Kansas City waived 6-foot-3, 295-pound defensive tackle Marcus Harris on Monday, one day after he claimed the final defensive tackle spot on the team’s initial 53-man roster.
Chiefs Digest reporter Matt Derrick revealed Monday that general manager Brett Veach made the move to claim defensive tackle Bryson Eason and defensive end Jack Pyburn off waivers. Kansas City also released cornerback Kevin Knowles to clear a second roster spot for the newly acquired pair. The swap leaves Sunday’s 53-man group already looking different than the one the Chiefs turned in less than a day earlier, a reminder that the initial roster rarely stays fixed.
Harris wasn’t a vested veteran, so Kansas City had to run him through waivers rather than simply releasing him outright. He can still land with another club before he is able to get back to the Chiefs on their practice squad.
Marcus Harris’s Winding Road to Kansas City
Harris, 25, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2000 and starred at Park Crossing High School before landing at Kansas. He later transferred to Auburn, where he started on the interior defensive line. In his final college season, he totaled 40 tackles and 11 tackles for loss, adding seven sacks and All-SEC recognition, production that pushed him into the 2024 NFL Draft conversation.
Houston drafted Harris in the seventh round, 247th overall, that spring. But over the next two years, Harris bounced through stops on four practice squads — Houston, New England, Buffalo and Houston again — before Kansas City signed him to its own practice squad on Dec. 30, 2025. The Chiefs locked him in on a reserve/futures deal that January.
That contract, a one-year, $885,000 futures deal, replaced a rookie contract that carried only an $85,480 signing bonus across four years and roughly $4.1 million in total value. Harris entered 2026 with career earnings of less than $350,000.
Harris beat out veteran Damon Payne for the roster’s final interior defensive line job over the weekend, with Omarr Norman-Lott opening the season on the physically unable to perform list as he continues rehabbing a torn ACL. Harris had outplayed Payne through the preseason to grab that fourth defensive tackle role, making him one of the last players to hear good news Sunday, and one of the first to hear bad news Monday.
Kansas City’s Defensive Tackle Room After the Moves
Chris Jones, Khyiris Tonga and Peter Woods remain the top three names on Kansas City’s interior line. Eason now occupies the fourth spot Harris briefly held, while Norman-Lott stays sidelined on PUP. Pyburn joins an edge rotation that already includes George Karlaftis, Ashton Gillotte, R Mason Thomas and Felix Anudike-Uzomah.
Neither Andy Reid nor Veach has yet commented publicly on the Monday moves.
The shakeup followed a busy Sunday in which Kansas City released four vested veterans, including cornerbacks Kaiir Elam and Kader Kohou along with defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, while trading for offensive tackle Diego Pounds and placing wide receiver Jimmy Holiday on injured reserve.
Dallas, meanwhile, claimed running back Emari Demercado off Kansas City’s waived list, another complication to a roster still settling barely a day after cutdowns.
Harris can return to the Chiefs’ practice squad if he clears waivers this week and the team wants him back. For now, his stay on the 53-man roster lasted less than 24 hours.
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