The Kansas City Chiefs have taken some big losses in their secondary this offseason. Former starters Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson both landed with the Los Angeles Rams, leaving a big hole in Kansas City.
On Thursday, the team made a small move to help address the depth of the room. The team is bringing in a player who was once considered good enough to be a first-round pick.
Chiefs Signing Former First-Round Pick Kaiir Elam
Per NFL insider Mike Garafolo, the Chiefs have reached an agreement with cornerback Kaiir Elam. Elam was a first-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in the 2022 NFL Draft but has yet to live up to that draft status.
Elam spent the first three seasons of his career with the Bills, delivering mixed results. Ahead of the 2025 season, the Bills traded Elam to the Dallas Cowboys for a late-round pick swap.
There was hope that a change of scenery would be what Elam needed, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. The corner struggled in Dallas and was cut after just 10 games with the team. Elam quickly latched on with the Tennessee Titans, where he played in four games at the end of the 2025 season.
The #Chiefs have agreed to terms with former #Bills and #Cowboys CB Kaiir Elam, his agent Jon Perzley of @SPORTSTARSNYC tells @RapSheet and me. Former first-round pick heads to Kansas City, which lost both of its starting corners this offseason. pic.twitter.com/eBGwysgt9d
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 2, 2026
In total, Elam played in 14 games in 2025 and collected 33 tackles, one tackle for loss, and two pass deflections. PFSN’s CB Impact gave Elam a 65.8 grade, which ranked 112th out of 128 qualified corners.
To this point, Elam’s best season has been his rookie campaign. In 2022, the Florida product played in 13 games and recorded 41 tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 2 interceptions. Those two interceptions are the only ones of Elam’s career so far.
Chiefs Have Big Questions in the Secondary
It makes sense that the Chiefs would take a chance on Elam because their depth is sorely lacking right now. If the season started tomorrow, Nohl Williams and Kristian Fulton would likely be the starting cornerbacks.
BE AN NFL GM: PFSN’s Ultimate GM Simulator
The hope was that Kansas City would be able to retain one of McDuffie or Watson, but instead, McDuffie was traded to the Rams, and the latter signed with them in free agency. The Chiefs were also unable to retain starting safety Bryan Cook, further adding to the questions in the secondary.
In response, the team has added Elam and Kader Kohou at corner in free agency and Alohi Gilman at safety. The team still has the draft to look forward to, where they will undoubtedly add more defenders to the mix.
