Chris Lammons: ‘Feels weird’ missing Chiefs vs Bengals

Former Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Chris Lammons is having to sit out a game in which he’s been involved with both teams—and it “feels weird”.

As the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals prepare to kick off and get things underway for the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium, there’s one player who will be missing the festivities in a scenario that is understandably “weird”.

Cornerback Chris Lammons has been with the Chiefs for the last few years, joining the team as a late-season signing on the practice squad in 2019. Since then, he’d climbed the depth chart to make the active roster on a regular basis as a primarily special teams core player for Dave Toub with occasional reps on defense.

Earlier this week, however, the Chiefs decided to release Lammons in a surprising move that cleared a spot on the active roster. That spot ended up being filled by tight end Jody Fortson who was scheduled to return from injured reserve.

Here’s the thing about Lammons’ release, however. The plan from the front office might have been to try to re-sign Lammons to the practice squad after he cleared waivers in order to then be able to elevate him for game day in what would amount to a technical reshuffling of roster spots.

However, the Bengals had something to say about that. The Bengals decided to claim Lammons on waivers, which not only puts him on their roster, but due to playoff rules, it makes him ineligible to be on their active roster until after the Super Bowl. Yeah.

https://twitter.com/Lammons_1/status/1619838717866430464

That post above is what Lammons had to say on game day and it’s hard to imagine what it would feel like being in that same spot. Lammons was on the Chiefs and ready to help contribute to another Super Bowl run. Instead, he’s let go and then claimed by their opponent—only he somehow cannot play because of the way roster claims work in the postseason. He’s been a member of both franchises in the last couple of days and yet cannot play for either.

That’s definitely weird.