This offseason has, as I’ve mentioned previously, absolutely flown by. Because of that, training camp is nearly upon us and the page is already starting to turn to 2026 in earnest.
There’s still lots of film to review from 2025 to try and point us in the right direction for what to expect this upcoming season. That said, with training camp around the corner there are a few topics I’m interested in that I want to write about even as we continue to look back at times.
One of those is the idea of floor and ceiling for various spots on the roster. You’ve probably had this conversation with fellow fans (or yourself), even if you didn’t realize you were doing it. Any time you think about what the best case and worst case scenarios are for any position group, you’re talking about floor/ceiling. And of course, when you do it in a manner that at least attempts realism (obviously the worst case scenario is everyone is horrible, and the best is that everyone is an All Pro and healthy all year), that’s another step in trying to figure out what the realistic possibilities are for a team.
And those REALISTIC possibilities are larger in some position groups than others, especially when you take out random (unpredictable) factors like injuries. For example, there are only so many realistic outcomes that exist in the tight end room. Kelce might drop off a little more, he might be just as good as he was in 2024 or a little better, and the same with Noah Gray. That’s about it. Kind of boring, really. Generally speaking, proven veterans are the opposite of interesting in terms of potential floor and ceiling outcome ranges.
You know what IS interesting, though? Groups with a lot of bodies and unknowns, especially if there’s legitimate (unproven) talent there. And that leads me to the cornerback room, arguably the place with the most potential variance of any position group on the roster. And the biggest reason for that is that there are a LOT of bodies vying for a spot, and there is a LOT of (again, realistic) variance for those bodies.
Here’s a list of the guys who have even a remote chance at making the Chiefs’ roster.
Jadon Canady
Mansoor Delane
Nohl Williams
Kaiir Elam
Kristian Fulton
Kevin Knowles II
Kader Kohou
Christian Roland-Wallace
L’Jarius Sneed
We can say with absolutely zero doubt that Delane, Williams, and Canady will be on the roster in September barring injury given their draft status, cost, and (in the case of Williams) play last season. But after that? It gets a bit weird, and there isn’t anyone I’d be willing to say I’m CERTAIN will be there when it’s all said and done (though there are a few who would surprise me, we’ll come back to that).
The Chiefs have traditionally kept 5-6 cornerbacks on the roster during the regular season. What that means is that there are three guys minimum on that list who won’t be around. And again, that’s fascinating because I can make a rational argument for any of them to make it.
So let’s talk about the floor/ceiling of the CB room, on which will rise and fall the hopes of the defense to bounce back from a relatively lackluster 2025 (which wasn’t on the secondary, but I digress) despite losing a massive amount of talent in McDuffie and Watson. I think the way to do this is to go through, player by player, and give a realistic floor/ceiling analysis of them. And when we’re done with that, we’ll look at the floor scenario as a group overall as well as the potential ceiling.
Let’s start with the roster locks and work our way through.
The Chiefs traded up for the right to snag Delane, the best CB in the draft and one of their few “blue chip” talents on their draft board. Reviewing his film it became pretty apparent why given the level of ability he showed in college.
The realistic floor for any rookie, Delane included, is that they simply aren’t good. Does that feel likely at all for him? No, it doesn’t. But it has to be included in the range of possibilities that he’s a “meh” player, which would be one of the worst possible outcomes for the Chiefs in 2026.
That said, his ceiling is that of a high-level to elite player in year one. The talent is absolutely there for that when you look at his combination of feet, athleticism, physicality, intelligence and ball skills.
Delane is one of the players they’re counting on to be at least “good” right out of the gate in 2026. If he is, they’ve got a chance to achieve their goals. If he’s not, it’ll make for tough sledding immediately.
Williams ended up seeing the field quite a bit as a rookie, and (despite a mystifying midseason suspension) played well overall. He was known best for his incredibly physical work in man coverage, but also showed the ability to sift through things in zone looks as well.
A full film review of Williams will be coming before the season starts (I hope, we’ll see how it goes), but it’s interesting to me that they couldn’t keep him on the field with snaps like this, where he showed the patience to pass guys off and stay put in order to help prevent an easy throwing lane.
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