Tershawn Wharton could be biggest surprise of Chiefs preseason

Tershawn Wharton is one of the Chiefs biggest preseason surprises.

Every year, fans are surprised by a young player or two who happens to win over a team’s front office and coaching staff enough to earn a spot on the active roster. This year, one name that is surfacing from the Kansas City Chiefs is defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton, a player who NFL reporter James Palmer says “seems almost a lock” to make it through roster cuts on Saturday.

Wharton has certainly been helped by other occurrences on the depth chart for the Chiefs. The suspension of defensive tackle Mike Pennel for the first two games of the season will help the Chiefs carry an additional lineman down the depth chart for at least those two contests against the Houston Texans in Week 1 and the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2.

In addition, Chris Jones, Alex Okafor, Michael Danna and others have been ailing for various amounts of time along the defensive line, which leads to more face time with the coaching staff.

However, none of that should detract from the fact that Wharton has done the hard work to get not only this far but to also make his name known on a national level. That’s an incredible hill to climb for any prospect, let alone one who played collegiately at Missouri S&T.

Wharton is a Missouri native and attended S&T to play for the Miners in Division II. By the end of his tenure, Wharton had rewritten the school’s record books with an astounding 11 forced fumbles, 35.5 sacks, and 58 tackles for a loss. Wharton was an All-American in 2018 and three-time all-conference performer in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

The Chiefs competition at defensive end is a loaded one with Okafor, Danna, Frank Clark, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Taco Charlton, Breeland Speaks, Demone Harris, and Tim Ward all trying to make their case for the final roster. For Wharton to break into their ranks and steal a spot away is a tremendous credit to his talent and hard work and gives the Chiefs their latest roster surprise. It will be interesting to see how roster cuts end up working out.