Grading every KC Chiefs 2022 rookie at the bye week
Leo Chenal, Linebacker (Round 3, Pick 103)
Heading into the offseason, it was pretty clear that Nick Bolton and Willie Gay were the future at the linebacker position for the Kansas City Chiefs, but then they selected Leo Chenal out of Wisconsin late in the third round of the draft. Chenal was about as big of a project as there was at the linebacker position in his draft class. He was a downhill force with the Badgers as stopping the run as well as blitzing were his strengths, while pass coverage was an issue for him at times throughout his entire college career.
In his rookie campaign so far, he’s been underwhelming defending the run and serviceable on passing downs, though the sample size is small as he’s only played just over 100 snaps on defense. What was supposed to be his strength coming into the NFL has been what he’s struggled with so far this year and what was expected to be a significant weakness has been somewhat manageable. Oddly, I view that as encouraging since I’m not sure it’s likely that he’ll continue to struggle to stop the run, while he could continue to hold his own in pass coverage. He was not expected to play more than a rotational role this season, as demonstrated by Darius Harris playing the majority of snaps during Willie Gay’s suspension, so I’m not going to punish him for playing like a project linebacker since that’s what he was supposed to be all along.
Grade: C+
Joshua Williams, Cornerback (Round 4, Pick 135)
Similar to Chenal, cornerback Joshua Williams was always meant to be a project. He played college football at Divison II Fayetteville State and it was expected that he would have some growing pains while making the jump to the NFL. He has played over 50 defensive snaps in a game twice this season due to injuries to Trent McDuffie and Rashad Fenton. When McDuffie originally went down, fellow rookie Jaylen Watson was the next man up and not Williams, who was selected over 100 picks earlier.
Joshua Williams saw significant playing in Week 6 against Buffalo and Week 7 against San Francisco. In Week 6, he was beaten up a little bit by Josh Allen (who was 5 of 7 for 93 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a 153.3 passer rating when targeting Willaims), while he bounced back against the 49ers (he allowed 3 catches on 5 targets for 45 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception, and a passer rating against of 89.6). In the Buffalo game, he wasn’t in a terrible position on the touchdown allowed to Stefon Diggs, it was just a great throw by Allen and a nice catch by Diggs. Not much he could have done short of committing pass interference. His interception of Jimmy G in Week 7 was one of the defensive highlights of the victory over the Niners.
Overall, Joshua Williams came into the season with limited expectations for this season. 2022 was always supposed to be a redshirt-type year for him and he was only meant to see action on special teams, garbage time, or in the case of injuries, with the latter being the primary reason he’s played so much in recent weeks, playing well over 100 snaps over the past two games. Given his expectations and who he matched up against, he’s played fairly well. He hasn’t been amazing but has shown that the Chiefs were wise to take a chance on him in the fourth round.
Grade: B