KC Chiefs roster: Reactions, observations from 2021 cuts
By Matt Conner
The Super Bowl difference
No one in Chiefs Kingdom would ever complain about the team being a perennial championship favorite at present. These are the sorts of seasons that fans have long pined for, the chance to really enjoy a sustained stretch with excellent quarterback play and a loaded roster. It’s a chance to look down our collective noses at our rivals in the AFC West and laugh at their poor fortunes.
That said, we often can view roster decisions through the lens of a team less talented. It’s understandable to want to keep every young player in the hopes of watching them all blossom into what they could be. However, a Super Bowl contender is interested in one thing: the current season.
If the window is open, the team is all-in. If a player goes all-in at the poker table, there’s no holding anything back for future rounds. That hand is the hand. There is no other.
This is important to keep in mind when it comes to decisions like not going with Cornell Powell on the active roster. Yes, the Chiefs could lose him to a waiver claim. Yes, the Chiefs wanted him enough to take him in the fifth round and now they might lose him for nothing. Yes, he was already termed a late-bloomer in college and he could do the same in the pros.
None of that matters.
The decision by the Chiefs signaled that they believed Powell was not going to help them go all-in in 2021. And if he can’t help while this window is open, then he must make way for someone else who can. Any worries about Powell’s production in 2022 will have to wait until ’22.