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3 Chiefs Expected To Battle For CB2 Job

Originally posted on Pro Football Rumors
By Connor Byrne | Last updated Jun 22, 2026 3:57 PM ET

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There has been major movement in the Chiefs’ cornerback group since the offseason began. Previous starters Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson are still teammates, but they are no longer Chiefs. They traded McDuffie to the Rams in an early March blockbuster. Less than a week later, Watson followed McDuffie to Los Angeles on a three-year, $51MM contract in free agency.

The Chiefs responded to the McDuffie and Watson departures near the top of the draft in April, when they traded up from nine to six in the first round to grab former LSU star Mansoor Delane. While Delane is recovering from a shoulder injury, he should be fine by the time Chiefs rookies report to training camp on July 24.

A healthy Delane is fully expected to start in his first season, but there will be a three-way battle for the other spot this summer. L’Jarius Sneed, Kristian Fulton and Nohl Williams are likely to vie for the role, per Nate Taylor of ESPN.

The longest track record of success belongs to Sneed, now in his second stint with the Chiefs. Sneed was a key cog in Kansas City throughout his original run there from 2020-23. He started in 54 of 57 regular-season games, deflected 40 passes, intercepted 10, and won a pair of Super Bowls. But the Chiefs, unwilling to make a pricey long-term commitment to Sneed, moved on in a March 2024 trade with the Titans.

Giving up a third-round pick and immediately awarding Sneed a four-year, $76.4MM deal went down as regrettable decisions for Tennessee, which got little from him. He played just 12 games and went without an interception in two years with the club. With Sneed only halfway into his contract, the Titans released him in March. Sneed sat on the open market for about three months before returned to the Chiefs on a one-year deal worth up to $5MM earlier in June.

Like Sneed, Fulton is a former Titan. Fulton started in Tennessee from 2020-23, but a few days after he joined the Chargers in free agency, the team brought in Sneed as a replacement. Meanwhile, Fulton only played a year in Los Angeles, where he started in 14 of 15 games. He parlayed that into a two-year, $20MM agreement with the Chiefs in March 2025, but the first season of the pact did not go according to plan.

Fulton suffered an ankle injury in Week 2, though the Chiefs also made him a healthy scratch on multiple occasions. He wound up playing just eight games (two starts) and 20% of defensive snaps. During his limited time on the field, Fulton failed to add to his career INT total (five), though he only yielded a 55.6% completion rate and a passer rating of 81.7 on 18 targets.

In the event Fulton does not claim a prominent role this summer, the Chiefs could release him and save $5MM in cap room. That will depend in part on whether Sneed and/or Williams push him down the depth chart in camp.

As a third-round rookie last year, Williams played a full 17-game season and started five times. While taking the field for just under 44% of defensive snaps, the 6-foot-1, 200-pounder made 48 tackles, deflected seven passes, and gave up a 52.5% completion rate and an 82.9 passer rating on 40 targets. Williams’ work impressed Pro Football Focus, which ranked his play 17th among 110 qualifiers at the position.

Little went right last year for the Chiefs, who stumbled to a 6-11 record and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014. While the team had an unexpectedly large number of issues, its pass defense was not high on the list. The Chiefs finished a respectable 12th in passing yards allowed and 15th in EPA, but achieving similar or better marks this year will hinge in part on the performances of two new starting corners.

This article first appeared on Pro Football Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

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