The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off of back-to-back Super Bowl championships, so you wouldn’t think they have many holes on their roster, if any at all.
However, one area in which the Chiefs could use some assistance (albeit small) is with their pass rush.
Kansas City lost defensive end Charles Omenihu to a torn ACL in last winter’s AFC Championship Game, which actually leaves a rather sizeable hole in its front seven.
Omenihu finished third on the team with seven sacks in 2023, so even with Chris Jones and George Karlaftis in tow, the Chiefs could stand to replace that production.
Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine sees a potential solution: Yannick Ngakoue.
Ngakoue is somehow still remaining on the free-agent market in spite of a rather stellar resume. Yes, he had a rather off year with the Chicago Bears in 2023, logging just four sacks, but prior to that, he had never registered any less than eight sacks in a single campaign since entering the league in 2016.
Yannick Ngakoue Could Be a Dangerous Addition for the Chiefs
Ngakoue, who played his collegiate football at the University of Maryland, was originally selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
He made the Pro Bowl as soon as his sophomore season after racking up 30 tackles, 12 sacks, six forced fumbles, a couple of fumble recoveries and a defensive touchdown.
While the 29-year-old hasn’t quite reached that level of production since, he did rattle off 28 tackles, 10 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles with the Las Vegas Raiders as recently as 2021. Heck, the following season, he recorded 9.5 sacks with the Indianapolis Colts.
It seems hard to believe that Ngakoue fell off that much in just one year, especially given the fact that he is certainly not old.
Perhaps he is asking for too much money or is simply waiting for the ideal situation, but the fact that he is still available this deep into the offseason is strange, to say the least.
If the Chiefs are able to bag Ngakoue, it would give them a potentially lethal passing rush, and the NFL may very well allow it to happen.
We’ll see if Kansas City seizes the opportunity to add Ngakoue in the coming weeks.
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