The Kansas City Chiefs have signed offensive lineman Jackson Barton to fill the spot on the active roster vacated by placing Martinas Rankin on injured reserve.
The Kansas City Chiefs have made it official that Martinas Rankin would miss the rest of the season by placing the offensive lineman on injured reserve on Monday after it was revealed he had a patella injury. He was sidelined during Sunday’s shocking loss to the Tennessee Titans.
Rankin came over to the Chiefs in a trade from the Houston Texans that sent over running back Carlos Hyde. Rankin went on to start five games for the Chiefs at guard due to injuries to both Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Andrew Wylie. Rankin performed admirably in their absence and looked like he might be an important asset moving forward.
Unfortunately, the Chiefs must wait until next year to see how much more Rankin can develop. For now, they have replaced him with Jackson Barton, an offensive lineman stashed on the practice squad of the Indianapolis Colts.
Barton was a seventh round choice in this year’s NFL Draft out of the University of Utah by the Colts near the draft’s final selections. Barton is a tall kid at 6’7 and comes with experience starting at left tackle for the Utes. However, he says he also saw action at right tackle in college, and the vision for Barton coming out in the draft was apparently as a swing tackle of sorts for the Colts.
The addition of Barton to the active roster means that the Chiefs backups, for now, also include Nick Allegretti (another 7th round rookie from this draft class) and veteran Stefen Wisniewski. Cam Erving would also join that group once Eric Fisher is healthy enough to return.