Chiefs' biggest miss of free agency tells us everything about what will be the team's primary focus in the 2025 NFL draft
The Kansas City Chiefs entered the NFL's legal tampering period with comical depth at the defensive tackle position. Only three players — Chris Jones, Fabien Lovett, and Siaki Ika — are under contract. That's a perennial All-Pro and two practice squad players who have never appeared in a regular-season game for Kansas City. No matter how much you like […]
The Kansas City Chiefs entered the NFL's legal tampering period with comical depth at the defensive tackle position. Only three players — Chris Jones, Fabien Lovett, and Siaki Ika — are under contract.
That's a perennial All-Pro and two practice squad players who have never appeared in a regular-season game for Kansas City. No matter how much you like Lovett and Ika, you can only describe that lack of depth as dire.
Here we are. One day after the official start of the new league year, the Chiefs still have just those same three players under contract in the defensive tackle position. Typically, the Chiefs carry between eight and ten interior defensive linemen on the 90-man offseason roster. Last season, they carried eight. This isn't just the team's most significant need from a starter and rotational perspective; they also need general depth at the position.
So, where do they go from here? The opportunity to vastly improve the position group through free agency might've passed the team by, but the 2025 NFL draft could pay dividends. . .
Chiefs' best remaining options in free agency may be re-signing their own players
The free agent market for defensive tackles has dried up rapidly. It's to the point where the Chiefs' best option might be to re-sign their own free agents. Derrick Nnadi, Mike Pennel, and Marlon Tuipulotu are all still out on the market.
They can give Nnadi the four-year qualifying veteran salary benefit contract, which will help the team retain some salary cap dollars. With a decade of service, Pennel is qualified for a veteran minimum salary of $1.255M. Should he be re-signed, Tuipulotu won't command much.
Some free agents who could be considered at this juncture include Da'Shawn Hand, Raekwon Davis, Jerry Tillery, Maurice Hurst, and Taven Bryan.
This all points to defensive tackle being the Chiefs' primary focus of the 2025 NFL draft
Since the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, the Chiefs have told us that the defensive tackle position will be Kansas City's primary focus in the upcoming draft. They have confirmed formal meetings with a number of the top defensive tackle prospects, including Oregon's Derrick Harmon, Ohio State's Ty Hamilton, Toledo's Darius Alexander, and Florida State's Joshua Farmer. They're likely to host several more prospects on pre-draft visits, and the team has scouts on the road in attendance on the pro day circuit. With the lack of depth the team currently has, I wouldn't be shocked to see two of the Chiefs' picks from the top 100 focus solely on the interior defensive line. That doesn't even consider that they lack an edge rusher who can reduce in Steve Spagnuolo's famed NASCAR packages, with Charles Omenihu still out on the free agent market.
Kansas City Chiefs’ best roster move of the 2025 NFL free agency period might also be the most polarizing
Is Nick Bolton’s re-signing the best move of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2025 NFL free agency period?
