Both Tanoh Kpassagnon and Dorian O’Daniel joined the list of injured Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, but the team is not too worried about either.
Just as one player becomes healthy, another one or two hit the injury list. That’s how things have been so far for the Kansas City Chiefs as the training staff tries to keep players ready and able to play to the best of their abilities. The latest two names to hit the list of injured are young defenders in defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon and linebacker Dorian O’Daniel.
For Kpassagnon, a second year pass rusher out of Villanova, a foot injury is expected to sideline for a “day or two,” per head coach Andy Reid. For O’Daniel. a timeline was not given, but a similar sentiment that he would be okay was given from Reid about the rookie’s thumb injury.
The idea of having several weeks of training camp is nice because it allows the Chiefs to take their time and heal while they’re still learning and growing into game shape. The downside of losing both of these players in particular is because they could both potentially play significant roles on a revamped defense, and yet they could both use as many reps with their particular units and in coaching drills as possible.
O’Daniel is exciting as a young hybrid defender the Chiefs selected at the very bottom of the third round. Brett Veach seemed very excited about the various ways in which Bob Sutton and Dave Toub could use his talents on special teams, likening him to a chess piece you use to eliminate certain strategies or nullify certain offensive players.
Kpassagnon was a raw project coming out of college last year at this time that everyone knew would take at least a year to start to click. While he showed well in some ways in a Week 17 win over Denver, the ‘Nova product still needs considerable reps to round out his game and develop better technique. This might not be the year the game slows down enough for him, but progress is definitely being made.
Kpassagnon had 13 tackles and 2 sacks last year in limited duty for the Chiefs.