The Kansas City Chiefs lost another defensive end for the rest of the year on Sunday when Alex Okafor went down with a torn pectoral.
The Kansas City Chiefs learned the worst on Monday that veteran defensive end Alex Okafor would be lost for the rest of the 2019 season with a torn pectoral muscle, a move that will likely have him placed on injured reserve soon.
Okafor suffered the injury on Sunday in the team’s impressive win over the visiting Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium, shortly after he took down Drew Lock for the first of two Chiefs sacks on the day. The sack was Okafor’s fifth of the season.
Early reports insinuated that Okafor’s injury was serious, and the fact that the Chiefs declared Okafor out for the rest of the game as quickly as they did after he left the field bolstered that idea.
Okafor has struggled to stay healthy for the Chiefs this season off and on. He went down with an ankle injury against the Green Bay Packers and failed to return until several weeks later in Week 13. He also missed the team’s fifth game of the season against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Chiefs are now quite thin at defensive end as they head into the final two games of the season and await the postseason. Breeland Speaks was lost for the entire year in the preseason, and Emmanuel Ogbah, the team’s sack leader at midseason, also was placed on injured reserve earlier in the year. Now Okafor joins him, which likely forces a move by Chris Jones to the outside to help spell Tanoh Kpassagnon for reps.
Okafor finishes his first season in Kansas City with 22 tackles, 5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 1 batted pass. His five sacks represent the second-highest total of his career.