Kansas City’s second-year safety will have big shoes to fill this season.
For the third straight year, I’m considering the 10 biggest questions I have for the Kansas City Chiefs for 2025. Let’s get started!
During this offseason, the Chiefs didn’t make major changes to their defense. They added just one significant free agent: former Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Kristian Fulton, who will compete for a starting job on the outside. In the draft, the team acquired defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott, defensive end Ashton Gillotte and defensive back Nohl Williams. As rookies, none of these players are expected to fill major roles.
The Chiefs didn’t bring in many new defensive players for a simple reason: all but one 2024 starter is back for 2025. The one exception is safety Justin Reid, who signed with the New Orleans Saints in March.
We should appreciate Reid’s Kansas City tenure more than we do. During his 2022 debut season, he was mostly used as a deep safety, which wasn’t his best spot. His biggest weaknesses were a lack of range and fluid athleticism, so using him to cover deep routes wasn’t ideal.
But near the end of that season, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo decided to put Reid’s size, explosive downhill athleticism and tackling skills to better use by deploying him closer to the ball. Playing the veteran safety in the box, on the line of scrimmage or in quarters shells, Spagnuolo put Reid in a better position to trigger against the run. He had a very good postseason run, showing he was worth the contract Kansas City had given him.
This was how the Chiefs used Reid in the next two seasons, although he also proved to be impactful against tight ends in man coverage. In 2023 — when Kansas City still had cornerback L’Jarius Sneed — the team primarily used man coverage. Reid’s ability to cover tight ends made it easier to use Sneed (and Trent McDuffie) for specific matchups. Reid’s run defense also made him an important part of nickel and dime formations, in which he could function as another linebacker.
So Reid will be missed in 2025. But fortunately, Kansas City continues to be very good at drafting defensive backs. The latest example is former Washington State safety Jaden Hicks, who was selected in 2024’s fourth round (133rd overall).
Going into that draft, I considered Hicks to be the best safety available — and a great replacement for Reid. He also had size, explosive downhill athleticism and great tackling — and added blitzing skills to that mix. Like Reid, Hicks is at his worst in deep coverage when he has to flip his hips and carry routes vertically — but also like Reid, he’s at his best when playing closer to the line of scrimmage.
The team’s depth at safety kept us from seeing very much of Hicks during last season. While he was rotated in for some snaps late in the year, his role was fairly limited. It’s hard to know exactly what he’s going to look like in his second campaign.
So how well will Hicks replace Reid? Will the redshirt year help him become integrated into all the defensive calls? Will he be able to fulfill all the roles Reid covered in the defense? If not, what will that mean? How will it change the defense?
As the Chiefs transitioned into a quarters defense during the past year, the team needed its safeties to do run support. But Bryan Cook has never been great against the run, while Chamarri Conner is better suited to being aligned in the slot. That leaves Hicks with the Reid’s responsibilities in the box.
Based on what I saw in college, I have a lot of confidence in Hicks to fill them. Still, we are talking about a young player who hasn’t played very much at the next level. If he struggles in this bigger role, then I will have concerns about the back end of the defense. But he performs as I expect, it will go a long way toward keeping the Chiefs’ defense in the league’s top 10.