The Kansas City Chiefs latest domestic abuse issue involved DB coach Dave Merritt, but charges were dismissed.
The Kansas City Chiefs have had multiple issues with players getting charged for a variety of domestic violence incidents, but the latest incident didn’t involve a player.
Defensive assistant coach Dave Merritt was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery on the eve of the draft on April 22 as he was accused of causing bodily harm to his daughter, but the state of Kansas has now reviewed and dismissed those charges, according to a report from Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk.
“The DA’s office looked at it a little more thoroughly and reviewed some additional information,” Merritt’s attorney, Ryan Ginie, told Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, “and agreed it was a matter that should be dismissed.”
The 54-year old Merritt has been the Chiefs’ defensive backs coach since 2019, and he previously held NFL coaching jobs with the Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants and New York Jets. It’s fair to wonder about the timing of this given the importance of the draft, especially this year for the Chiefs, but coach Andy Reid said his DB coach has been candid about what happened.
“Dave’s been very up front with everything,” Reid said, via Ron Kopp of arrowheadpride.com. “We’re still going through that whole procedure. In this case, you always let the law enforcement part take care of itself and work its way out. And so that’s where we’re at right now, but we’re aware, and we’ve had communication with both sides there, with the law enforcement side and Dave.”
On the football side of this, the Chiefs have been especially busy on defense and in their secondary. Kansas City selected LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane with the No. 6 pick in the draft after trading up to get him, and a large part of Delane’s development will presumably be on Merritt.
He’ll also be dealing with a lot of turnover in the secondary. Kansas City traded cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams for draft capital, and cornerback Jaylen Watson followed him to LA in free agency. Premiere safety Bryan Cook also left in free agency to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals, so the Chiefs are doing a near-total rework in the back end.
The Chiefs also drafted heavily for defense at the top of the draft. They used their second first-round pick to select defensive tackle Peter Woods out of Clemson, then added edge rusher R Mason Thomas from Oklahoma in the second round.