After the first preseason game against Chicago on Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs are a little closer to finding the players who’ll make up the final 53 rosters for the upcoming NFL season. Just as the Chiefs’ Monday morning training camp session was about to begin, the team announced via its official Twitter account that they had made five different roster moves.
The Chiefs are parting ways with wide receivers Gary Jennings and Omar Bayless, cornerback Lonnie Johnson, and offensive tackle Evin Ksiezarczyk. They’ve also made the signing of nose tackle Danny Shelton, which was made last week.
Jennings, 25, was released with an injury designation. The Chiefs will have the option to place him on the Reserved/Injured list if he clears waivers. Jennings entered the league in 2019 as a fourth-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks but quickly bounced around the NFL, spending part of his rookie season with the Miami Dolphins before spending time on the practice squads of the Ravens and Bills in 2020. In 2021, he jumped practice squads of the Colts and Raiders before landing in Kansas City earlier his year.
Omar Bayless signed a future/reserved contract with the Chiefs in early 2022. He originally entered the league with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent.
Lonnie Johnson was one of the more significant cuts the Chiefs made this morning. Kansas City dealt a conditional 2024 seventh-round draft pick to the Houston Texans for Johnson’s services shortly after the NFL Draft. Some early speculation was that he’d play alongside former Houston teammate Justin Reid and opposite L’Jarius Sneed on Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.
Kansas City most likely liked what they saw from the rookie defensive backs such as Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, and Joshua Williams during their scrimmage against the Bears and decided they could spare the veteran cornerback.
Johnson previously spent his first three seasons in the NFL with the Texans, being drafted by the team in 2019 as a second-round pick. Kansas City will get back the draft selection they used to acquire Johnson following his release. The Chiefs also got $311k in additional cap space for the move.
The Chiefs also released offensive tackle Evin Ksiezarczyk, whose stay in Kansas City comes to an end after spending the last three weeks at training camp since the Chiefs signed him on July 25.
The Chiefs have until Tuesday at 3 pm Central Time to cut their roster down to 85 players. Following these moves, the team currently has 87 players on the roster.
