Once Breeland and Ward return, this secondary will go from a perceived weakness to start the season to a position of strength, with depth that will rival the defensive line.
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It's starting to look like one of those "Titans loss" things that really seemed to suck at the time but actually helped us out a lot.

It got us Suggs by lifting us above the Ravens and Saints in the waiver order, and it clearly lit a fire under some asses.

A healthy, non-suspended secondary and I don't think Sneed is getting run right now. I almost wonder if he'd have seen the field at all - the staff spoke really highly of Hamilton and we know their affinity for Fenton. If you have Ward, Breeland, Hamilton and Fenton healthy, the #5 corner just isn't getting snaps. Not with how Spags uses Mathieu in the slot and/or Sorensen as a 3rd safety.

But he's been a revelation out there. And sure, there's gonna be some rough patches, but he's proven he can play in this league. And I think his athleticism will REALLY play in the slot if/when he ends up there on Ward/Breeland's return.

You can't just put a shifty fast guy off the line and trust that a clean release will get him into space, not with Sneed's recovery speed.

At that point you'll have to worry about him getting beat on double moves, but that's where having a fast safety like Thornhill and a savvy one like Mathieu around to cover for errors will really help.

This secondary is going to look really nice in a few weeks.
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Should be strong in the backhalf:

Breeland
Ward
Mathieu 50% of the time
Sneed
Fenton / Hamilton
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A 35.7 QB Rating against will play, fella...
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Damn right! :-)

Yeah, the table did a bad job of clarifying that it is indeed QB rating against.
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I was excited that Rashad Fenton performed better than expected last year and Sneed is out performing that.

Dane's right, the secondary is going to be a strength very soon.
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At some point you have to acknowledge that Spags is just really fucking good at getting the most out of his corners.

I’m sure there will still be people bitching if we don’t take a corner early next year though.
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It's already begun
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Honestly, I still think it's pretty hard to argue that Sutton didn't get more out of his corners than their talent dictated.

He made Nelson a very wealthy man and Peters, as good as he is, has never been as good as he was here. Sean Smith, Marcus Cooper, Terrance Mitchell - he made chicken salad out of chicken shit several times.

The difference may end up being staying power. If Spags can get guys like Sneed to be more than the one-year wonder types that Gaines, Cooper and Mitchell proved to be (even Nelson was never truly consistent), that would be enormous.
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This may be a bit early in the game to make this kind of statement because he's only been the GM since 2018, but it seems as if Veach is better at identifying talent for the Jim Johnson/Steve Spagnuolo scheme better than Dorsey was at identifying talent for Sutton's scheme.

Considering Veach spent nearly a decade of his career helping to identify talent in Philly, it makes sense that he has a very good idea of what and who will work in this particular defense. And it's not just been at cornerback, as we've seen him hit on safety, third and fifth round defensive linemen and so on.

I still can't figure out what's going on with him at linebacker. Is it that the Chiefs and this defense just don't put an emphasis (i.e., draft value) at the linebacker position in this scheme or that they just haven't felt the need to make it priority?

In a way, their indifference to spending high draft picks and big time free agent money at linebacker is similar to the way they've prioritized offensive lineman. They've spent big bucks on Schwartz and on Hitchens, although I should add that Andy knows the exact skillset he wants from his big guys, and can basically grab soon-to-be effective players anywhere, including late in the draft or as UDFA's.

But the linebacker thing is somewhat of a mystery.
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Which would be so odd as Spags will tell anyone that listens that the 2 hardest roles on his defenses are DE and LB.

In terms of read keys and positioning, his defense flows from those 2 spots. He hammers on how critical they are in this scheme.

I wonder if they'll spend money but not draft capital on the spots because he wants to see how guys thing through the game at THIS level before he'll trust them.

Or maybe he's just working with what he has and the Chiefs see too much sunk cost in Hitchens.
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It's interesting, isn't it? And while I certainly don't hate on the guy, as some signings just do not work out, but wow, is that Hitchens contract bad or what??!

Considering the cap floor may be $175 million next year (although I highly doubt it'll be that low), they can't even begin to think about releasing him until 2022.

That was maybe the worst free agent signing after extending Eric Berry. Even the $4 million Dorsey inexplicably wasted by cutting, then re-signing Hali to a 3 year, $21 million dollar deal, pales in comparison.
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It IS, but they did draft Gay in the 2nd round. So clearly they were seeking an upgrade. I agree though it is confusing.
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Yeah - for as much shit as Dorsey gets for his FA acquisitions, Veach's aren't much to sing about.

Sammy's catch on Sherman erases all sins there, but man, Okafor and Hitchens look roooough. Mathieu is looking like Veach's Schwartz, but Schwartz was a stud AND below market. Mathieu is playing to his deal while Schwartz played far beyond it.

And where Veach has stood out on budget signings, Dorsey did alright there as well.

Though you're right that Veach doesn't have whatever the hell that Hali thing was. I really think they thought Houston was healthy when they let that option void and took the cap hit. Then they learned shortly afterward that he wasn't and panicked. It's the only kind of explanation I can come up with that makes any sense.

The Houston thing HAD to have screwed their pooch there.
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The Hitchens contract was horrible the instant he was signed. It NEVER made sense.
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