Here are the biggest surprises from the KC Chiefs initial 53-man roster.
On Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs announced their final wave of roster cuts to get down to the league mandated 53-man roster heading into Week One of the 2020 NFL Season.
Prior to the moves being officially announced, most interested observers could correctly identify many of the moves that general manager Brett Veach would inevitably make either from reading training camp punditry or simply deductive reasoning. Most fans knew that players like fourth quarterback Jordan Ta’amu and defensive tackle Devaroe Lawrence would likely not make the team.
However, there were still plenty of questions left to be answered. Questions like:
- Would the Chiefs roll with Chad Henne as the backup to Patrick Mahomes, despite the impressive play of Matt Moore in number 15’s absence last season?
- Who would ultimately make the roster as the team’s sixth wide receiver?
- Who would be the team’s third tight end, or would they even keep three?
- Who would make up the team’s defensive end group?
On Saturday, we got these answers and many more and, to say the least, there were surprises abound for the defending Super Bowl Champions, Let’s look at some of the biggest.
Chiefs roll with three running backs—for now
Despite the injuries experienced at the running back position in 2019, the Kansas City Chiefs still chose to finalize their initial 53-man roster with only three rushers on the team (four if you count Anthony Sherman, which we’re not because he does not really run with the football).
In order to trim the room to three, the Chiefs cut Elijah McGuire, who spent 2019 on the practice squad and is likely a strong candidate to spend 2020 there, too. No one really thought he’d make the roster but it does seem like Kansas city values his skill set enough to keep him around in case of emergency.
What was unexpected by most was that the Chiefs also cut veteran running back DeAndre Washington. He joined the team as a free agent this offseason after being waived by the Las Vegas Raiders. Before Damien Williams opted out of the season, most expected Washington and 2019 sixth round pick Darwin Thompson to compete for the fourth running back spot. Once Williams officially opted out, it seemed inevitable that the former fifth round pick would make the team. He did not.
Now the Chiefs enter Week One of the season with only three running backs on the active roster. Maybe it stays that way, but we should not be surprised if Kansas City chooses to pick up an available veteran rusher—someone like Adrian Peterson or Lamar Miller would make some sense for the team on a low cost, one-year deal.
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.
Two 2020 undrafted free agents make the team
We spent a great deal of time this offseason talking about the fact that the Chiefs had managed to keep most of the band together from the Super Bowl LIV roster. There was little turnover, several players restructured or returned to the team below their market value, and there were just not that many roster spots open for new players. That’s especially true when one considers that the draft picks were all likely making the team, and the Chiefs also had several players returning from injury.
Despite the long odds, though, two 2020 undrafted free agents made the initial 53-man roster for the Super Bowl Champions. That is both remarkable and impressive.
For the better part of the last two weeks, Chiefs Kingdom has heard good things about small school undrafted free agent Tershawn Wharton—namely that he was the likely stand-in for the suspended Mike Pennel. That proved to be true as the Missouri S&T product made Kansas City’s initial roster for the 2020 season.
Perhaps more surprisingly the Chiefs also kept Missouri Tiger offensive lineman Yasir Durant. The former SEC standout signed with Kansas City after the draft, and apparently proved enough for the Chiefs to keep him in the fold. Of course, his inclusion on the 53-man roster was aided by two opt-outs (rookie Lucas Niang and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif) and a veteran being placed on the PUP list to start the year (Martinas Rankin), but it is still an impressive accomplishment for the local product.
Chiefs give up on Brett Veach’s first draft pick
In his first draft as the general manager of the Chiefs, Veach traded up in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft to make his first selection and took Ole Miss edge rusher Breeland Speaks. At the time, most believed Speaks to be a bit of a reach at the 46th overall pick and was considered a bit of a project.
In the 2018 season, that was quite evident. Speaks was not a productive asset for Kansas City as a rookie, registering only 1.5 sacks on the year. He was mostly an afterthought in the Kansas City defensive game plan.
As with many players on the team that year, a lot of people were ready to blame defensive coordinator Bob Sutton for not getting anything out of Speaks’ talent. With Sutton’s firing, and the hiring of Spagnuolo, there were high hopes for the former Rebel heading into year two. He looked good in the 2019 preseason. Unfortunately, in the final preseason game, Speaks was injured and missed the entire Super Bowl season on Injured Reserve.
The lack of a full offseason, the lack of preseason games and missing a year in the new system’s development all made it difficult to for Speaks heading into 2020. Still, most expected Speaks to be given another chance to prove Veach right with the pick but that has not happened. Veach has cut ties with his first ever selection as a general manager.
This has as much to do with the Chiefs depth of talent at defensive end as it does anything that Speaks did or did not do. From all accounts Taco Charlton and Mike Danna, both 2020 acquisitions, have been very impressive. Demone Harris, who somewhat surprisingly made the cut as the sixth defensive end, played well for Kansas City down the stretch in 2019 and there is little doubt that his experience with Spags paid dividends here.
Speaks will get a chance somewhere else in the coming days. Here’s hoping he can right the ship of his career that once had so much promise.
Brett Veach fails to make a trade…so far
For the first time in his (brief) stint as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, Veach did not make a trade prior to the final cutdown deadline.
Veach has made his living thus far as a free-dealer, always looking to make trades whether it be up-and-down draft boards or with future cut candidates being swapped.
The deals have mostly worked out well so far. The Chiefs traded for cornerback Charvarius Ward in one such transaction prior to the start of the 2018 season. Just one year ago the team shipped running back Carlos Hyde to the Houston Texans just before the start of the season in exchange for offensive lineman Martinas Rankin. Both of those moves were solid for Kansas City. They traded players they were going to cut for players that contributed immediately.
And perhaps that explains why we did not (or have not yet) seen a move from Veach this year. Perhaps the team is comfortable and confident in all primary contributors to the point that he simply has not felt the need to go out and grab another piece to contribute. This team may just be content to roll with the young talent they have now in development, rather than trying to shuffle chairs they’ll just keep in storage (inactive and/or practice squad) anyway.
This is not to say Kansas City will not make any moves in the coming days. However, it is interesting that for the first time in his young career, Veach did not make any deadline deals this time around.
Kansas City carries four tight ends into 2020
The most stunning news of the entire Chiefs roster cut day was what happened at the tight end position for Kansas City. Many believed that veterans Deon Yelder and Ricky Seals-Jones were competing for a third tight end spot that may never actually materialize. There was a chance that the Chiefs would simply roll with two: Travis Kelce and Nick Keizer. And, given how few pass targets the Chiefs give out to their second and third pieces, typically, that made sense.
But the Chiefs kept four tight ends on the active roster, opting to keep both Yelder and Seals-Jones to enter Week One of the season.
This is a very surprising development and, frankly, it is so shocking that it is unlikely to be true on the end of the day Monday. It seems like Kansas City may be trying to give themselves extra time to trade one of these players. Or perhaps the belief is that if they keep them both until Monday, they can get one through waivers easier to keep on the practice squad. Either way, it should not be surprising if this position group changes soon.
You may be able to explain this away by saying the Chiefs need the extra special teams bodies, especially with only keeping five linebackers on the roster. However, Seals-Jones has never been a special teams contributor and appears to be a bit too stiff of an athlete to really contribute much there.
The Chiefs could most certainly be targeting a fourth running back in free agency or trade, and that could replace one of the excess tight ends they’ve kept on the roster. That would certainly make a great deal more sense than keeping all four on the roster.