{"id":944285,"date":"2026-07-13T08:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/944285\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T08:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:48:18","slug":"could-chiefs-db-nohl-williams-be-kcs-top-breakout-candidate-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/944285\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Chiefs DB Nohl Williams be KC’s top breakout candidate in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 12, 2026, 2:30 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> cornerback Nohl Williams is about to embark on his second season in NFL, and according to ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak,<\/a> the sophomore standout is a prime breakout candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took his rookie lumps last season, but he had plenty of splashy moments against legitimate NFL receivers,\u201d Solak said of Williams. \u201cI’d go so far as to say Williams’ work as a rookie was part of the reason the Chiefs<\/a> felt so comfortable letting (Trent) McDuffie and (Jaylen) Watson out of the building. He’s the next man up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams made five starts last season, recording seven passes defensed and a sack in an impressive rookie campaign. With the two-time All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie and two-time Super Bowl champion Jaylen Watson no longer in Steve Spagnuolo’s defensive backfield, Williams should get ample opportunities to cement his role as one of Kansas City’s top defenders beside veteran L\u2019Jarius Sneed and rookie Mansoor Delane.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 12, 2026, 2:30 p.m. CT Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Nohl Williams is about to embark on his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[95878,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,119552,96828,96829,95882,95892,111584,96540,98072,95896,95888,95895,95906,95883,106869,95881],"class_list":["post-944285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-accessfree","tag-chiefs","tag-football","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-nfl","tag-sourcechiefs-wire","tag-sstssportsnflchiefs","tag-sstsnchiefs","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-tagjaylen-watson","tag-tagkansas-city-chiefs","tag-tagljarius-sneed","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtrent-mcduffie","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116911807089086163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944285","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=944285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}