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With the final preseason game in the books, the Kansas City Chiefs community has set its sights on the 53-man roster.
The Chiefs’ front office even decided on their first five cuts a few days before they had to — waiving OT Roderick Johnson, QB Dustin Crum, WR Aaron Parker, RB Tayon Fleet-Davis and LB Mike Rose.
Five down, sure, but still 22 more to go. With an open weekend after the Thursday night game, members of the KC beat took one last stab at predicting the rest of the departures.
Sweeney Suggests Crafty Move
One recent roster projection was from Arrowhead Pride’s Pete Sweeney — his third update of the summer — and it included an interesting theory involving seven-year NFL veteran Austin Reiter.
“Backup center Austin Reiter has been agreeable to Chiefs’ roster moves in the past, and I think he will temporarily be cut to allow for [Blake] Bell to be moved to [the] injured reserve before being re-signed,” voiced Sweeney.
This thought came after the beat reporter predicted that a low number of eight total offensive linemen would make the KC roster. They were: “LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, Geron Christian, Nick Allegretti, [and] Prince Tega Wanogho.”
A versatile piece like Allegretti would allow for a potential move like this, which would come with some risk. “Nick Allegretti is ‘Mr. Reliable,’ and he can play both guard positions in a pinch,” Sweeney noted, but he can also back up the center position in the event that Reiter is lost in free agency.
A former seventh-round draft pick in 2015, Reiter helped win a Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs. Over his three-year tenure with the organization from 2018 through 2020, the interior lineman appeared in 50 total games, starting 38 of them.
He spent the 2021 campaign with Miami and New Orleans before re-signing with KC this March, and then again in May after briefly being waived for a few days. All of Reiter’s seesawing on and off the Chiefs roster is the driving force behind Sweeney’s prediction.
Kinnard Could Be Cut
We reported on it in the past but it’s looking more and more likely that 2022 fifth-rounder Darian Kinnard could be cut. Sweeney was on board with that theory during his final projection:
Leaving fifth-round pick Darian Kinnard off of the initial 53-man roster will likely be the most controversial decision of this entire article, but I simply don’t think he showed enough this preseason to warrant a roster spot. In past roster competitions, rookies would at least have one opportunity to mix in with the first team at a position up for grabs — and during raining camp, we never saw that once with Kinnard; he took the majority of his St. Joseph reps with the third team. Geron Christian, on the other hand, mixed in with the ‘ones’ for a few days. I believe the Chiefs trust Christian and Prince Tega Wanogho more than Kinnard, who may need a year of seasoning — if not a switch to an inside position. Remember: the Chiefs recently waived another fifth-rounder, wide receiver Cornell Powell, and he is still with the club. The practice squad should be an option.
General manager Brett Veach looks to have had a tremendous draft in 2022 but it was also a lengthy one. The expectation is always to hit on every pick but in reality, that rarely happens in the NFL.
In fact, Veach’s exceedingly high success rate this April was well above average around the league. And that’s not to say that Kinnard is a bust if he ends up getting cut. A year of development could be just what the doctor ordered if the youngster were to pass through waivers.
With Kinnard though, the decision will come down to short-term security versus long-term potential. Every roster spot will come at a premium this year and it’s hard to keep all your rookies when the class is this large.
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