Chiefs sign another CFL player, re-sign Nakia Griffin-Stewart

As we noted on Monday, the Kansas City Chiefs have signed defensive back Brandin Dandridge (a Lee’s Summit native and former Missouri Western standout) to their roster. Dandridge had been released from the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks.

But that wasn’t the only former CFL player the Chiefs signed on Monday. According to the NFL’s transactions report, the team has also signed former Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end Jonathan Woodard to a Reserve/Futures contract — along with tight end Nakia Griffin-Stewart, who spent the second half of 2021 on the Kansas City practice squad, appearing in two games.

Woodard, 28, comes to the team with a story of perseverance. He originally joined the NFL as a seventh-round pick (226th overall) of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016. But the 6-foot-5, 271-pound defender from Central Arkansas suffered an Achilles injury that summer, forcing him to the Jaguars’ Reserve/PUP list for that season. He didn’t make Jacksonville’s opening roster in 2017, joining the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad shortly after his release.

By the end of 2017, he was on the Miami Dolphins’ practice squad, bouncing on and off their roster through 2018, playing in six games and accumulating 10 tackles and a sack. Injured again during 2019’s training camp, he spent most of that season on injured reserve, joining the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad in early 2020. Signed to a Reserve/Futures contract for Buffalo’s coming season, he failed to make the team’s 2020 roster.

Last May, he signed with the Roughriders — where he finally got a chance to play. There he accumulated 22 tackles, 10 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles over 14 games.

These signings bring the Kansas City roster to 55 players. We calculate the team’s current cap space to be around $2.7 million.