Who Replaces Jared Gaither For The KC Chiefs?

With the still unconfirmed news that the Kansas City Chiefs have released T Jared Gaither, our attention now turns to his replacement.

The fact that Gaither is gone leaves the Chiefs a little short on depth. They now have only Branden Albert, Barry Richardson and Steve Maneri as the remaining tackles on their roster.

It is possible the team could be prepared to promote former Virginia Union tackle David Mimms from the practice squad. Mimms is 23 and is listed at 6-8, 335. He has been on the practice squad all season.

More options, after the jump.

Another possible candidate for a promotion could be RB Shaun Draughn. The Chiefs struggled running the football against the Pittsburgh Steelers so they may want to get Draughn up to the active roster to give him a look ahead of next season. It is an almost certainty that Thomas Jones won’t be back, so the Chiefs could save themselves a draft pick if their “reserve RB of the future” is already on the roster. Draughn is listed at 6-0, 205.

While I would like to see Draughn in action, I doubt he’ll be given any carries over Thomas Jones, so this theory is probably a long shot. Still, the Chiefs need to manufacture some offense somehow, and the combination of Battle, McCluster and Jones just hasn’t been getting it done. Draughn would at least be a fresh set of legs.

I don’t really see any other practice squad players being called up unless the team plans to bring back our old friend Quentin Lawrence to play safety. Then again, Lawrence, a converted WR, would probably be more useful than Shabby Picitelli.

The only other thing I can think of is that the Chiefs got wind that some other team is releasing a player they will want to put a claim on today so they wanted to clear a roster spot just in case.

We’ll likely find out the answers to all of these questions later today.