Chiefs elevate 3 players from practice before playing Falcons

The Chiefs have elevated three players from the practice squad in time to face the Falcons.

The Kansas City Chiefs have announced a series of roster moves before their scheduled Week 16 game against the Atlanta Falcons. On Saturday, the Chiefs announced that three players have been activated from the practice squad onto the official roster: linebacker Omari Cobb, wide receiver Gehrig Dieter, and cornerback Deandre Baker.

Dieter will be the name most familiar to Chiefs fans from the last few years as a wideout who has stuck around the team in one way or another since 2017. The Chiefs signed him out of Alabama as a rookie free agent following the draft, and he made enough of an impression to land on the team’s practice squad for that full season. Gehrig was active for his first official NFL snaps in 2018 as a special teams player for four games.

Over the last two seasons, Dieter has moved back and forth between the active roster and the practice squad. He’s active for this game because the team had an extra chance to elevate a player this week due a COVID designation (since linebacker Anthony Hitchens is on the reserve list due to quarantine).

Baker was activated last week for the Chiefs as well for his first ever snaps in a Chiefs uniform. He played seven snaps on special teams but none on defense. It will be interesting to see how much playing time he earns over these last two weeks for K.C. given that he was the first cornerback taken in the draft just last year with the New York Giants (and that he had 15 full starts last season).

Cobb will be present given the loss of Emmanuel Smith last week to injury, the placement of Hitchens on the reserve/COVID list, and the continued absence of Damien Wilson. Willie Gay, Jr. and Ben Niemann are the only healthy linebackers on the roster apart from Darius Smith, which means Cobb could get some real playing time on Sunday. He originally signed with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of Marshall this spring.