The Kansas City Chiefs have already enjoyed the contributions of safety Jaden Hicks as a rookie performer who proved to be quite pro-ready despite being a day three pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. But But according to the folks at Pro Football Focus, there’s plenty more where that came from.
PFF recently put out a list of early breakout players for each NFL team, a list marked by youth and clear potential, and writer Bradley Locker pegged Hicks as the choice for the Chiefs.
The Chiefs selected Hicks in the fourth round of last spring’s draft with the second of two late picks in the round, shortly after the team also grabbed tight end Jared Wiley from TCU.
The Chiefs aren’t done with the current season, but PFF has good news for next year already.
Hicks was already a solid bet to be a better performer at the pro level than his draft position would have indicated. Even on draft weekend, NFL Draft experts were wondering why Hicks slid that far, and post-draft analysis pointed to Hicks as a sleeper candidate for the Chiefs.
An instant hit on special teams, Hicks was quick to impress in coverage on Dave Toub’s units and slowly earned more playing time as the season went on in the secondary for Steve Spagnuolo after only earning a handful of snaps each game for the first couple of months of his rookie season.
By year’s end, Hicks had 330 snaps on defense with 29 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 5 deflections. Locker also notes an impressive 3.8 missed tackle rate on the season for Hicks, and PFF gave him a very good 83.0 grade for tackling on the year (72..2 overall on defense).
Going forward, the Chiefs are going to have to make a decision on long-term starter Justin Reid, who is set to be a free agent after completing the three-year deal he signed back in 2022. Reid was a free-agent splash for general manager Brett Veach to replace Tyrann Mathieu, who returned home to play for the New Orleans Saints.
Working in the Chiefs’ favor is the versatility of several other prospects as well. While Bryan Cook will have one safety spot locked down in 2025, the Chiefs also have Chamarri Conner and Christian Roland-Wallace to lean on. However, Chiefs Kingdom has long been clued into Hicks’ potential and now it looks like the word is out.
