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The Kansas City Chiefs did some late-night bargain hunting on Friday, agreeing to terms with 25-year-old DE Taco Charlton, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins.
While Charlton has seen varying degrees of success in the NFL, he also played college football for the Michigan Wolverines. During his senior season in 2016, Charlton accumulated 10 sacks and 13 tackles for loss, in part earning his first-round draft status in the NFL.
Charlton will be reunited with a familiar face in Kansas City, one that he knows very well from his days in Ann Arbor. He played behind Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark at Michigan during the 2013 and 2014 college football seasons. While Charlton has learned a lot since entering the NFL, he also learned a lot about playing the position while sitting behind Clark at Michigan.
“I was blessed to be behind DeMarcus (Ware) in Dallas, so I could learn a lot of his stuff,” Charlton told former Dolphins team reporter Alain Poupart. “I grew up behind Frank Clark at Michigan, so I was able to learn a lot of stuff he did. He had a great past couple of years with Seattle, now with Kansas City. They’re guys who have my same body mold — long, lanky, can use their arm length, fast twitch — guys who I can just mirror. I always tell people that everybody’s body moves different, so you can’t do the same exact thing they do exactly how they do it, but you make it fit your body the way you move and you can make it successful.”
Knowing what the Chiefs like at the position, it’s no surprise that he ended up reunited with Clark in Kansas City. Clark recently took to Twitter to give Chiefs Kingdom a little insight about what they’re getting in Charlton. Check it out:
He will be legend I promise that. 🤫 pic.twitter.com/NtBlFPlaDz
— Frank Clark (@TheRealFrankC_) May 2, 2020
That’s a pretty big statement from Clark about Charlton. You can tell the two players are close, which will only help Charlton succeed in Kansas City. The fact that Clark previously acted as a mentor to Charlton is the icing on the cake with this signing. It should give Chiefs fans hope that he’ll make the 53-man roster in September.
In addition to Clark, Kansas City also drafted former Michigan DE Mike Danna in the 2020 NFL Draft. Neither Clark or Charlton played with Danna, but that common bond of UM will certainly help his adjustment to the NFL game as well.