Chiefs get burned by taking unnecessary risk with talented young player who had a dominant preseason
He would have been a nice project player to develop.
The Chiefs lost a talented young player on Wednesday.
Kansas City waived offensive tackle Esa Pole on Tuesday, but hoped that he would clear waivers so it could re-sign him to the practice squad. Unfortunately, that did not happen, as the New York Jets claimed Pole.
Many felt that Pole deserved to make the 53-man roster after he had a dominant preseason, allowing zero sacks and zero quarterback pressures on 46 snaps played.
Kansas City signed Pole as an undrafted free agent this past spring. He showed a lot of growth from the beginning of camp through the end of preseason, and he has all the tools you want to work with for an offensive tackle, standing 6-foot-7 and weighing 320 pounds.
The Chiefs ultimately opted to keep the more experienced Wanya Morris, who is entering his third NFL season and has 15 career starts under his belt. They also have Jaylon Moore, who was definitely going to make the team after signing him to a two-year, $30 million contract during the offseason.
Kansas City’s starting offensive tackles are rookie Josh Simmons and veteran Jawaan Taylor. At the end of the day, that’s a solid group of OTs, especially compared to what it had last season. However, if Pole is able to develop into a stud, that’s going to be a big whiff for the Chiefs.
Given how many teams around the league are OT needy, one would think they would have been able to trade Morris for a late-round draft pick. Sure, Morris is more experienced, but as the fourth OT on the depth chart, the odds of him or Pole ever seeing the field in 2025 were low. In that case, it made more sense to keep the guy with the better physical traits and higher ceiling.