Chris Jones, Steve Spagnuolo discuss impact on Chiefs’ defense of losing Omar Norman-Lott for rest of the season
Kansas City is now thinner at an already weak position.
Defensive tackle is the weakest position group on the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster.
Multi-time All-Pro Chris Jones is obviously a great place to start, but there isn’t a lot of quality behind him. Veteran Jerry Tillery is a run-of-the-mill rotational player, and Derrick Nnadi is Pro Football Focus’ lowest graded DT in the NFL.
The Chiefs hoped that second-round draft pick Omarr Norman-Lott would develop into an impact player, but injuries have derailed his rookie year. An ankle and shoulder injury caused him to miss two games early on, and his season ended last week as he tore his ACL against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Chris Jones bummed over losing Omarr Norman-Lott for the season
“That’s my little brother, man,” Jones said to the media about Norman-Lott. “Very unfortunate situation, and I’m praying for him. He’s such a hungry bull, and he was finally getting it together and coming along. After Week 2, he had the injury, was down, but finally got healthy and able to play a credible amount of snaps. I started being dependent on him to take up the double-team for me. To have him go down, we lose a big part of our defense. Even though he’s a young player, we asked him to do a lot.”
It’s a very tough break for Norman-Lott, but he did get to experience training camp, preseason, and regular season action. That will pay off for him in Year 2, which hopefully he’ll be ready to start on time. As for the rest of the 2025 season, the Chiefs have to find a way to replace him.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo discusses replacing Omarr Norman-Lott
“I thought he (Norman-Lott) gave us some juice inside with the way he moved,” Spagnuolo told the media. “We won’t have that now. We may get some next guys to step up, Jerry (Tillery) will get more time, and Derrick (Nnadi) will get more time. I think Derrick’s been practicing and playing really solid for us. Chris (Jones) is in there. We may have to ask some defensive ends to go inside and mix and match a little bit. We took a little bit of hit there, because I thought Omarr was doing that, and I expected him to continue that way.”
More playing time for Tillery and Nnadi doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. The Chiefs have DTs Marlon Tuipulotu, Zacch Pickens, and Brodric Martin on the practice squad, but can’t expect any of them to make a difference.
Expect Spagnuolo to rotate DEs Mike Danna and Charles Omenihu inside more frequently. The best way for K.C. to make up for losing Norman-Lott would be to trade for a quality DT, which it has been rumored to be trying to pull off.
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