Ever since the Kansas City Chiefs traded away star cornerback Trent McDuffie, there has been a lot of speculation that the Chiefs will look to bolster the secondary early in next month’s draft.
But it’s not just McDuffie who left Kansas City in free agency: the franchise also lost starting cornerback Jaylen Watson and safety Bryan Cook, as well as rotational cornerback Joshua Williams; Nazeeh Johnson remains unsigned.
With that many holes in the defensive backfield opened up, it makes sense that the Chiefs
would possibly look to address the position on Day 1 of draft weekend.
And one of the best fits for the Chiefs is Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood. Here’s what to know about the defender that was mocked to Kansas City earlier this week by Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com.
Background
Hood was a three-star recruit out of Eagles Landing Christian Academy in McDonough, GA. He was the 48th-ranked cornerback in the 2023 class and the 374th-ranked prospect nationally. He was highly recruited coming out of high school, receiving offers from multiple Power-5 programs, including LSU, Florida, Clemson, Indiana, and Penn State; he ultimately decided to commit to Auburn University.
In the era of NIL and the transfer portal, where you start your college career is not always where you finish, and Hood is a prime example of this. After seeing little playing time as a freshman, he entered the transfer portal and left Auburn to go play under head coach Deion Sanders at Colorado; if you are an aspiring young cornerback, who else better to play for and learn under than one of the greatest of all time at your position?
Hood had a pretty good 2024 season, recording two interceptions, but was overshadowed by Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter during his time in Boulder. After the season concluded, Hood entered the transfer portal again and moved to Tennessee, which was looking for cornerback help to fill the void left by an offseason training injury to its star cornerback Jermod McCoy, who tore his ACL in January of 2025.
Hood seized the opportunity presented to him and was one of the best press-man corners in the nation this past season.
My analysis
Hood stood out at the NFL Combine as an elite athlete, standing 6 feet tall and weighing 193lbs. He ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash, with a 1.58-second 10-yard split, and an impressive mark of 40.5 inches on the vertical jump.
Hood is an example of where the tape actually being more impressive than his athleticism. He is physical at the line of scrimmage, with excellent hand placement when he jams a player off the line of scrimmage, and understands leverage and how to knock a player out of rhythm on their release.
He is great at mirroring opposing receivers and backpedals well to keep them in front of him, dictating the flow of the rep to prevent them from getting the upper hand with their body position.
Despite being physical, he is cool-headed and knows just how much you can hand-fight and battle with a guy without drawing a flag.
One thing that particularly stands out with Hood is that, due to his ability to keep the receiver in front of him, he is able to fight for positioning while still keeping his eyes on the quarterback, as you can see in the first rep in the video above. He is tussling with the receiver but keeps his eyes on the QB, and thus is able to put his hand out at just the right time to break up the pass without drawing a flag. This is tougher than it looks.
When given an opportunity to make a play on the ball, Hood has strong hands and great tracking ability. He also has pretty big hands for his size, measuring nine inches at the combine.
While he struggled with missed tackles during his time at Colorado, Hood cleaned it up significantly while at Tennessee in 2025. He is an aggressive downhill tackler on screens and in the run game, and does a good job at fighting through blocks for his size.
Due to his prowess on the perimeter, he did not blitz the quarterback a lot in college, but he shows a good feel for timing and space on plays, and so if called upon, it seems like something he could add to his repertoire with the Chiefs.
Fit with the Chiefs
Fit: Perfect
Round grade: Late first round (pick 29)
Hood is exactly the sort of player Kansas City needs to reload the secondary with the loss of players like McDuffie and Watson. He would be an instant upgrade over anyone on this roster. He is an attitude and tempo setter on the field, and the sort of player that brings an aggressive and hard-nosed play style that the reputations of defenses are built around.
If defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo were playing NFL Madden and he were to create a player that schematically fits his defense and how he wants to play defense, Hood is pretty dang close to being that guy.
If I’m Spagnuolo, Hood is a guy I would bang the table for. Shout at the top of my lungs. And if it came to it, hold general manger Brett Veach’s pet cat hostage until he picked him and he was on my team.
