Khalen Saunders, BoPete Keyes among Chiefs inactives against Buccaneers
By Matt Conner
The Chiefs announced the list of inactive players ahead of their game against the Buccaneers in Week 12.
The Kansas City Chiefs are close to taking the field in Week 12 for one of their single biggest matchups of the regular season—on the road against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—and they’ve made their choices of which players to activate for the game and which players will be inactive.
For the most part, there are very few surprises among the list of Chiefs inactives for the game, since every one of those players have been inactive before, if not multiple times. However, there’s still something to be said for the disappointment of seeing defensive lineman Khalen Saunders once again as a healthy scratch.
Saunders went down in Week 1 with a dislocated elbow that forced him to miss several weeks in the front half of the season. Since then, however, he’s returned to practice and then Week 7 against the Denver Broncos only to then be relegated back to the bench for reasons unknown.
It’s possible that Saunders’ elbow remains problematic but the most likely cause for his benching at this point is the numbers involved—namely that there are only so many needs for defensive interior linemen. The Chiefs have Chris Jones, Mike Pennel, and Derrick Nnadi as obvious choices alongside him, but the emergence of Tershawn Wharton as a rookie free agent turned key contributor has been one of the season’s biggest surprises.
For every surprise, however, that means another player has lost his spot and Saunders seems to be that man. While that’s good for Wharton, that’s not a good look for a player in whom the Chiefs invested a third round pick just last year.
Here are the full list of Chiefs inactives:
- CB BoPete Keyes
- LB Darius Harris
- TE Ricky Seals-Jones
- DE Tim Ward
- DT Khalen Saunders
As for the Buccaneers, here are the inactive players:
- QB Ryan Griffin
- RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn
- CB Jamel Dean
- LB Jack Cichy
- OG John Molchon
- TE Tanner Hudson
Next. These Chiefs have the most to gain down the stretch. dark