Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Chiefs rank near the bottom in most defensive categories, but coach Dick Vermeil said Tuesday no starter’s job was in danger.

“Not right off,” Vermeil said when asked if he planned any changes. “I’d like to believe we know, with minicamps … training camp and games who our best football players are.

“It would be nice to say, ‘Oh, we’ll plug in that All-Pro. He’ll come in and solve all those problems for us.”‘

The Chiefs (3-6) are suffering through the same imbalance that has plagued them the past two years — great offense, bad defense.

Trent Green, Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez have the offense flying high, averaging more than 422 yards and ranked No. 1. Their rushing average of 164.2 yards per game also tops the chart. They’re No. 5 in passing, with more than 257 yards passing each week.

But for the third year in a row, the defense is scraping bottom. After last week’s loss to New Orleans, the Chiefs are giving up more than 350 yards per game, 27th among NFL teams. Their pass defense, with both safeties having difficulty, is 26th.

“I do believe we can get better overall defensive play and overall safety play out of the people we have,” Vermeil said.

Weak safety play especially is glaring because both safeties — Jerome Woods and Greg Wesley — were given big contract extensions after last season.

Woods, who went to the Pro Bowl last year, hurt the Chiefs last week at New Orleans by drawing a couple of ill-timed penalties. Overall, the secondary let wide receiver Joe Horn get loose for several long plays, including a 43-yard go-ahead touchdown with 2:39 left where he split the safeties on a deep pattern.

New Orleans receiver Joe Horn, left, hangs onto a reception as Kansas City safety Greg Wesley tries to make the tackle. The Saints beat the Chiefs, 27-20, Sunday in New Orleans, but K.C. coach Dick Vermeil said Tuesday he did not plan to make roster changes on defense.

“We did not get to the deep middle a couple of times,” Vermeil said. “One time (cornerback Eric Warfield) didn’t make the play, another time we took the bite on a play-action pass that hurt us. Correctable things. Sometimes trying too hard. Sometimes you can try too hard, you’re going to make every play, not just your play.”

Vermeil also said the problems did not stem from a lack of familiarity with the schemes and philosophy of defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham, who took over this year from Greg Robinson.

“I think everybody knows what they’re doing,” he said. “We’re not revolutionizing the world here. The big thing the other day is we took the No. 1 offense in the National Football League and produced two touchdowns.”

Vermeil also said that for the second week in a row, there was a malfunction with Green’s headset.

“The job (offensive coordinator) Al Saunders and (quarterbacks coach) Jason Verduzco did handling that problem was absolutely unbelievable,” Vermeil said. “We only had the quarterback call one play on his own. It was a mess.”