The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins are both dealing with injuries in the trenches as they came into the Wild Card round. Early in the first half quarter on Saturday night, the Chiefs added another name to their list of concerns after watching defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi leave the game.
Nnadi left the game in the first quarter with an elbow injury and was designated as questionable to return. After he was able to receive a bit more attention from the team's training staff at halftime, however, Nnadi was downgraded to out. That means the Chiefs will not see Nnadi for the rest of the game.
The Chiefs watched Nnadi leave in the first half of the Wild Card game and now he's been downgraded to out.
The loss of Nnadi up front is going to further hurt an area of the roster that's already thin. The Chiefs have tried multiple times to help round out the defensive tackle position next to Chris Jones for this entire year to no avail.
General manager Brett Veach drafted Keondre Coburn but lost him twice to waivers. He traded a sixth-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for Neil Farrell, but Farrell never plays. Most recently, the Chiefs signed veteran Mike Pennel off the street to the practice squad and it was only a few weeks until he was earning a solid amount of rotational reps.
The good news for the Chiefs here is that a lot of the linemen can slide inside and out, including Jones, Mike Danna, and Charles Omenihu.
Nnadi had 29 tackles and 1 sack in his sixth season with the Chiefs in 2023. He's played in 98 total games after being selected in the second round in the 2018 NFL Draft.