As disappointing as the LA Chargers' offseason has been for some due to a lack of activity, it has been nice to see the Evil Empire, the Kansas City Chiefs, falling. Kansas City is coming off a bad season without a playoff berth and has watched its successful secondary crumble to trades and free-agent departures.
Kansas City addressed the secondary on Thursday with a name that Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel is very familiar with. According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, the Chiefs are signing Miami Dolphins free agent Kader Kohou after he missed the entire 2025 season with a knee injury.
Kohou has had some good moments for the Dolphins in the past and is someone who Chiefs fans will naturally excite themselves about. Chargers fans should be excited as well.
Kader Kohou is a figure head for a flawed Chiefs secondary in 2026
Look, Kansas City has turned chicken salad out of worse in the past so maybe I will end up being the one with egg on his face when we look back at this in nine months. But as excited as Chiefs fans may be for the Kader Kohou signing, it is a move that is more revealing than it is exciting.
Kohou didn't play the entire 2025 season and prior to that, was a totally fine slot corner whose overall coverage numbers in 2024 were quite solid. However, Kohou's performances were rather boom or bust in 2024. He had five games where Pro Football Focus gave him a coverage grade below 50 and three games above 75. One of those games graded out above 90.
And that doesn't even factor in his tackling. As promising as he can be in coverage at times, Kohou is a pretty porous tackler, which does matter more than you may think for a slot corner. If he is on the field, the Chargers can run at him every single chance they get. McDaniel knows this, and gets to utilize the strategy twice a year.
Kohou's volatility is probably only going to get worse coming off a significant lower-body injury that ended his entire 2025 season. Kohou is far from a guarantee to be successful in 2026.
The problem for Kansas City is that Kohou has to play a big role in 2026. He will probably be the team's primary slot corner as the Chiefs also rely on other question marks, such as former Charger Kristian Fulton, on the boundary.
It's a secondary where a fan of the team can sell itself on the best possible version being truly impactful. But in reality, it's a secondary full of question marks that could also see the bottom drop out pretty early on in the 2026 season.
Yes, the Chiefs' secondary got deeper with the Kohou signing. But the fact that the team has to rely on Kohou is a good sign for the Chargers.