ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The Chiefs are seeking a cornerback to stake their claim to the starting position opposite Trent McDuffie, and defensive backs coach Dave Merritt explained why he wants to see one of his young pupils separate themselves from the crowd.
“You want someone to step up and be able to claim that position and not have a guy rotating and always looking over his shoulder,” Merritt said after practice Wednesday. “We’re looking for the same thing.”
It’s not that Merritt has a lack of candidates for the starting cornerback job. Joshua Williams started training camp on the right side of the defense opposite McDuffie. Veteran Kelvin Joseph had a brief stint in the role before a hamstring injury slowed his progress. Jaylen Watson is auditioning for the role now that he’s been cleared following offseason shoulder surgery, and Merritt didn’t rule out Nazeeh Johnson entering the conversation as he continues working his way back from a torn ACL.
“(Johnson) is coming off of his injuries, and so what he’s doing is he’s coming back very strong,” Merritt said. “And so he was out there today with the ones, and he’s been repping with the ones, and so I look forward to Nazeeh just continuing to, you know, ascend.”
Merritt says what he’s looking for from his young cornerbacks in consistency.
“Consistency in practice, consistency in technique, as well as consistency and understanding and knowing the calls,” Merrritt said. “So you can feel when a guy is ready to take over and just take it, not saying that he’s going to be clean in everything that he does. But once you see a guy consistently day in and day out, all right, not having the big lows, the big drops, you know that, hey, this guy may be ready to go.”
If the Chiefs need to enter the season in a rotation matching up against opponents each week, Merritt is ready to adjust. He’s confident in his 2021 draft class consisting of McDuffie, Williams, Watson and Johnson as well as safety Bryan Cook getting the job done.
“We have a great thing going here, because, you know, the Fab Five, all those guys have played a lot,” Merritt explained. “And so with 35 and 2, Josh and Jalen, you know, either guy that goes in there and starts for us — you have to understand, we normally play six DBs on the field, all right, sometimes five, because the NFL puts out three wide receivers, and so these both the guys are starters anyway. So we’re really just talking about base personnel when it’s just two wide receivers in the game.”
