A lot has changed for the Kansas City Chiefs since our last offseason depth chart projection.
As part of the new agreement between the NFL and NFLPA, teams are required to cut down their roster to 80 players ahead of August 16. The Chiefs are already down to 80 players. Two starters from Super Bowl LIV have opted out of the 2020 season. The Chiefs have also added two free agents to the fold. We still haven’t had an opportunity to see players hit the field, but we are just a few weeks away from that finally happening.
For the purposes of this depth chart projection, three players (Martinas Rankin, BoPete Keyes, and Juan Thornhill) won’t be listed as they’re currently on the non-football injury or physically unable to perform list. They all still count on the active roster and can be activated at any time ahead of the start of the season.
Here are our latest updated projections for the offseason depth chart:
Offense (38)
| Pos. | First | Second | Third | Fourth |
| QB | Patrick Mahomes | Matt Moore | Chad Henne | Jordan Ta’amu |
| RB | Clyde Edwards-Helaire | Darrel Williams, Darwin Thompson | DeAndre Washington | Elijah McGuire |
| FB | Anthony Sherman | |||
| WR | Tyreek Hill | Demarcus Robinson, Byron Pringle | Kalija Lipscomb, Maurice Ffrench | Andre Baccellia |
| WR | Sammy Watkins | Mecole Hardman, Gehrig Dieter | Jody Fortson | Justice Shelton-Mosley |
| TE | Travis Kelce | Deon Yelder | Ricky Seals-Jones | Nick Keizer |
| LT | Eric Fisher | Greg Senat | Yasir Durant | |
| LG | Kelechi Osemele | Andrew Wylie | Nick Allegretti | |
| C | Austin Reiter | Nick Allegretti | Darryl Williams | |
| RG | Mike Remmers | Ryan Hunter | Lucas Niang | |
| RT | Mitchell Schwartz | Lucas Niang | Jackson Barton |
Observations:
- The Chiefs’ starting RB in Super Bowl LIV, Damien Williams opted out of the 2020 season following his mother’s cancer diagnosis. That means RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the Chiefs’ first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, gets the bump to the first team.
- Coming in behind Edwards-Helaire are Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson. They’ll battle for snaps behind the rookie running back as the two most veteran running backs in Kansas City.
- The Chiefs added free agent Kelechi Osemele. This came following the news that RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif would opt out of the 2020 season and continue working as an orderly in Canada. Osemele has played at LG for most of his career. I anticipate that he’ll play there in Kansas City given both starting guard spots are open.
- Mike Remmers is my choice for the Chiefs’ starter at the RG position. He played 2018 at RG for the Vikings, finishing the season with a 58.9 grade according to PFF. That’s better than the grade that Laurent Duvernay-Tardif finished with during 2019.
- At backup guard spots, I have Andrew Wylie and Ryan Hunter. We’ll see if the Chiefs play Nick Allegretti, Yasir Durant or Darryl Williams at guard at all during training camp.
- Wide receivers Aleva Hifo and Cody White were both waived, leaving only four UDFA receivers from the 2020 class.
- H-Back John Lovett was waived and OG Jovahn Fair was also waived.