The Kansas City Chiefs placed Derrick Gore and Lucas Niang on injury lists to get down to the NFL’s mandated limit of 80 players on the active roster.
Earlier this week, the Kansas City Chiefs announced the release of a few players as part of the required set of moves to reduce the number of players on the roster to 80. Now with the NFL’s mandated 80-man roster deadline in view on Tuesday afternoon, the Chiefs reached the required amount by placing running back Derrick Gore and offensive lineman Lucas Niang on varied injury lists.
For Gore, the Chiefs shifted the young back to injured reserve with a thumb injury. As for Niang, he is now on the Physically Unable to Play list, which by definition forces him to miss the first four weeks of the regular season at least.
The loss of Gore for now doesn’t complicate much in terms of the picture at running back. The Chiefs seem set with Clyde Edwards-Helaire as the lead back with Jerick McKinnon and Isiah Pacheco as the favorites to join him on the active roster with one preseason game to go. Ronald Jones is still fighting for one of those spots, while Tayon Fleet-Davis hopes to land on the team’s practice squad.
As for Niang, he has the talent to reclaim his starting spot on the right side of the offensive line when healthy, but he’s had a difficult time staying available so far in his short NFL career. He opted out of his first season in the NFL and dealt with numerous injuries in his first full season. A knee injury has kept him from playing in the preseason at all and now he will be out until well into October.
On Monday, the Chiefs said goodbye to two defensive backs in Nasir Greer and Brandon Dandridge. They also waived offensive lineman David Steinmetz.
The Chiefs are at 80 players at present with a need to release 27 more players, at least, by next Tuesday, August 30, to get down to the 53-man active rosters allowed for the regular season.