with the sixth highest grade among safeties at 89.2 marking the third time in four years he has graded out within the top 10 of all safeties. Fellow safety Ron Parker had his best season grade-wise finishing as the 23rd graded safety with an 81.9 overall grade. Marcus Peters is an exciting young corner who had 17 combined pass breakups and interceptions last season, tied for the second-most in the league, however fellow projected starter Phillip Gaines finished 2016 ranked 117th of 119 qualified cornerbacks at overall grades at the position, and the Chiefs did not make any significant additions to this unit via free agency or the draft.”
Here are the top ten according to PFF.
- New York Giants
- New England Patriots
- Seattle Seahawks
- Denver Broncos
- Atlanta Falcons
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Baltimore Ravens
- Minnesota Vikings
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Kansas City Chiefs
Here’s what I take issue with one of their selections: the San Angeles Chargers.
The obvious weak link there is Verrett and while I like the other DBs in this group, I don’t think they outweigh Berry, Parker, Peters and Mitchell. Mitchell is the hitch in the giddy-up for PFF because they don’t even mention him but list Phillip Gaines in the other CB position for comparison with all other league secondaries. If Mitchell turns out to be “that” guy then the Chiefs will likely move up on this list several slots.
Here’s the rest of PFF’s Secondary Ranking for 2016:
- 11. Arizona Cardinals
- 12. Pittsburgh Steelers
- 13. Houston Texans
- 14. Oakland Raiders
- 15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 16. Green Bay Packers
- 17. Detroit Lions
- 18. Cincinnati Bengals
- 19. Miami Dolphins
- 20. Tennessee Titans
- 21. Washington Redskins
- 22. Carolina Panthers
- 23. Dallas Cowboys
- 24. Los Angeles Rams
- 25. San Francisco 49ers
- 26. Buffalo Bills
- 27. Cleveland Browns
- 28. N.Y. Jets
- 29.Indianapolis Colts
- 30. Chicago Bears
- 31. New Orleans Saints
- 32. Philadelphia Eagles
By looking over the rankings for Berry, Peters and Parker, you can understand why K.C is ranked in the top ten. However, it’s not enough to simply declare that Terrance Mitchell “should” be the starter next year, although I think he should, because you can tell from the snaps in the following graph that Mitchell played about one-fourth… maybe only one-fifth… of the season so his sample size — although excellent — doesn’t tell whether or not he’ll be able to bring it all year long.
However, there’s time to improve your secondary if you want to… not that I think the Chiefs need any upgrades there at the moment. There are a few free agents out there like Darrelle Revis, Brandon Flowers and Sam Shields at the corner position and Jarius Byrd, Isa Abdul-Quddus, and Aaron Williams at Safety.
PFF is not the only ranking service in our neighborhood ya know! Sports on Earth ranked the secondaries in the NFL in May and our Kansas City Chiefs came out at… drum roll please… #7 overall. Here’s their top ten:
- Broncos
- Seahawks
- Patriots
- Giants
- Vikings
- Cardinals
- Chiefs
- Ravens
- Falcons
- Jags
This sounds more like it. Sports on Earth mentions the following players for the Chiefs: Eric Berry, Marcus Peters, Ron Parker, Phillip Gaines, DJ White, Daniel Sorensen, Eric Murray, Steven Nelson, Kenneth Acker. Once again, no mention of Terrance Mitchell. Mitchell should make this unit a top five unit… barring injury (knock on wood) by the end of the season.
What do you think Chiefs fans? Does the Chiefs DB unit hold up to scrutiny? Where would you rank them? I think the secondary and the OL units are the strength of this team. How about you?
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