Mike Pennel works his way back to the Kansas City Chiefs active roster

For those of you in Chiefs Kingdom who've been waiting on the return of defensive stalwart Mike Pennel, today is the day you have been waiting for. The Kansas City Chiefs have officially unveiled their list of inactive players for Week 15 for their road game against the New England Patriots and Pennel's name is nowhere to be found.

In all seriousness, Pennel's ability to climb back to the active roster is the single biggest surprise of the team's list of active players. After all, the veteran only recently rejoined the team in any capacity as a practice squad signing at midseason.

We're not sure whether this shows how much Pennel has still got it or whether this displays just how thin the Chiefs are at defensive tackle, but either way, we're hopeful that a familiar face in a new season will yield strong results.

The Chiefs are leaving both Neil Farrell and Matt Dickerson on the inactive list this week in order to make room for Pennel, who is bound to find himself on the receiving end up rotational reps as a run-stopper from time to time on a defense that's ranked among the league's best overall all season long.

Pennel played two full seasons with the Chiefs and had 53 total tackles in 22 total games back in 2019-2020. Since then he's played with the Atlanta Falcons (in '21) and played in every game last season for the Chicago Bears. He's been with the Chiefs once again since late October and has shown enough at the age of 32 to still find himself back with the active roster.

Here's the full inactives list for the Chiefs

• Joshua Williams, CB
• Neil Farrell, DL
• Malik Herring, DL
• Matt Dickerson, DL
• B.J. Thompson, DL
• Isiah Pacheco, RB
• Donovan Smith, OL