The Kansas City Chiefs have made the necessary cuts to get the active roster down to 53 players on Tuesday afternoon. Some of the moves that the team made today were a little more surprising than others. However, the way the roster currently stands is more so unofficial than anything else. For example, tight end Blake Bell made the active roster despite recovering from surgery to fix a hip flexor he suffered during the preseason. Bell is expected to be placed on injured reserve, opening up a spot for linebacker Elija Lee, who was released today, to return to the team.
Also, the Chiefs will likely make more moves by Week 1 of the regular season. For the time being, the team’s front office has decided to keep 26 players on offense and 24 on defense. These are the players that made the team.
OFFENSE – 26 ——————————————————————————-
Quarterback (3): Patrick Mahomes, Chad Henne, Shane Buechele
Running Back (4): Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Jerick McKinnon, Isiah Pacheco, Ronald Jones
Fullback (1): Michael Burton
Wide Receiver (5): JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Mecole Hardman, Skyy Moore, Justin Watson
Tight End (4): Travis Kelce, Jody Fortson, Noah Gray, Blake Bell
Offensive Line (9): Orlando Brown, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, Andrew Wylie, Nick Allegretti, Geron Christian, Darian Kinnard, Prince Tega Wanogho
DEFENSE – (24) —————————————————————————–
Defensive end (6): Frank Clark, George Karlaftis, Carlos Dunlap, Mike Danna, Malik Herring, Josh Kaindoh
Defensive tackles (4): Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi, Tershawn Wharton, Khalen Saunders
Linebackers (4): Nick Bolton, Willie Gay Jr., Darius Harris, Leo Chenal
Cornerbacks (6): L’Jarius Sneed, Rashad Fenton, Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson, Chris Lammons
Safeties (4): Juan Thornhill, Justin Reid, Bryan Cook, Deon Bush
Specialists – (3) —————————————————————————-
Kicker: Harrison Butker
Punter: Tommy Townsend
Long Snapper: James Winchester
Current roster size: 53
- Waived: QB Dustin Crum, RB Tayon Fleet-Davis, WR Aaron Parker, LB Mike Rose, OL Vitaliy Gurman, S Devon Key, S Zayne Anderson, OL Mike Caliendo, WR Cornell Powell, LB Jack Cochrane, TE Jordan Franks, LB Azur Kamara, CB Dicaprio Bottle, DT Matt Dickerson, RB Jerrion Ealy, S Nazeeh Johnson, DE Kehinde Oginn.
- Waived/injured: TE Matt Bushman
- Released: OL Roderick Johnson, WR Josh Gordon, DT Taylor Stallworth, DT Danny Shelton, WR Daurice Fountain, LB Elijah Lee, LB Jermaine Carter, Jr., WR Corey Coleman, OL Austin Reiter
- Traded to another team: None
- Placed on Reserve/Non-Football Injury: None
- Placed on Reserve/Physically-unable-to-perform: OL Lucas Niang
- Placed on Reserve/Injured (ending season): WR Justyn Ross
- Claimed on waivers: None
- Free agents signed: None
- Acquired through trade: None
Observations / Reactions
- The Chiefs will have three QBs on the active roster this season. A move to prevent Shane Buechele from landing on another team following a stellar preseason and camp. He may even be the eventual backup to Patrick Mahomes.
- Almost thought for sure Ronald Jones was as good as cut after the first two preseason games. However, a stout performance against Green Bay in the final tuneup game, eight rushes for 43 yards, was enough for the Chiefs upstairs staff to warrant a roster spot. Jones will also add extra depth in case CEH gets injured again.
- Little surprised the Chiefs are only keeping five wideouts. However, it’s likely age and being out of football for so long may have caught up with Josh Gordon, and Corey Coleman just didn’t put enough on tape to earn a spot on the roster. I’d keep my eye on Daurice Fountain returning to the practice squad, though.
- Kansas City releasing defensive tackle Danny Shelton was a little surprising to me. I thought he’d be a big body the team could utilize when defending opposing rushing attacks. The same could also be said about Taylor Stallworth.
- Jermaine Carter and Elijah Lee not making the team was interesting to me. I figured Carter would take over for Anthony Hitchen as a veteran leader in that linebacker group. But Nich Bolton defiantly developed into that role over the offseason. Lee, on the hand, will be back with the team once Blake Bell makes it on injured reserve.
- The Chiefs keeping six cornerbacks isn’t too surprising. However, the report that they intend to start rookie Trent McDuffie and veteran Rashad Fenton on the outside with L’Jarius Sneed in the nickel is. Until now, Fenton has been primarily used as a dime back, lining across from the opponent’s fourth and fifth-best receivers. This year, he’ll be competing against some of the best wideouts in the league. Hopefully, that won’t be too big of a jump.
