Chiefs initial 53-man roster won't include Dwayne Bowe, Donald Stephenson

The Kansas City Chiefs are expected two have two "extra" roster spots for the start of the 2014 season. That's because they have two players who are suspended for the first game and those players will be placed on an exemption list, which will give the Chiefs an extra roster spot for each suspension.

This means on Saturday when the Chiefs make their final cuts down to 53 players, Dwayne Bowe and Donald Stephenson will not count against the 53-man roster (H/T @Jacobs71 for digging up the info). The Chiefs can carry two extra players to account for them. Bowe is suspended for Week 1 while Stephenson is suspended Week 1-4. They will be on the reserve / suspended list to start the season.

I went back and looked at Tamba Hali's 2012 Week 1 suspension to be sure and, yep, he wasn't included on the initial roster either.

After Week 1, the Chiefs will have to move a player off the roster so that they can fit Bowe make onto the 53-man. The same goes for Stephenson after Week 4. There is some strategy involved here. Do the Chiefs keep an extra receiver to make up for Bowe's loss in Week 1? Does an extra offensive tackle make the roster to account for Stephenson's absence? You can probably get away with having just five receivers for Week 1; it's a little harder to roll with two tackles for a month.