Joshua Kaindoh > Alex Okafor
The Chiefs always knew they likely weren’t going to play Joshua Kaindoh too much when they first selected him in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. A defensive end out of Florida State, Kaindoh was all potential and no production at the college level, which is why someone with this measurables and skill set was passed over during the draft’s first two rounds overall.
Last year, Willie Gay was the defensive project taken to develop over time, and he looked good this preseason for a breakout year (before his toe injury robbed him of the season’s first three games on injured reserve). But remember that Gay played in all 16 games but only in, say, a quarter of all defensive snaps.
As for Kaindoh, he was active for the first time but then left inactive the following week. That’s a sign that things trended downward after seeing Kaindoh in action.
But here’s our question. At this point, Alex Okafor is largely coming up short on the field. The pass rush is getting zero push—literally zero for 95 percent of the game—so it’s not as if there’s some veteran presence ahead of Kaindoh pushing him from learning on the fly. If someone is going to struggle, let it be Kaindoh in the hopes he might actually start to have something click for him.
Kaindoh is a complete unknown at this point. He had only 8 sacks in four years at Florida State, including one in his final two years. He’s all projection at this point, but the Chiefs have made the investment with the belief they can coach him up. If there’s already little-to-no production with veteran reps, why not turn those over to Kaindoh and give him some valuable experience?