The Kansas City Chiefs recently claimed center Austin Reiter from the Browns. We asked a Browns analyst to tell us a bit more about the OL.
As the Kansas City Chiefs firmed up their roster over the last few days, general manager Brett Veach shook up the offensive line by trading veteran Parker Ehinger, extending Cam Erving and claiming a pair of newcomers in Ike Boettger from the Buffalo Bills and Austin Reiter from the Cleveland Browns.
We’ve already taken a closer look at Boettger and his potential this week, but today we’re looking at Austin Reiter. Reiter will back up the interior offensive line for now along with Jordan Devey until the Chiefs make further roster moves. Hopefully Mitch Morse will prove to be a nice tutor for the Chiefs at center.
We recently asked Chris Pokorny, the editor of Dawgs By Nature, to tell us more about Reiter, a man who is coming off of a recent ACL injury but proved himself capable in a short stint as a starter.
Here’s the full story:
Why did the Browns get rid of Reiter?
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In 2016, the Browns had to play musical chairs at center due to an early-season injury to then-starter Cameron Erving (who, funny enough, is in Kansas City now). Austin Reiter was initially signed to the 53-man roster as an insurance policy, but received one spot start as a form of,
“let’s try anyone out and hope it works.”
Reiter’s debut was quite impressive, and fans were getting excited that the team had stumbled into their replacement at center. But before the end of the game, he suffered a torn ACL. In 2017, because Erving had been so awful, the team signed J.C. Tretter from the Packers as their new center. Reiter, to his credit, won the backup job despite coming off of a serious injury.
As far as why he was cut this year, those things happen when you have a new general manager: they will want their own guys, especially when it comes to backups. Former Chiefs GM John Dorsey claimed a young center from the Rams, deciding they’d rather see what upside he has for the future.
The Chiefs are surprising fans by remaking their o-line depth on the fly just before the season. What are they adding in Reiter?
I’m not up-to-date on how that remake is going in Kansas City, but I would say that if the Chiefs have any serious struggle at the center position, Reiter would deserve an opportunity to start.
Is there any greater potential in Reiter to be a potential starter down the road?
Before the Browns signed Tretter in 2017, a lot of fans were pulling for Reiter to prevail and be the team’s starter. It may be foolish to have such a high level of optimism based on one pre-ACL injury start, but he proved to be over that injury the past nearly two years by being a backup in 2017, and then being on the offseason roster all of 2018.