The Kansas City Chiefs have defensive reinforcements in Week 5 with former starting CB Bashaud Breeland returning from a four-game suspension. Breeland was the starting left cornerback for the Chiefs in 2019 and he’s listed as the starting right cornerback on the latest unofficial depth chart to come out of Kansas City.
Despite Breeland’s return to action in Week 5, the Chiefs could hold off on inserting him in the starting lineup. Instead, they could opt to keep Rashad Fenton in as the starter opposite Charvarius Ward. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo spoke to reporters on the subject on Thursday.
“Yeah, there’s a couple of ways to think about that,” Spagnuolo said. “But I mean look, Bashaud (Breeland) was a starter for us. We know what he can do. You know it’s game five and going down the stretch here we’re going to need everybody, so you kind of want to get guys oiled up. We’ll tread lightly and see how we figure the whole thing out. But we have a lot of confidence in him and a lot of confidence in the guys in there playing. Hopefully, it can stay that way. I mean, in this league, you know the one thing we all know is that we’re all going to have injuries, right? So you’ve got to overcome injuries. But when you get them all at one position, that’s tough. Last year, we had Mo Claiborne, I think, went through the same thing. Missed four games and then we kind of slowly eased him in as well and got some valuable snaps out of him.”
The Chiefs have the luxury of easing Breeland back into the lineup. The last thing they want to do is put him back out there before he’s acclimated after not playing the last four weeks. You don’t want to risk injury or mistakes from someone that hasn’t been playing or practicing. A similar situation happened with former Chiefs cornerback Mo Claiborne in 2019.
In the meantime, second-year CB Rashad Fenton has been playing exceptionally well. He started in relief of injured rookie L’Jarius Sneed in Week 4, who began the season as the Chiefs’ starter at right cornerback. Fenton cited a better grasp of the defense for his early successes.
“Just more so understanding the defense itself, knowing where I’ve got to be, knowing where other players have to be,” Fenton said Wednesday, following the Week 4 win.
The former sixth-round draft pick felt very satisfied with his performance in Week 4. His biggest objective in 2019 was to further understand the defense and he feels he’s accomplished that. He notched four passes defended and an interception that put the Week 4 game on ice for Kansas City.
“As a sixth-round guy, you’re labeled as just a special team’s guy,” Fenton said. “It’s the game of football, next man up. It’s a gift and a curse, of course, but I was blessed to get more playing time like you said. It just feels good knowing that when your number is called, and you have a job to do that you’re able to get the job done at an exceptional level as the starters would. It just feels good.”
Whatever the Chiefs decide to do at the cornerback position against the Raiders, fans should feel confident with the level of depth they have at the position. If Sneed returns from injured reserve later this season, they could easily have the deepest position group in the league.
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