Tyreke Smith left Saturday’s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a hamstring injury, and the team then ruled the 2022 fifth-round draft pick out for the remainder of the night.
With most of Kansas City’s key contributors already sitting out and roster cuts a week away, Smith’s injury adds one more variable to an already crowded defensive end competition that’s been reshaped by injuries all summer.
The team’s official account and beat writer Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star both confirmed the ruling shortly after Smith went down at Raymond James Stadium. No information on the injury’s severity was available as the game continued.
As of 9:45 p.m. ET Saturday, no additional update had surfaced on the 26-year-old defensive end’s condition. Patrick Mahomes and most of Kansas City’s regulars watched from the sideline.
Chiefs’ Tyreke Smith Ruled Out With Hamstring
Smith arrived in the league as a fifth-round pick out of Ohio State in 2022, taken originally by the Seattle Seahawks. A training camp injury wiped out his rookie season before it started, and he has bounced between the Seahawks, the Cardinals and now Kansas City.
He signed to the Chiefs’ practice squad last August and got elevated to the active roster in late December, but NFL game action has been scarce. Smith appeared in three total games across four seasons, with no tackles, sacks or pressures logged during the 2025 campaign, according to Pro Football Focus. At 6-foot-3 and 254 pounds, he projects as a depth edge piece rather than a serious candidate for a starting job.
What Smith’s Injury Means for the Chiefs Defense
Smith is fighting for a spot at the back of a defensive end group that has grown noticeably deeper this offseason, and his absence Saturday barely registers against the bigger names ahead of him on the depth chart.
George Karlaftis leads that group after posting 66 pressures in 2025, and Felix Anudike-Uzomah is healthy again after a season-ending hamstring injury of his own last summer. Rookie R Mason Thomas, Kansas City’s second-round pick out of Oklahoma, has flashed the kind of first-step burst that could push him into passing-down snaps right away.
Ashton Gillotte, the presumptive starter opposite Karlaftis, didn’t even suit up Saturday. He’s dealing with a foot injury that sidelined him from the Chiefs’ final training camp practice Thursday, layered on top of an earlier hamstring issue. That absence, not Smith’s, is the one Kansas City’s coaching staff is tracking closely.
Inside, Chris Jones remains the anchor, and free-agent addition Khyiris Tonga and first-round rookie Peter Woods have both impressed through camp, while Omarr Norman-Lott continues working back from a season-ending ACL tear. That collective depth is why one hamstring strain for a player with three career games to his name won’t reshape Kansas City’s plans.
The defensive front’s preseason reviews have been largely positive despite losing veterans Mike Danna and Charles Omenihu this offseason, with coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s group drawing praise for its added explosiveness compared to recent seasons. Smith’s next update will most likely come from Andy Reid in the days following Saturday’s game, once Kansas City has had time to evaluate just how serious the hamstring injury turns out to be, and whether it threatens his push for a roster or practice-squad spot.
Chiefs Veteran Defensive End Exits Buccaneers Game Early With Injury