What do we know about the Kansas City Chiefs secondary? We feel pretty good about Marcus Peters and Phillip Gaines even though the latter is coming off an ACL injury. Eric Berry is Eric Berry. Ron Parker remains under contract. After that? We're doing some guessing.
Finding that fifth member of the secondary is key because of how the NFL is changing, particularly on defense. You've heard that the nickel defense - taking out a linebacker and adding a fifth defensive back - is the new base defense. This stat from Peter King of The MMQB illustrates the change over the years. This is the percentage of plays where a team had five defensive backs or more on the field.
2008: 43.4%
2009: 45.1%
2010: 48.8%
2011: 52.5%
2012: 54.4%
2013: 58.3%
2014: 60.3%
2015: 63.4%
...and that's why the Chiefs very well could be drafting a cornerback or safety in the 2016 NFL Draft. That number probably isn't going down for a while. At some point teams will respond and the trend will reverse and teams will get bigger again but right now the trend is more passing and with more passing you need more defensive backs to defend it.
After the Chiefs first four members of the secondary, you have a lot of questions. Can Steven Nelson take the nickel job? Is Jimmy Wilson a good fit in KC? Can Stevie Brown still be a ballhawk? We'll find that out as time goes on but because of that uncertainty I wouldn't be surprised to see a defensive back picked early.