The Chiefs have seemingly made a major change in the secondary on the fly, replacing CB Nazeeh Johnson with Joshua Williams. Johnson was benched during the narrow victory over the Raiders after being repeatedly beaten by Jakobi Meyers and it appears that Kansas City will stick with Williams moving forward.
Johnson’s issues are nothing new. Since Jaylen Watson went down with an injury, the Chiefs’ defensive backs have been routinely targeted. While Johnson seemed to turn things around in Week 12, he came crashing back to Earth on Black Friday.
As a result, Johnson played only 13 defensive snaps compared to a whopping 53 for Williams.
Here is the blown coverage deep completion that appeared to get Nazeeh Johnson sat down for Joshua Williams pic.twitter.com/Sg1TxEbx3i
— DMac Wake (@DMacWake316) November 30, 2024
After playing 90% of the defensive snaps in Week 10, 100% in Week 11 and 94% in Week 12, Johnson was down to 19% on Friday. Williams had been relegated to the bench, not playing at all defensively over the last couple of weeks, yet wound up with the second-most snaps at the cornerback position.
It was a necessary change. Meyers had most of his production against Johnson and if the Chiefs are going to finish off the three-peat, significant improvements need to be made. Johnson has given up a 101.2 passer rating when targeted in coverage, simply too high of a mark for an elite defense.
There is still plenty of time for Johnson to turn things around and regain his form. He’s got plenty of talent, though seems ill-equiped to handle a starting role against top offenses.
L’Jarius Sneed’s departure was always going to require some growing pains. Losing Watson to injury dealt a massive blow to the already-thin unit though, thrusting Johnson into a role he wasn’t meant to have in the first place.
With a critical matchup against the Chargers waiting on Sunday Night Football, fans should expect Williams to start opposite Trent McDuffie.
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