This one hurts a little. Derrick Nnadi has done everything that has been asked of him during his tenure in Kansas City. Drafted in 2018 when the Chiefs moved up to select his rights, Nnadi has performed admirably as an early-down run-stuffer in the center of the Chiefs defense.
Unfortunately for him, this is really just an odd-man-out circumstance where a respected member of the team is not going to get the type of offer from the Chiefs that he will inevitably get from one of the other 31 teams in the free agent market. It only takes one team, and someone is going to offer the 6’1″ 315-lb. Nnadi a significant amount of money that the Chiefs are not going to be able to match.
The Chris Jones experiment will be a factor here. Is Jones a defensive end, or does the team move him back inside? If he’s a tackle, the Chiefs almost have to move on from Nnadi. Spagnuolo has never employed big-money defensive tackles (Damon Harrison with the Giants was the only one of note in any stint for Spags as a head coach or defensive coordinator), and he’d have two in this scenario.
And even if Jones stays outside (a long shot, at this point in the experiment), the Chiefs still have Tershawn Wharton and Khalen Saunders under club control next season. I just can’t see it happening. It will be an affable farewell, but 2021 will be the end of the road for Nnadi in a Chiefs uniform.