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The Kansas City Chiefs are waiving safety Tedric Thompson, as first reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
The #Chiefs are cutting safety Tedric Thompson, source said. A surprise, but they needed a roster spot. The onetime #Seahawks starter goes to waivers.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 28, 2020
The Chiefs needed the roster spot to promote wide receiver Marcus Kemp from the practice squad to the active roster, as confirmed by friend-of-the-site Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest. This had been our expectation once the team moved wide receiver Byron Pringle to injured reserve due to an ankle injury.
The Chiefs are signing WR Marcus Kemp to the active roster from the practice squad, per source. The club is waiving S Tedric Thompson to free up roster space, as first reported by @TomPelissero and @HerbieTeope.
— Matt Derrick (@mattderrick) November 28, 2020
Thompson, 25, signed with the Chiefs in late July and played sparingly on defense this season before being inactive for the Chiefs’ last two games.
Kemp, 25, is back on the 53-man roster after seeing limited action in seven games this season. It was notable that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid mentioned Kemp had been playing the best football of his career when he tore his ACL and MCL in 2019.
The Chiefs likely believe he can do an ample job filling in for Pringle, who will be out at least three weeks, while helping in the hidden phase of the game — something in which Kemp takes pride.
“It always comes down to special teams,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said back in early September. “I know you guys know that Dave (Toub) talked about Marcus Kemp and the job that he did. He was one of our better special teams performers before he got hurt. He came back – credit to the kid – the kid worked his tail off. We signed the kid a week into the start of camp not knowing what type of condition he was in and how he responded after all of that rehab process. He came back, he got acclimated very quickly. He showed that he did all of the work on his own and was quickly able to get up to speed.
“He’s one of those guys we put a high priority on special teams, and we know how valuable that is and he was a guy that Dave was certainly high on and has been high on. We always talk about those tail-end roster spots to get on this team and to fill out depth at those positions you’ve got to play on teams, and he does that really well.”
Kemp’s single catch on the year came on an 11-yard gain in the Chiefs’ Week 7 win over the Denver Broncos.