{"id":677181,"date":"2026-01-14T18:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/677181\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T18:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:16:17","slug":"usa-today-mock-draft-has-chiefs-drafting-game-changing-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/677181\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Today mock draft has Chiefs drafting game-changing defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There are over three months until the 2026 NFL Draft, but with the <a href=\"http:\/\/arrowheadpride.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u2019 offseason underway, it\u2019s time to consider what draft prospects the Chiefs could select with the ninth overall pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">9. <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=1025X1734621&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fsports%2Fnfl%2Fkansas-city-chiefs\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>: S Caleb Downs, Ohio State<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">The Chiefs have maximized plenty of talent on defense but Downs would be a different story. The Ohio State safety is a force multiplier who can do anything you\u2019d want from the position thanks to his impressive football IQ. It\u2019s not a big-name position but could make this Chiefs secondary frightening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The selection of Downs would be an exciting one, despite the unique position. When safeties are drafted towards the top of the draft, it usually works out well. Here are the most recent examples:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Of course, Chiefs Kingdom was the beneficiary of one of the two highest-drafted safeties in NFL history. In 2010, Kansas City drafted Tennessee safety Eric Berry with the fifth overall pick \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BerrEr99.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a three-time All-Pro career followed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The hype is building around Downs to become the next great NFL safety. With the Chiefs, he would follow in the footsteps of former safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Justin Reid as defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo\u2019s Queen piece on his chessboard of pass defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In this scenario, the top two wide receivers in the draft, along with Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, were drafted before the ninth pick. Kansas City does pass up on Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey for Downs, but the overall impact a game-changing safety could have on the defense may be worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are over three months until the 2026 NFL Draft, but with the Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 offseason underway,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,7,118,110,97807,923,922,2438,2437,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-677181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-mock-drafts","13":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-draft","14":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news","15":"tag-kansascity","16":"tag-kansascitychiefs","17":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115894824791379893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}