Getty Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid during Week 6 of the 2022 NFL season.
There have been a few players that have seesawed on and off both the Kansas City Chiefs roster and practice squad in 2022, and two of those prospects were on the move again after Week 6.
First, the return. As expected, defensive back Dicaprio Bootle was re-signed to the practice squad after a brief call-up to the active roster against the Buffalo Bills and a trip through waivers after that. Chiefs Digest reporter Matt Derrick reported the transaction on October 18.
CB Dicaprio Bootle cleared waivers today and has re-signed with the Chiefs practice squad. By my count that puts the practice squad back to a full 16 players.
The other was poached from the Kansas City practice squad today on October 19, and it’s not the first time this pass rusher has been stolen away from an organization.
Vikings Poach DE Benton Whitley From Chiefs
Former Holy Cross defensive end Benton Whitley began his NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams. He was then plucked off their practice squad by KC general manager Brett Veach.
Later, the Chiefs released Whitley before adding him to their practice squad after he cleared waivers. That didn’t last long, however, as the Minnesota Vikings announced that they’d be poaching the youngster to their 53-man roster this afternoon.
The #Vikings have signed OLB Benton Whitley (@Bxnwhitley) to the 53-man roster.
Whitley is a 23-year-old undrafted rookie who has yet to appear in an NFL game despite having swapped organizations three times during his very short tenure in the league. He was a fifth-year senior at Holy Cross in 2021 and logged a total of 15.5 sacks over 42 games for the Crusaders. The rest of his stats included 111 total tackles (79 solo, 26.5 for a loss), two passes defended, and one forced fumble.
Apparently, Whitley is quite the hot commodity as a prospect because teams are going out of their way to get their hands on him. If the Vikings end up releasing him at any point this season, the Chiefs would then have another chance to steal him back off waivers.
Andy Reid Provides Week 7 Updates on Willie Gay, Trent McDuffie & More
Head coach Andy Reid did address the media today on October 19, providing several Wednesday updates ahead of Week 7. Among them were a few notable status reports.
“Trent McDuffie will practice,” Reid stated on a positive note, “and we’ll just see how he does as we go.” The first-round cornerback has been sidelined since Week 1 with a hamstring injury and while the Chiefs teased that he could return against Buffalo, fellow rookie Joshua Williams ended up revealing that he knew he was starting early on in the preparations.
On the flip side, veteran CB Rashad Fenton did not practice after missing Week 6 with a hamstring issue of his own. He’ll be a name to monitor as the Chiefs get ready to head to San Francisco.
As for long-term absences Blake Bell (TE) and Lucas Niang (RT), Reid confirmed that neither would return until “somewhere after the bye” week at the earliest. “They are getting better,” Reid voiced with an unenthusiastic tone, “we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
Translation: Don’t expect Bell or Niang to appear in an NFL game anytime soon.
Safety Bryan Cook (concussion) and linebacker Willie Gay Jr. (suspension) also returned to practice but Reid had an odd response when it came to the latter playing against the 49ers. “We’ll just see how it goes here this week,” he commented on Gay after sort of wincing at the question.
The expectation was that the third-year linebacker would start again once being cleared of his four-game suspension, so the noncommittal response from Reid is definitely something to keep an eye on.
The only two other absences during the initial day of practice, per Reid, were defensive end Mike Danna and left guard Joe Thuney, but the Chiefs head coach stressed that both should be good to go in Week 7.