The Chiefs have three quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster, but Chris Oladokun is not among them.
Oladokun was waived with an injury designation on Sunday, which means he’ll revert to injured reserve if he goes unclaimed and won’t be able to play this season unless he’s released with an injury settlement. Oladokun started the final two games of last season and has been in the organization since 2022.
Patrick Mahomes will be backed up by Justin Fields and Garrett Nussmeier this season.
The Chiefs also announced that they have released defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, who played for the team in 2019 and re-signed with them earlier this month.
Linebacker Cole Christiansen, cornerback Kaiir Elam, and cornerback Kader Kohou were released as well. Defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott will remain on the physically unable to perform list while wide receiver Jimmy Holiday landed on injured reserve.
The Chiefs rounded out the day’s moves by waiving defensive linemen Vincent Anthony, Cole Brevard, Ethan Hurkett, Niles King, Amari McNeill, Damon Payne, and Tyreke Smith; linebackers Kam Arnold, Wesley Bissainthe, and Cam Jones; wide receivers Andrew Armstrong, Jason Brownlee, Jacob DeJesus, Omari Evans, Xavier Loyd, and Jeff Weimer; running backs Emari Demercado, Jaydn Ott, and EJ Smith; offensive linemen Ethan Driskell, Chukwuebuka Godrick, C.J. Hanson, Pete Nygra, Esa Pole, and Josh Thompson; defensive backs Tanner McCalister, D’Arco Perkins-McAllister, DeShon Singleton, Melvin Smith, and Zelmar Vedder; and tight ends Mason Pline and Tre Watson.
Chiefs Clips
In June, the Falcons traded for offensive lineman Wanya Morris. They’ll now be releasing him.
Via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Morris will be cut by the Falcons.
Atlanta didn’t give up much for the 2023 third-round pick. The trade consisted of the Chiefs sending Morris and a seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixth-round pick from the Falcons.
Morris is due to make $1.432 million in 2026. Because he has fewer than four years of service, he’ll pass through waivers.
In three years with the Chiefs, Morris had 43 regular-season appearances and 16 starts.
The growing trend of NFL teams keeping their quarterbacks out of the preseason has reached the point where more than one-third of starting quarterbacks did not take a single snap in this year’s preseason.
The reasons were different for different teams: Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Colts quarterback Daniel Jones are recovering from season-ending injuries. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson haven’t played in the preseason in years, across multiple coaching staffs. Rams coach Sean McVay is perhaps the most cautious coach in the league when it comes to avoiding preseason injuries, so of course reigning MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford didn’t play.
But the result is the same: If you’re tuning into a preseason game, you’re increasingly likely to see backup quarterbacks exclusively, and if you see a starter at all, it will typically only be for a series or two.
Here’s the full list of teams that didn’t play their starting quarterbacks at all this preseason, via Mike Reiss of ESPN:
Seahawks: Sam Darnold.
Patriots: Drake Maye.
Cowboys: Dak Prescott.
Ravens: Lamar Jackson.
Steelers: Aaron Rodgers.
Colts: Daniel Jones.
Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence.
Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes.
Eagles: Jalen Hurts.
Lions: Jared Goff.
Saints: Tyler Shough.
Rams: Matthew Stafford.
The Ravens and Chiefs have agreed to a trade ahead of Sunday’s deadline for teams to set their initial 53-man rosters.
NFL Media reports that the Ravens will send offensive tackle Diego Pounds to Kansas City. There’s no word on compensation coming back to Baltimore.
Pounds signed with the Ravens after going undrafted out of Ole Miss this year. He started 24 games at left tackle for the Rebels over the last two seasons and also saw time at the position during three years at North Carolina.
The Chiefs list Josh Simmons and Jaylon Moore as the starting tackles on their depth chart with Esa Pole and Kahlil Benson on the second string.
At a time when the scrutiny of prediction markets seems to be increasing, Polymarket has withdrawn a wager based on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes playing in his team’s Week 1 game against the Broncos.
Via David Purdum of ESPN, Polymarket self-certified the wager on Tuesday. The company withdrew it the next day.
A Polymarket source told Purdum on Friday that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked Polymarket and other prediction market operators to remove such wagers. Polymarket did.
Kalshi, as of Friday, continued to offer the wager.
The NFL has objected to prediction markets based on injuries. The league told ESPN that it regards the Mahomes wager to be injury-related.
NFL executive V.P. Jeff Miller also told ESPN that he hopes the CFTC will prohibit such wagers, and that the CFTC eventually will create a process pursuant to which the NFL will be asked whether such wagers are viable before they are posted.
That’s all the league can really do, given that it has no formal relationship with Kalshi or Polymarket.
The issue of inside information hovers over wagers of this nature. Certain people will know whether Mahomes is actually planning to play. Those people can either make wagers, or they can share the information with others who will.
And that continues to be one of the biggest threats to the overall integrity of all wagers placed on football, through sportsbooks or prediction markets. Certain people have access to information that the public doesn’t, and that information easily can be misused.
Jalen Milroe will get plenty of playing time in Seattle’s preseason finale.
Head coach Mike Macdonald told reporters in his Thursday press conference that Milroe will start and play the entire game on Friday night against the Chiefs. Macdonald does not plan to play the starters.
“I think it’s really great that he has an opportunity — just like the Green Bay [preseason] game last year — where you’re not subbing in, you’re not coming in at halftime,” Macdonald said. “You’re going through the whole process of starting a game and getting in rhythm, managing the situations — all those things we want from our quarterback.
“So, excited to see him play. It’s a great opportunity.”
So far this preseason, Milroe has completed 11-of-19 passes for 88 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s also rushed for 52 yards on six attempts.
Macdonald mentioned Drew Lock will be ready to play if necessary.
Additionally, recent free-agent signee Trevon Diggs is set to get some playing time at cornerback in the preseason finale.
Kickoff between the Seahawks and Chiefs is slated for 8 p.m. ET on Friday.
Chiefs left tackle Josh Simmons has missed more than a week of practice after injuring his back.
Coach Andy Reid said Wednesday that Simmons is being evaluated for his injury.
“He’s just getting his back checked out,” Reid said, via video from SleeperChiefs. “That’s the main thing. He’s doing good when he’s in there. He’s just got a back. Like any other injury, we’ve got to make sure that it’s. . . see if it’s right or what’s wrong with it.”
The Chiefs selected Simmons in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, getting him at No. 32 overall after he tore a patellar tendon during his final season at Ohio State. He started only eight games.
Kahlil Benson will start the team’s final preseason game at left tackle. Benson is listed as the backup left tackle on the Chiefs’ depth chart, with
Esa Pole and Ethan Driskell behind Simmons.
“He’ll be over there at left tackle this week, and we’ll see how he does with it,” Reid said of Benson.
Reid said running back Kenneth Walker has a swollen ankle.
The Giants traded offensive guard Joshua Ezeudu to the Chiefs on Tuesday night, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports. New York will get a 2028 seventh-rounder in return.
Ezeudu, 26, was listed on the team’s depth chart as the backup to Jermaine Eluemunor at right tackle, but coach John Harbaugh had said Ezeudu would train in multiple spots.
The Giants selected Ezeudu in the third round of the 2022 draft.
A calf injury sidelined Ezeudu for all of 2025, but he has appeared in 33 games, with 10 starts.
The Chiefs wanted depth in the interior of their offensive line, especially at right guard behind Trey Smith.
Patrick Mahomes expects to play when the Chiefs take the field for the first Monday Night Football game of the season, September 14 against the Broncos.
Mahomes noted that he was told when he tore his ACL last year that it would be a nine-month recovery, and the Chiefs’ opener is nine months to the day since he suffered the injury.
“It’s nine months,” Mahomes said, via ESPN. “It’s the amount of time [doctors] said from the beginning, that if I did everything the right way, I would be ready to play Week One. I’m someone that, if you put [a goal] out in front of me, I want to go out and get it and maximize every single opportunity, every rep in the weight room, every hour that I can spend in the building to get my body right. This has always been the plan. From the day I got the surgery, as quick as I did, to hopefully the first game of the year, the plan will go accordingly, and I’ll be able to go out there and be myself.”
Mahomes hasn’t been playing in the preseason, but the games have been getting his competitive juices flowing. He said he was pumped up by Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker hitting a 69-yard field goal in a preseason game.
“I just love football,” Mahomes said. “It’s such a cool sport. It takes everybody. Him hitting that field goal, I was as excited, I think, as he was, seeing your teammates succeed. I want to have fun and just enjoy being out there on the field again. I was pretty excited about that.”
Chiefs fans will be excited to see Mahomes step onto the field at Arrowhead Stadium in Week One.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes avoided the physically unable to perform list to open training camp and he’s been practicing without issue all summer, but head coach Andy Reid stopped short of making any pronouncements about his status for Week 1 on Monday.
Mahomes did not play in either of the team’s first two preseason games, but said during Saturday’s game that he wanted to play against the Buccaneers. Reid confirmed that was the case on Monday, but said Mahomes was “probably not cleared enough” for that contest and said he would not look ahead to September 14 against the Broncos at this point.
“He’s doing great,” Reid said, via Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star. “We’ll just see. I’m literally taking it day by day. There are no predictions here on anything. But if the doctors and the trainers and everybody that are involved with this give him an OK — and then most of all, if he feels like he can, then we’ll address that when we get there. But other than that, these other guys are playing quarterback and doing a nice job with it.”
Barring any news of a medical setback for Mahomes in the coming days, it is hard to imagine anyone else taking the first snaps of the season for the Chiefs but Reid isn’t counting any chickens before they’ve hatched.
