Kansas City Chiefs add former Chargers linebacker Cole Christiansen

Former Chargers linebacker Cole Christiansen has signed on the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad for 2022.

For the most part, the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad is comprised of familiar faces on both sides of the ball, players who spent the last several months with the team throughout OTAs, minicamps, and training camp earning the trust of coaches. But on Thursday, the team added a new face to the mix with the addition of former Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Cole Christiansen, per NFL reporter Aaron Wilson.

Christiansen joins the Chiefs after spending the last three seasons with the Chargers as a former undrafted free agent who was first brought on board back in 2020 following the draft. Christiansen is an Army product who comes with the work ethic you might expect and he excelled on special teams enough to make it to the active roster for a few games in his first season.

The Chargers stuck Christiansen back on the practice squad for the entire 2021 season and brought him back for a third year with the organization this last winter on another futures deal. However, one or both sides apparently wanted to move on with his shift to the Chiefs practice squad this year.

The Chargers and Chiefs both have greater depth at present than they have at the position in recent years, so it’s hard to believe Christiansen is going to make any further inroads with the Chiefs than he did with L.A. His role would be as a four-phase special teams player on defense, a la Dorian O’Daniel, with obvious limitations in any defensive role. The Chiefs had a need for such players in the last few years, but their attempts to claim greater depth in 2022 have solved those issues with a higher overall floor.

Christiansen has survived this long in the league, however, as a rookie free agent and weirder stories have been told than someone fighting his odds to climb the depth chart.