NFL Roster Cuts: Chiefs Bottom Of The Roster Position Battles (Defensive Edition)

We continue on looking at the bottom-of-the-roster position battles. We've already looked at the offense and here's a look at a couple of interesting battles on the defensive side of the ball at the bottom of the roster.

• Third and fourth defensive ends: If the Chiefs keep four defensive ends, the starters, Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson are guaranteed spots on the team and I think Wallace Gilberry is about as guaranteed as it gets. I think Shaun Smith, who started playing some defensive end a few weeks ago, has a spot on the roster. He can play nose tackle as well so that's a plus-one when it comes to versatility. That leaves Dion Gales and Alex Magee as the odd men out if four are kept.
• Inside linebackers: The first four on the inside are locks: Corey Mays, Demorrio Williams, Derrick Johnson and Jovan Belcher. There's probably another spot (maybe two) for special teams. The remaining options are Justin Cole, David Herron and Cory Greenwood. Herron was on the team last year.
• Fifth safety: Here are the safeties I think are locks: Eric Berry at strong safety and Jon McGraw and Kendrick Lewis at free safety. That's three locks and I think there are possibly two more spots open for backups and special teams. That leaves Reshard Langford (SS), DaJuan Morgan (SS) and Donald Washington (FS). This is a tough call since it's hard to judge their special teams ability. I'm going to guess Langford and Washington stay. They were both picked by this regime and I'm not sure they're ready to give up on them yet.

It'll be interesting to see how those defensive ends shake out because the Chiefs rotate them in and out somewhat frequently with Gilberry coming in on the nickel defense. After the first four, the inside linebacker job won't be that interesting as the next guy in that group would be playing almost exclusively special teams.