Chiefs Should Still Pursue Top Cornerback Despite Dunta Robinson Signing

News broke last Friday that the Kansas City Chiefs and cornerback Dunta Robinson had agreed to a long-term contract (via Yahoo Sports, per Adam Schefter). The move raised plenty of questions about the direction this team was set to go during the NFL’s free-agency period and the rest of the offseason.

Is Robinson an extension of the failed 2012 experiment of Stanford Routt—signed to replace Brandon Carr as the Chiefs’ No. 2 cornerback?

Is Kansas City not interested in an outside-the-box move to take Dee Milliner with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft?

Are the Chiefs hinging a complete turnaround in their pass defense by putting all of their eggs in this one basket?

Per multiple sources, Robinson’s deal is said to be worth $15 million over a three-year period.

It is hard to determine what those terms indicate exactly about how the Chiefs plan on shoring up their defensive backfield moving forward. The fact that Kansas City’s defense allowed 29 touchdown passes and tallied only seven interceptions should signal more moves are to come, however.

While the Chiefs only gave up just shy of 221 passing yards per game in 2012 (good for 12th in the NFL), it was the efficiency at which the opposition was able to capitalize on such little output that really hurt this team.

The market for cornerbacks this offseason is as deep as it has ever been, with plenty of viable starters and solid contributors available (via Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports).

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"You're going to see some really good players come in at maybe $3-$4 million a year. These are guys who would have gotten $6 or $7 million a couple of years ago," an AFC team executive said to Cole. "I know the agents are blaming it on the flat [salary] cap, but it's just a matter of the numbers."

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This can be looked at in two ways: The Chiefs either jumped too early on signing Robinson, or they played a part in setting the price for the bevy of other talent available at the position.

Either way, Kansas City would do well to keep its name in the mix for other top cornerbacks on the market—a move that is imperative to keep up in today’s pass-happy NFL.

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