Kansas City Chiefs claim guard Ethan Cooper on waivers from Green Bay Packers
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs have claimed guard Ethan Cooper who was waived by the Green Bay Packers in an exchange of offensive linemen on the roster.
The Kansas City Chiefs have a made a couple roster moves to alter the bottom of the depth chart along the interior of the offensive line, per Field Yates, with the announced waiver claim of guard Ethan Cooper and the subsequent release of center Jack Allen.
In recent days, the Chiefs had brought in Allen as a waiver claim from the Chicago Bears to replace Tejan Koroma for preseason depth at center. Koroma had suffered a season-ending injury during training camp and was recently placed on injured reserve by the Chiefs after going unclaimed on waivers. To take his place, the team had added Allen, a former Michigan State star who was released by the Bears shortly after the first preseason game for Matt Nagy’s team.
Cooper has made his way around the NFL in just two short years. He signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers after going undrafted in 2017 but he was released shortly before the regular season started. The New York Giants called a few weeks later with a practice squad opening and he stayed there until earlier this summer when he was waived by the G-Men. The Packers then claimed him on waivers and kept him for the last few weeks. The Packers then waived him on Tuesday and the Chiefs submitting the winning waiver claim.
Cooper is a 23-year-old small-school product from Indiana (Pa.) who was a D2 All-American. He’s got the requisite size at 6’2, 322 lbs. but the level of competition was always going to be the knock against him. Whether or not the Chiefs want to be the patient team remains to be seen, but at least they can take an up close look in the preseason to know if it’s worth further effort by this coaching staff or not.