The Kansas City Chiefs’ third-round draft pick in the 2020 NFL Draft has decided to opt out of the 2020 season ahead of 4 p.m. ET deadline today.
According to NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, Chiefs’ rookie OT Lucas Niang is opting out of the 2020 season. Yahoo Sports’ Terez Paylor later confirmed the report. He joins Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Damien Williams as the third Chiefs player to opt out of the upcoming season.
Niang was selected with the 96th overall pick in the draft. He was expected to come in and compete at the guard position and the swing tackle position as a rookie. At TCU in 2019, Niang suffered a hip injury which ended his season early. He was expected to be fully healthy to start the season in Kansas City.
#Chiefs rookie tackle Lucas Niang is opting out of the 2020 season, per source.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 6, 2020
Without a credited season, Niang will be with the Chiefs through 2024, essentially pushing his rookie contract back a year. This is the second offensive lineman to opt out in Kansas City, but the Chiefs are surprisingly deep on the offensive line. They’d obviously prefer to have the rookie in the fold, but they don’t appear to be worse for wear without him around.
This could mean that Mike Remmers is now the favorite to be the swing tackle in Kansas City as opposed to starting right guard. That’d also shift the competition at the right guard spot to a few different players including Nick Allegretti and perhaps Martinas Rankin when he’s activated from the PUP list.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid was asked if he expected any other players to opt out ahead of today’s deadline.
“As far as opting out, that’s at the players’ discretion,” Reid said. “I don’t know, and that’s not because I don’t communicate with the players, it’s just that that’s a personal thing for them. So, I don’t interfere with that.”
Niang might not be the last Chiefs player that we see make this decision before the day is over.
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