Tanoh Kpassagnon is still waiting for teams to come calling

Out of all of the K.C. Chiefs free agents, one name who should have surfaced by now on the radar of some teams—or at least should have generated some buzz—is defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon.

Kpassagnon was never going to be ranked at the top of anyone’s free agent rankings, so don’t misread me here. The Chiefs would have never let him hit the open market if Kpassagnon had developed into a consistent pass rusher or a well-rounded force on the edge. The team seems ready to move on from both Kpassagnon and Alex Okafor—both players who have held down the starting end role opposite Frank Clark—this offseason.

Every free agent available has been discarded for one reason or another by their team. There is no perfect product. If an elite player does make it to free agency, it typically means the cost will be exorbitant (a la Joe Thuney). Otherwise, every product is somewhat defective.

For Kpassagnon, that’s also true. He’s a developmental pass rusher who never fully developed. Certainly he can be a productive rotational player for a team like he’s been for the Chiefs over the last few years, but in terms of living up to the second round investment given to him in the 2017 NFL Draft, situated between quarterback Patrick Mahomes and running back Kareem Hunt, it simply never happened. John Dorsey’s vision of a modern Sean Jones never came to fruition.

Tanoh Kpassagnon has yet to generate FA buzz.

That said, Kpassagnon is exactly the sort of chance that many teams like to take in free agency. After all if you’re going to grab a player who has disappointed in some way, make it one who just might not have matured yet. Kpassagnon came into the league as a raw pass rushing talent who was going to need a few years anyway. He played his college career at Villanova, which meant the leap in competition was going to require a learning curve beyond the typical college-to-pro adjustment.

In addition, Kpassagnon never even played defense at the collegiate level until his junior year. He came in as a tight end and switched midway through his time at Villanova. In fact, Villanova was the only school to even offer him a scholarship.

Basically, Kpassagnon was a late bloomer who required a lot of projection for NFL scouts and front offices and the Chiefs apparently liked what they saw in his potential growth curve. That he hasn’t lived up to it doesn’t meant that he won’t. After all, he’s only 26 years old at present, and even recent Chiefs memory should show that some players (ahem, Dee Ford) can bloom much later than expected.

Remember that Shaq Barrett, who has been one of the league’s most dynamic pass rushers in the last two years, had a total of 14 sacks in five seasons with the Denver Broncos and was considered a frustrating prospect before 2019. Haason Reddick went from 7.5 sacks in three years to 12.5 last year. Trey Hendrickson went from 4.5 to 13 last year. At some point, things begin to really click for some pass rushers—the right scheme, the right coaching staff—and then the production suddenly matches the potential.

For a team outside the Chiefs, it seems as if Kpassagnon is exactly the player on whom you take that sort of flyer. Kpassagnon had a single start to his credit in this first two full seasons in the NFL. He had a half season’s worth of starts in 2019 and then was a full time starter just last year. The Chiefs have their reasons for letting him walk and the likeliest stat to make their case would be the surprising lack of pressures (5 pressures, 1 sack) generated in so many snaps (67 percent of all defensive snaps). Those numbers are very frustrating, and it’s clear that the Chiefs thought they should at least let him hit the open market in their post-season player evaluations.

Still Kpassagnon is young and had 11 pressures and 4 sacks in 2019, so he’s flashed in the recent past, even if it’s not a consistent body of work by any means. If a team is going to import a rotational player in free agency, Kpassagnon seems like the sort of young experiment to try for a one-year deal in hopes that a change in scenery will provide disproportional returns. So far, however, Kpassagnon is still waiting to generate any sort of buzz whatsoever.