Among the players slated for unrestricted free agency this offseason, there will be a few that the Kansas City Chiefs will be ready to call when rounding out the roster. Cornerback Nazeeh Johnson believes he is one of them.
In a phone interview with Robert Niedzwiecki of The Winchester Star, Johnson sounded confident that Kansas City would welcome his return as free agency plays out.
“I think [the Chiefs] are going to bring me back,” said Johnson in a phone interview last week. “I can test the market and see how much I’m valued, but the Chiefs know what I can do. We can’t have communication right now because of the [free agency rules], but I have a good understanding with them. They know my talent level.”
Johnson spent the majority of the 2025 season on the Reserve/Injured list due to a shoulder injury suffered in the preseason. He was activated to the 53-man roster leading into the Christmas game against the Denver Broncos, but only played special teams in that game and the Week 18 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders.
In the 2024 regular season, Johnson totaled the second-most defensive snaps among the Chiefs’ cornerbacks and manned the starting spot opposite cornerback Trent McDuffie for the majority of the campaign. He was nearly exclusively an outside cornerback that season despite having positional flexibility in his profile as a seventh-round pick out of Marshall in 2022.
His versatility — virtually untapped in his NFL career — is something he made note of in his interview with Niedzwiecki.
“Now it’s just seeing how other teams value me. Do other teams see me as a safety, do they see me as a corner, a nickel[back]. But the thing I can rest my hat on is that I’m a special teams person. I can make plays on special teams, and I’m also someone that can play defensive snaps.”
It has been hard to deny the positive impact Johnson has made on the Chiefs’ special teams unit when available. He was a standout in the third phase of the game as a rookie and still takes that role seriously.
“I’m a good asset to any program,” Johnson said. “Especially to the Chiefs. I just went out there and proved it [when I returned].
“With the new kickoff rule, you can make a good living being a special teams player. It’s like another form of defense or another offensive player. It gives people that are on the bubble or may not be a starter in the coaches’ eyes a chance to get that NFL paycheck.”
With plenty of decisions for general manager Brett Veach to make over the next few months, Johnson has a good feeling his four seasons in Kansas City will be valuable to the front office as it sorts through the open market.
