A year after bringing Deon Bush over from the Bears, the Chiefs will give him the opportunity to play an eighth NFL season. The veteran safety/special-teamer agreed to terms on a new Kansas City accord Friday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Bush, who is going into his age-30 season, will stay in Missouri on a one-year deal. The seven-year vet has experience as a starter, but his most common roles have come on special teams. The Chiefs took advantage of the longtime Bear’s special teams abilities last season, using him on 73% of their ST plays.
Bush’s 317 special teams snaps last season marked a career-high number. This role came a year after he played 44% of Chicago’s defensive snaps during his final Bears season; the Chiefs deployed the former fourth-round pick on just 71 defensive plays in 2022. Bush has been a steady special teams presence for most of his career, having logged at least a 60% ST snap rate in each of the past five seasons.
The Chiefs lost Juan Thornhill in free agency, a year after they let Tyrann Mathieu and Daniel Sorensen defect to the Saints, but added Mike Edwards from the Buccaneers. Kansas City now has Edwards, Justin Reid and Bryan Cook in place as its top safeties (those three entered Friday as the only safeties on K.C’s roster).
Bush will be in position to provide in-case-of-emergency depth while likely playing another major role on Dave Toub‘s ST units.