Early roster takeaways from Kansas City Chiefs training camp

Defensive Roster Takeaways

Elijah Lee was the third starting linebacker when the Chiefs were in the base defense roughly 90% of the time on both Friday and Saturday. I’m not predicting that he’ll out-snap Leo Chenal this season (more on him in a second), but it definitely appeared that he’s higher in the pecking order right now than fellow free agent acquisition Jermaine Carter and returning veteran Darius Harris. Last season the Chiefs had four linebackers that got regular snaps. Right now it looks like Lee could be that fourth guy this season.

Leo Chenal may not have gotten the first-string reps that Lee did, but I don’t know if that means he’s behind Lee. It appeared to me that the Chiefs were getting Chenal reps at multiple linebacker spots, including in the middle where he would be making the defensive calls. It may be that the Chiefs want Chenal to be able to back up Bolton in case he would miss time. I believe he’ll still have a shot to be the “starting” third linebacker, but in camp, they may prefer getting him experience at all three linebacker spots with the second string while Lee plays with the first team.

Despite not being in full pads and going full contact, I did see George Karlaftis with a few nice reps. As advertised, he’s not a speedster around the edge, but he has a nice combination of power and motor. Frank Clark did at least have a few reps where he was hustling downfield. Hopefully, that’s a sign that we’re going to see a motivated Clark this season.

As far as defensive tackle goes, Chris Jones was his regular self, but nobody else really flashed to me. I’m still worried that the Chiefs may need to add a veteran in the middle before the season starts.

I knew Joshua Williams had good size, but for some reason, I wasn’t expecting him to be that tall and long. He reminds me a little of Sean Smith from a size/length perspective. It also appears that the Chiefs are going to give Williams every opportunity to play over veterans like DeAndre Baker and Lonnie Johnson. In the two days I was at camp Williams worked pretty much exclusively with the first string while Baker and Johnson worked exclusively with the twos and threes. I think fans need to be patient with Williams. He has the size/length/speed/feet to be great in the NFL, but the learning curve will be steep. Don’t stress if there are some mistakes early on.

While Williams is getting every opportunity to play early and often, that doesn’t appear to be the case for Jaylen Watson. I was excited about Watson, despite him being a 7th-round pick, but he didn’t flash at all the two days I was there and was only getting limited reps with the third string most of the time. I actually think Nazeeh Johnson (who was working with the corners) got more reps ahead of him and second-year man Dicaprio Bootle was ahead of both of them (and looked better too). If Rashad Fenton is back for the regular season and the Chiefs only keep five corners, it looks to me like Sneed, McDuffie, Williams, and Fenton will be locks with the rest of the corners in a dog fight for the 5th spot. Speaking of Trent McDuffie, he was as advertised as well, consistently being in tight coverage, but without any big splash plays.

If you watch the coaching staff work with the safeties, you definitely get the sense they are preparing Bryan Cook for a big role this season. It’s not that they were upset with what he was doing, but it looked to me like they were giving him extra insights into what they’re doing/looking for compared to the other safeties competing for a spot on the roster. Right now it looks like free agent signing Deon Bush is getting the first crack at the 4th safety spot, but the team still seems to like Zayne Anderson and Devon Key as well so that could be a roster fight to keep your eyes on in the preseason.

Now let’s move over to the offensive side of the ball.