Kansas City Chiefs to re-sign safety Ron Parker

The Chiefs have managed to keep one of their top free agents in Kansas City.

The team has agreed to a five-year contract with safety Ron Parker worth $30 million in total money, agent Justin Turner told The Star.

Parker’s deal includes $25 million in base salary, including workout and roster bonuses, and $8 million guaranteed, including a $5 million signing bonus. The deal also includes $5 million in playing time incentives tied to playoff appearances and interceptions and is believed to be the richest in league history for an undrafted safety, topping Ryan Clark’s four-year, $14 million deal with Pittsburgh in 2010.

The return of Parker, who took a free-agent visit to Chicago last week, should help solidify a safety corps that includes Husain Abdullah and recently signed safety Tyvon Branch.

In 16 games this year, Parker, 27, led the Chiefs with 84 solo tackles and finished second in pass deflections with 12. Both were career highs.

Parker, who made $645,000 last season, accomplished this by serving as the Swiss army knife of the Chiefs’ secondary, as he flip-flopped between cornerback (four starts) and safety (11 starts).

Although he only had one interception, Parker’s ability to cover a lot of ground and properly diagnose the deep route combinations that tortured the Chiefs in 2013 played a role in their pass defense skyrocketing from 25th to second. Parker’s 2014 Pro Football Focus coverage grade of 2.8 ranks 29th among 87 players at the position.

The deal is the first that contains significant money for Parker, who went undrafted out of Newberry College in South Carolina in 2011 and spent time with the Seahawks (for three separate stints), Raiders and Panthers before being claimed by the Chiefs off waivers before the 2013 season.

Parker caught the eyes of coaches in a reserve role in 2013, recording 17 tackles, three pass deflections and two interceptions in 16 games. He did enough to earn a starting role in 2014, first at cornerback and then at safety when injuries struck at the position.

Parker had his fair share of highs this season at cornerback, like his performance against Buffalo, when he effectively shut down Sammy Watkins.

But his lows — like his performances against Seattle and Oakland, when he was targeted 19 times and allowed 15 completions for 174 yards and two touchdowns — probably reinforced the notion that despite his size (6 feet and 206 pounds) and speed (4.35-second 40-yard dash), Parker should probably be a full-time safety, the position he played at Newberry College.

“He’s a swing guy,” Chiefs general manager John Dorsey said after the season. “He can go outside or inside. Me personally, I think he’s better inside than outside. With that being said, I think he had a nice season.”

Parker joins Eric Berry, Abdullah, Branch, Kelcie McCray, Sanders Commings and Daniel Sorensen as the only safeties on the roster.

This story was originally published March 14, 2015 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Kansas City Chiefs to re-sign safety Ron Parker."