'It doesn't mean his career is over by any means' — Andy Reid gives optimistic update on recently waived Chiefs draft pick
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid provided more context about a surprising roster move the team made ahead of rookie minicamp this weekend.Ahead of the team's official undrafted free agent signings, the team announced it had waived former 2023 NFL Draft fifth-round draft pick BJ Thompson with an injury designation. This decision comes after Thompson […]
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid provided more context about a surprising roster move the team made ahead of rookie minicamp this weekend.
Ahead of the team's official undrafted free agent signings, the team announced it had waived former 2023 NFL Draft fifth-round draft pick BJ Thompson with an injury designation. This decision comes after Thompson suffered a seizure and cardiac arrest during the 2024 NFL offseason and subsequently spent the entire 2024 NFL season on a reserve list.
Until now, there has been little clarity on Thompson's future with the Chiefs and whether or not he'd recovered from his ailments. . .
Chiefs HC Andy Reid provides update on DE BJ Thompson after he was waived with an injury designation
While Reid's update didn't provide much context about what Thompson is going through, it did offer an optimistic tone surrounding what appeared to be a bleak situation.
"Just real quick with BJ Thompson," Reid said at the beginning of his press conference. "I think he saw where we waived him to (injury) designation there. So he is making progress, but just not quite, not quite there yet, but he's made great, great strides. And so in this day and age of the way football is, we had to do something there. And this is the route that we went. But it doesn't mean his career is over by any means, just where we're at today."
Reid indicated this was more of a procedural move for Kansas City than anything else. Since Thompson could not participate at this juncture of the offseason program, this decision made most sense for the team.
Should Thompson clear waivers and not be claimed by another NFL team, he'll revert to the Chiefs' injured reserve list. There, he can continue to rehab and make progress in whatever ailment caused his seizure and cardiac arrest last offseason.
The good news is that there still seems to be some optimism that Thompson could return to football at some point in the future. The question remains when and if it'll be with Kansas City.