Heavy is the head that wears the NFL crown during roster cuts.
The Kansas City Chiefs, as your reigning Super Bowl champions, will have plenty of teams looking to claim the players they put on waivers during Saturday’s upcoming 53-man roster cuts. This is fairly common for championship-winning teams because they have an advantage in signing undrafted talent, but also because they’re considered to have talented rosters in general.
The Chiefs already had quite a bit of activity on the players they’ve released during the course of training camp. Guys like Andre Baccellia, Cody White and Jovahn Fair all found new teams after clearing waivers. The Dolphins claimed UDFA CB Javaris Davis. The Packers claimed former Chiefs TE John Lovett. If that’s any indication, the team could be seeing more activity on the players they release this weekend.
Teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, who hold the No. 1 spot in terms of waiver priority, will have a chance to claim anyone released by Kansas City. Flashback to 2013, when the Chiefs had the top waiver priority, the team scoured the waiver wire for talent. They landed guys like DB Ron Parker, DT Jaye Howard, DB Marcus Cooper, DE Dezman Moses, TE Sean McGrath and LB James Michael-Johnson. Fans literally dubbed it the “second draft” of 2013 because of the quality of players the team was able to grab to fill out their roster.
The Chiefs won’t have the luxury of doing much claiming themselves this year, holding the No. 32 spot on the waiver wire. But rest assured that teams will be taking a close look at all of the players that Kansas City puts on waivers. There was a lot of competition to sign some of these players following the 2020 draft. Even second or third-year guys waived by the team could be seen as valuable additions to opponents.
The one advantage the Chiefs might have this season is the lack of preseason games and film. Brett Veach even said he’s hoping that will allow the team to “sneak some guys through and continue to work and develop them.” At the end of the day, they’ll still be holding their breath and hoping that 31 teams pass on a few of the players they waive so that they’ll be able to add some familiar faces to their 16-man practice squad.
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