In what has been a wild NFL Draft, Trent McDuffie became the third cornerback off the board, after Derek Stingley went third overall to the Houston Texans, and Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner went fourth overall to the New York Jets, we had to wait a long time for the next cornerback to come off the board, but this is a great pick for the Kansas City Chiefs.

A scout I spoke to called McDuffie, “One of the smartest players in the entire draft. McDuffie does all the little things right from instincts, awareness, and form tackling. He has excellent eyes for zone coverage and a quick twitch body to make plays on the ball. Despite his size, he can handle starting on the outside at the next level, but offers versatility for any DB room,” and while the Patriots broke this fan’s heart, the Chiefs filled a major need with the best player available at the position.

In a stacked division where the Chiefs will have to see Justin Herbert, Russell Wilson, and Derek Carr at quarterback six times a year. And they won’t just be seeing top-tier starting quarterbacks in the AFC West, the receivers in the division now include Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, Jerry Jeudy, and Courtland Sutton.

The Chiefs’ secondary currently has a solid building block at corner in Charvarious Ward, and adding an athlete of McDuffie’s caliber on the other side of the field is going to be huge for Steve Spagnuolo’s defense. If the Chiefs want to remain at the top of what just became arguably the toughest division in NFL history, they’re going to need to be able to defend the pass, especially after getting torched by the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals through the air in the 2022 playoffs.

The Chiefs deserve an A for this pick, and they have a good history with drafting Huskies… see their former All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters.