[Kansas City.com] Eric Warfield’s suspension is crawling to its final days, and a month ago the Chiefs wondered how they’d live through the first four games without the team’s top man in the secondary from 2004.

Now coach Dick Vermeil is saying that Warfield won’t have his starting job handed to him upon his return.

“Oh sure, there’s competition,” Vermeil said Thursday. “Dexter McCleon isn’t going to surrender. And I don’t know how long it’s going to take Eric Warfield to get back to where he was. The last game he played (in the preseason), he didn’t play very well.”

The Chiefs have gone 2-1 in his absence.

Warfield, who received a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, has been able to sit in on meetings and work one-on-one with a Chiefs strength and conditioning coach.