The biggest surprises from the Kansas City Chiefs 53-man roster

Kansas City cuts recent acquisition, veteran safety – keep Watts (again)

The secondary was one of the bigger question marks heading into cut down day for Kansas City, and the team made a surprising move here as well.

In late August, the Chiefs brought in former San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins safety Adrian Colbert. It was assumed that the team did so for one of two reasons: either they’d be moving on from Armani Watts or they believed that Juan Thornhill would not quite be ready for the regular season.

It turns out that neither of those were true. Not only will the second year star Thornhill be on the active roster for the season opener, but Watts, a 2018 fourth round selection, has also made the cut for the defending champs. And, as a result, the team has cut Colbert, whose tenure in Kansas City lasted exactly (and only) two weeks.

This was a bit of a surprise if only because of how Watts has played in two years with the Chiefs. The switch to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s system in 2019 failed to prove fruitful (so far) for Watts, and the team essentially replaced his role as the fourth safety with the signing of veteran Tedric Thompson earlier in the offseason (who also made the team).

Watts clearly still has the eye of someone in the organization and that person is probably special teams coach Dave Toub. Watts is a good special teams player and will likely be a four-core player there for the Chiefs in 2020, it appears.