It’s the day before the Kansas City Chiefs roster cuts, which they will make by Saturday afternoon. That means we’re all predicting the KC Chiefs 53-man roster. Our own Matt Stagner did a 53-man projection a couple days ago and the KC Star’s Terez Paylor and ESPN’s Adam Teicher posted theirs today (click on the links to access those).
SO ... let’s compare 53-man predictions. Where do we all agree? Where are the differences? The position groups without a comment below are ones that all three of us agree on. The others there are differences.
QB (3): Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes, Tyler Bray
RB (4): Kareem Hunt, CJ Spiller, Charcandrick West, Anthony Sherman
WR (6): Tyreek Hill, Chris Conley, Jehu Chesson, De’Anthony Thomas, Albert Wilson, Seantavius Jones
The only difference here is that AP had Seantavius Jones as the final receiver in and Demarcus Robinson was out. Oops! That’s what we get for doing the 53-man roster prediction before the final preseason game. It appears Terez and Teicher will be correct by including Robinson.
TE (4): Travis Kelce, Demetrius Harris, Ross Travis, Gavin Escobar
OL (8): Eric Fisher, Mitch Morse, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Mitchell Schwartz, Bryan Witzmann, Zach Fulton, Cameron Erving, Parker Ehinger
The first seven spots on the offensive line are the same for all. The difference being in the final spot where Teicher doesn’t have Parker Ehinger making it. He has Jordan Devey instead. I don’t have any strong feelings for Devey but Ehinger has been hurt and the Chiefs have a couple of players who are versatile and can play guard and tackle. So, that’s an interesting prediction. I don’t see them giving up on a fourth rounder this early though.
DL (7): Bennie Logan, Roy Miller, Chris Jones, Allen Bailey, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Jarvis Jenkins
The question here is whether you have Roy Miller making it or not. I penciled him in after he was signed but he hasn’t done much since then. Our 53-man has him making it and so does Terez’s but Teicher does not and has them carrying five defensive linemen.
The other notable thing here is that both Terez and Teicher moved Tanoh Kpassagnon from the defensive line to linebacker.
LB (9): Justin Houston, Tamba Hali, Dee Ford, Frank Zombo, Derrick Johnson, Ramik Wilson, Kevin Pierre-Louis, Ukeme Eligwe, Reggie Ragland
Everyone is in agreement with the linebackers except for one interesting point made by Terez. Could the Chiefs keep Tamba Hali on the PUP list to start the regular season? That would mean he would miss at least the first six weeks of the season. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of that. They would save a roster spot by doing that and they would presumably get a fresher Tamba in the second half of the season. Hmm.
DB (9): Eric Berry, Ron Parker, Daniel Sorensen, Eric Murray, Marcus Peters, Steven Nelson, Terrance Mitchell, Phillip Gaines, DeVante Bausby
There is some disagreement at the bottom of this group whether DJ White, De’Vante Bausby or Kenneth Acker make it. I could go either way with any of those. All close calls. Also, Teicher and Terez have them keeping 10 defensive backs while we have nine. It’s a numbers crunch someplace.
Special Teams (3): Cairo Santos, Dustin Colquitt, James Winchester