The K.C. Chiefs kicked off their 2021 preseason slate on Saturday. The end result of the game was a 19-16 win over the San Francisco 49ers. However, the preseason isn’t really about wins and loses, it’s about seeing how individual players perform, especially for those who don’t have locked in spots on the 53 man roster.
There were plenty of takeaways from this game, but I decided to focus on the ones that surprised me this week.For instance, I was anxious to see if they would use Chris Jones on both the inside and outside of the defensive line and they did. I was hoping that K.C.’s newly revamped offensive line would look pretty good and they did.
I was hoping that rookie Nick Bolton would look solid in run support and he did. I was hoping that Tershawn Wharton would build off his promising rookie year and he did. Those were all great things that I was happy to see Saturday night, but they didn’t surprise me at all.
A look at the six biggest surprises from Chiefs vs. 49ers.
Those things I just listed are probably the most important takeaways from this game, but there were a lot of players who stood out unexpectedly. A couple of these guys are players who I would not have predicted to make the 53-man roster before the game, but if they can repeat their impressive performances from Saturday in future preseason games, they may just play themselves into a job.
Let’s kick this list off with a player that I was hoping would impress me. Instead he surprised me at a different position.