Chiefs face daunting 4-game opening stretch without suspended cornerback Bashaud Breeland

Arguably no NFL team faces a tougher four-game stretch right out of the gate this season than the Kansas City Chiefs. They open three weeks from tonight (Sept. 10) at home in the Kickoff Game vs. Houston, then visit the Chargers and Ravens before hosting New England in Week 4. The defending Super Bowl champions will not have starting cornerback Bashaud Breeland for any of those as his appeal of a four-game league suspension has been denied.

The Chiefs at least had months to prepare for this news as Breeland was arrested in late April in South Carolina on five charges: resisting arrest, transporting alcohol in a motor vehicle with the seal broken; open container of beer or wine in a motor vehicle; possession of 28 grams or less of marijuana or 10 grams of hash; and driving without a license. Those types of things are essentially a standard four-game suspension from the NFL (if the player isn't a multiple offender) for violating the league's substance-abuse policy.

Breeland wasn't great last season as he ranked as the NFL's No. 120 overall cornerback among 132 qualified players via Pro Football Focus as the starter opposite Charvarius Ward. Breeland had 37 tackles, eight passes defensed and two interceptions in his first season with the Chiefs.

Perhaps Kansas City doesn't win the Super Bowl without him, though. He led the team with seven tackles (two for loss) and with the Chiefs up 7-3 in the second quarter vs. San Francisco in Miami, Niners QB Jimmy Garoppolo had a second-and-12 pass from his own 41 intercepted by Breeland at the Kansas City 43. That would eventually lead to a field goal.

Kansas City re-signed Breeland to a one-year, $4.5 million deal this offseason. He will be one of 18 returning starters for the champs – two of those set to return, guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and running back Damien Williams, opted out.

That Chiefs defense will face three quarterbacks with MVP credentials those first four weeks in Houston's Deshaun Watson (hasn't won one yet but is a +1400 fourth-favorite on the moneyline odds at William Hill sportsbook), Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (2019 MVP) and presumably New England's Cam Newton (2015 MVP). The Chargers' Tyrod Taylor is the outlier, but L.A. has a stacked roster. Second-year Rashad Fenton, a 2019 sixth-round pick out of South Carolina, likely will start in Breeland's spot.

For the Kickoff Game vs. the Texans, the Chiefs are currently 10-point favorites on the NFL odds and plan to have the stadium filled to around 22 percent of capacity. The lone regular-season game in which Kansas City is currently projected as an underdog is against Jackson and the Ravens.

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