Four-year Redskins starter Bashaud Breeland remains on the market, despite having agreed to an $8MM-per-year deal with the Panthers months ago. But the fifth-year cornerback has surmounted the foot injury that scuttled that agreement and is going to see what the pre-training camp market looks like.
Breeland will visit the Raiders and Chiefs next week, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com tweets. He’ll head to Oakland on Sunday, with Demovsky adding that visit is slated to go into Monday as well, and is scheduled to trek to Kansas City on Tuesday.
Following his recovery from an offseason foot injury, Breeland also visited the Cardinals. But Arizona subsequently traded for Jamar Taylor, who is now in line to start opposite Patrick Peterson. The parties moved on, but the 26-year-old defender has an obvious connection in Oakland.
With Breeland (Pro Football Focus’ No. 54 corner in 2017) having played for Jay Gruden for four seasons, it’s likely Jon Gruden will have good information about the corner. The former Washington second-round pick started 58 games during his Redskins run. The Raiders moved on from their Sean Smith/David Amerson tandem this offseason but have Gareon Conley now healthy and added veterans Rashaan Melvin, Shareece Wright and Leon Hall. Breeland is younger than each of those offseason signees and would add to a crowded competition of experienced performers.
Kansas City signed Amerson but has a glaring vacancy at outside corner. The Chiefs traded Marcus Peters for what was not considered to be strong value and doesn’t have an obvious replacement for the All-Pro. Former Breeland teammate Kendall Fuller is now expected to start as one of the Chiefs’ outside corners, but he thrived in 2017 as a slot stopper. It’s possible Kansas City uses Fuller like Denver deploys Chris Harris — as an outside man in base sets and in the slot in sub-packages — but it remains to be seen how the Chiefs will use Fuller.
The team is also moving Steven Nelson from the slot spot to an outside role as well, but Breeland would look to have a better shot at surefire playing time in western Missouri than in the Bay Area due to Peters’ departure.
Interestingly, the AFC West rivals also could be battling for another notable UFA, with each slated to meet with former Steelers wideout Eli Rogers.
What was neglected to mention about Breeland is the fact he probable lead the league in pass interference calls… constantly called for it!