Chiefs' Secret Defensive Weapon: Chamarri Conner pt. 1

Chamarri Conner could be in for a massive sophomore season for the Kansas City Chiefs.

One of the biggest challenges for the Kansas City Chiefs’ in 2024 is going to be trying to overcome the volatility of defensive play in the NFL. Year after year, the top defenses in the league move up and down the rankings due to being the more “reactionary” side of the ball. This allows offenses to attack them directly and them to adjust on the fly, especially as more film is seen on a particular team.

In 2023, the Chiefs’ defense was excellent all season long but teams are going to adjust, reassess, and attack them in different ways in 2024. It will be up to Steve Spagnuolo to once again come up with some alterations to keep offenses off-balance and having to react to what he is doing. One of those prime opportunities could come with second year safety Chamarri Conner.

Conner had an excellent rookie campaign for the Chiefs’ and with the loss of Mike Edwards, he should be in for a bigger role in 2024. His impact could easily extend even beyond what Edwards was able to do during the Super Bowl campaign due to a more dynamic skill set. Over the summer, I want to look at ways that Chamarri Conner could be used in 2024 as more of a defensive weapon rather than a traditional rotational, third safety.

Chamarri Conner Defensive Weapon

For this first part, I want to focus on Conner’s ability as a “big” slot defender in the Chiefs’ Buffalo - nickel defense with three safeties and two corner backs - with the recent remarks from Trent McDuffie about playing outside more frequently. This is something Conner did about 30% of the time in 2023 but could see an uptick in 2024.

The Buffalo nickel package is something the Chiefs’ ran a lot more frequently with Tyrann Mathieu leading the defense in the past, whereas the past few years a traditional nickel package has taken over. If McDuffie is spend more time on the outside - or it’s simply a best-5 defensive backs principle - they could trend back towards favoring the larger personnel.

Run Defense

Here we are talking about a defensive back playing in the slot and I’m starting with a run play but it’s a pivotal part of the equation for Conner. Over the past few seasons, the Chiefs have gotten excellent run defending play from their slot corners in McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed before him. It's one of the bigger changes from the Mathieu version of the defense that, despite technically being a safety, was a lot more of a finesse player.