Chiefs should be eager to take advantage of Bengals latest whiff

How does the saying go: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure? Well, the Cincinnati Bengals balked at signing a veteran for a position they needed in Xavien Howard. The Kansas City Chiefs are probably already setting up a workout. 

After Sunday’s game against Denver in which the Chiefs narrowly escaped with a two-point win and needed a blocked field goal on the game’s final play, the Chiefs should be desperate to get some defensive help. 

They probably won’t be as lucky next time. 

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo once again teased his ingeniousness, finding ways to contain Broncos rookie Bo Nix. And while he did hold the Broncos to just 14 points, he probably isn’t too happy with the Broncos melting more than five minutes off the clock on the game’s final drive. 

He probably wasn’t too thrilled about Nix having his second-highest completion percentage of the season and not forcing an interception. Spagnuolo does a really good job of flustering rookie quarterbacks, allowing just two wins since he got the job in 2019. And while Nix did lose, it wasn’t because of rookie mistakes. 

Why adding Xavien Howard should be priority No. 1 for Kansas City

The Chiefs desperately need help in their secondary. Probably more than the Cincinnati Bengals. And with the latter passing on Howard, an established veteran corner who spent eight years with Miami, the Chiefs should be interested in working out a deal. 

Kansas City has been one of the most active teams during the season, adding DeAndre Hopkins and Josh Uche through trades so far. They weren’t able to anchor down a corner at the deadline, but they have a chance to see if Xavien Howard has more left in the tank. 

In his eight seasons, he has 29 interceptions, though the last couple seasons he’s missed a few games and had just two interceptions between the 2022 and 2023 season. He also doesn’t allow a lot of touchdowns with just two seasons with more than four touchdowns allowed. 

He certainly isn’t a long-term solution and may not even be the definite solution this year. But it doesn’t hurt to see if he can offset some of the passing defensive struggles. It couldn’t get any worse.