Dorian O’Daniel sprained his ankle in Chiefs win over Buccaneers
By Matt Conner
Linebacker Dorian O’Daniel’s sprained ankle was the only injury of note from the Chiefs-Bucs game.
Each week in the National Football League, every team emerges with two primary concerns: the standings and the injuries. In Week 12, the Kansas City Chiefs not only left Tampa Bay with a victory over the Buccaneers, but they also came away relatively unscathed on the injury report, with Dorian O’Daniel’s sprained ankle as the team’s lone concern.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid addressed reporters after the game on Sunday night and said that O’Daniel’s sprained ankle was the only injury of note but that details there weren’t fully available. “We’ll just see how he does by tomorrow,” said Reid.
O’Daniel went down in the first quarter and was designated as questionable to return. The Chiefs linebacker rarely plays on defense but is a fixture on special teams units. Unfortunately he left after only playing three snaps on Sunday afternoon.
The Chiefs selected O’Daniel as the final pick on Day 2 in the 2018 NFL Draft, at the bottom of the third round as a versatile defender out of Clemson. He played in all 16 games during his rookie campaign and earned some time on defense, but since then, he’s primarily been utilized as a core-four player on Dave Toub’s special teams units.
Moving forward, the Chiefs will hope to get O’Daniel back soon—perhaps as early as Week 13 against the Denver Broncos—along with other key injured players like right tackle Mitchell Schwartz.
O’Daniel has 9 total tackles on the season and one quarterback sack.