Four Chiefs who helped their roster case vs. Packers

Four Chiefs players improved their chances of making an impact this year in Kansas City’s preseason finale Thursday night.

The Kansas City Chiefs put a bow on the 2022 preseason with a 17-10 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night in Arrowhead.

The final week of preseason competition is always a bit ho-hum. The anticipation for regular season excitement overwhelming fans combined with drastically diminished playing time for starters leads to very little enthusiasm. Week 3 in August is basically the hump day of the offseason.

What Week 3 of the preseason lacks in action for fans, however, is made up for with opportunity for bubble and depth players to prove themselves. There are a number of young players on this team who were considered as key components to the subtle rebuild that the Chiefs underwent this offseason, but they won’t all be impact players. Some won’t even have a place on the 53-man roster.

Four players, in particular, were able to take advantage of this final opportunity of the offseason and helped build their case for greater involvement in the 2022 campaign ahead of Tuesday’s final cuts.

1. Ronald Jones

The worst thing that can happen to a player in the offseason is to go unnoticed. When the Chiefs signed Ronald Jones early on in free agency, it seemed as if he was a shoo-in to be the backup for Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Many even hoped he would emerge as a legitimate contender for RB1.

But then the RoJo chatter was silenced.

Isiah Pacheco was taken in the seventh round of the draft,  the Chiefs resigned Jerick McKinnon late in the offseason, and the running back room suddenly became overcrowded. Jones’ stock plummeted, and he didn’t do much to redeem himself in the first two weeks of preseason action. In Week 3, however, he came out swinging. He had 8 rushes for 43 yards, but more importantly, appeared to be running with aggression.

What makes Jones special is his ability to run between the tackles. With the strength of this offensive line, and specifically the interior, a player who runs well up the middle should thrive in Kansas City. On Thursday, Jones brought some swagger to the field racking up over 5 yards per carry and initiating contact with anybody and everybody he laid his eyes on.

Whether or not his preseason finale was enough to move him up the depth chart is a story that won’t be told for some time. He will, however, have a spot on this roster and a chance to make a greater impact as the season progresses.