KC Chiefs have several injury concerns for Week 7 vs. Titans

Anthony Hitchens

The Chiefs simply cannot get things together at linebacker and, for once, that’s not a reference to the overall talent at the position.

Coming into the year, the Chiefs looked like they were finally going to have a solid stable of young linebackers in second round picks like Willie Gay Jr and Nick Bolton, both of whom could continue to learn from veteran Anthony Hitchens, who looked better last year than ever for the Chiefs, a man comfortable with his role as leader and linebacker in Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

Instead of watching the trio grow together, the Chiefs have cobbled together the second level unit with Gay missing the first handful of games to start the year with a toe injury. Now that Gay is growing back into a regular role and finding his legs, the Chiefs have now lost Hitchens with an elbow injury that looks like it could include some nerve damage.

The Chiefs protected a couple practice squad linebackers earlier this week in preparation for Sunday, including Darius Harris and Christian Rozeboom. Those are moves you make when you expect Hitchens to sit. In fact, at this point, we might be talking about how many games Hitchens is going to miss. There’s no projection here in terms of overall timeline, but the Chiefs aren’t going to have Hitchens on Sunday and he’s been ruled out.

That being the case, it’s going to be a messier than expected week in terms of communication, given Hitchens role in the heart of the defense in helping relay directives to others. Nick Bolton is still only six-games old in his NFL life span. Willie Gay has about 10 games more experience than he does. That’s a tough call, then, for a defense that’s going to face the single toughest running back to bring down in the game in Derrick Henry.