The Kansas City Chiefs announced their final 53-man roster, and they've gotten a lot younger.
The Kansas City Chiefs announced their final roster cuts yesterday, and there really weren’t a lot of surprises. The biggest one was how much younger the Chiefs have gotten this season, with Nate Taylor of ESPN noting that Kansas City will rely on just a pair of veterans on offense and defense, with the defensive vets being tackle Chris Jones (32) and linebacker Drue Tranquill (31), and quarterback Patrick Mahomes (30)and tight end Travis Kelce (36) anchoring the offense.
Rookies are everywhere beyond that, especially on defense as the Chiefs chose to replenish their talent base and get younger in the process. It’s a fairly obvious gambit given the degree to which the Chiefs fell apart last year when Mahomes went out with his knee injury, and you don’t run it back with a roster that just went 6-11.
The two biggest names who are now gone are quarterback Chris Oladokun and defensive end Emmanuael Ogbah, wth the latter being waived via an injury designation.
The players who were released, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, included linebacker Cole Christiansen, cornerback Kaiir Elam, and cornerback Kader Kohou. Defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott will remain on the physically unable to perform list while wide receiver Jimmy Holiday landed on injured reserve.
The list of waived players includes defensive linemen Vincent Anthony, Cole Brevard, Ethan Hurkett, Niles King, Amari McNeill, Damon Payne, and Tyreke Smith; linebackers Kam Arnold, Wesley Bissainthe, and Cam Jones; wide receivers Andrew Armstrong, Jason Brownlee, Jacob DeJesus, Omari Evans, Xavier Loyd, and Jeff Weimer; running backs Emari Demercado, Jaydn Ott, and EJ Smith; offensive linemen Ethan Driskell, Chukwuebuka Godrick, C.J. Hanson, Pete Nygra, Esa Pole, and Josh Thompson; defensive backs Tanner McCalister, D’Arco Perkins-McAllister, DeShon Singleton, Melvin Smith, and Zelmar Vedder; and tight ends Mason Pline and Tre Watson.
Mahomes will now be backed up by Justin Fields and rookie Garrett Nussmeier, although Fields didn’t do much in camp or preseason games at all.
Waiving receiver Andrew Armstrong was a bit of a surprise given his five-catch game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the final preseason game, and waiving running back Emari Demercado was also a bit of a head-turner given that he had a decent camp and seemed to offer some playmaking ability.
The Chiefs may also be scanning the offensive line cuts of some teams, as there’s been a lot of roster churn there in the last week or so.
