KC Chiefs roster: Armani Watts, Malik Herring given injury designations

The K.C. Chiefs helped to clarify the official roster status of a couple players who came into training camp unable to participate with other returning players who were injured. On Saturday, the Chiefs made it official that veteran safety Armani Watts and rookie defensive end Malik Herring wouldn’t be practicing soon thanks to lingering rehabilitation and rest needed for their respective injuries.

Watts was placed on the Chiefs Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, per the league’s transaction report. The fourth-year safety broke his foot earlier this offseason which complicated his ability to get ready for an important moment given that Watts is headed for a contract year.

In the final year of his rookie deal, Watts was positioned to be an important piece on Dave Toub’s special teams units once again, but now it will be interesting to see how the Chiefs approach it, especially if they really like an up-and-coming player who could learn the ropes, take his roster spot, and remain a cost-controlled special teams performer for the next few years. Names that come to mind here are Zayne Anderson and Devon Key, both rookie free agents with lots of college experience at BYU and Western Kentucky respectively.

Being on the PUP list doesn’t mean anything major for the roster, since Watts still counts against the Chiefs offseason roster limit of 90 players. In addition, he’s also not supposed to be held out a certain amount of time until he’s on the PUP list during the regular season. At that point, he would be out six weeks.

As for Herring, he was given a non-football injury designation (NFI) which was entirely expected given that he just tore his ACL at February. Herring was hoping to boost his draft stock by participating in the Senior Bowl, but instead he found himself on the outside looking in of April’s draft. The Chiefs signed him as a rookie free agent and he’s a prime candidate to stash on injured reserve for the season.