Kansas City Chiefs Positional Review: Safety

First off, lets get to know a couple of the guys you probably haven't heard much on- Marlon Fair and Chad Williams. Marlon Fair is brand new to the NFL, coming to the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent on May 7th of this year. A quarterback in high school, Fair seems to be your run of the mill young safety, brought in for competition's sake. Chad Williams, a 6 year veteran previously of the Niners and Ravens, was brought in on June 6th of this year. He has 9 career interceptions, with 8 of those coming while he was playing on the famed 2002-2004 Baltimore defenses.

Greg Wesley and Sammy Knight started 14 games at safety together last season. Jarrad Page played quite brilliantly in Weeks 10 and 11 against Miami and the Raiders respectively in place of Wesley. How can you forget his pick in the end zone to ice the game? If you recall, Wesley was questionable for those games with a shoulder injury. Pollard and Page did see action in all 16 games last season though.

Coming off Sammy Knight's departure earlier this spring, I think we can pencil in Bernard Pollard for the starting gig. Rumors of Greg Wesley's departure back in March and just a couple of weeks ago lead me to believe that he will not be back or at the very least not starting over the up and coming 2006 7th round pick Jarrad Page.

Jon McGraw is a bit of a wild card here. He played under Herm in 2002-2004. That and his meager stats makes me think McGraw could be one of "Herm's guys", as in Herm sees something in him and would like to at least give him a shot. Give him his shot in training camp and then cut him.

My two picks for starting safety at the begining of the season are Jarrad Page and Bernard Pollard. Cross Wesley off that list above and we have 5 safeties. I see Williams and Fair either off the team or sitting on the practice squad. McGraw has only a slightly higher chance of beating out the rookies. Remember, NFL rules stipulate you can keep only 8 guys on the practice roster.

I would really enjoy seeing yet another position move toward younger players. Page and Pollard have the potential to stack another position with home developed youth. My bias to the youth movement aside, I really hope both of these guys can become career players in Kansas City.

Definitely going to head to bed. Zach from Arrowhead Addict just caught me writing Sammy Knight into the above safety review, despite Knight being released months ago. Probably means that I should give my brain a rest. I'd like to think we've been getting a prolific amount of information out on a daily basis, especially considering its the off season. I'll be taking tomorrow and probably the 4th of July off (pending any breaking news of course) and I suggest you do the same. Enjoy the coming holiday!