Kansas City Chiefs: 10 UDFA signings who can make 53-man roster

The Kansas City Chiefs just wrapped up rookie minicamp and it seemed to be a productive and very competitive minicamp. So, let’s take a look at which of these rookies have the best shot at making the 53-man roster this year.

In the words of Andy Reid, “all in all it was a good camp.” Now this is a blanket statement and I wouldn’t expect Coach Reid to come out and say it was a bad camp for the Kansas City Chiefs, but it’s still nice to hear positive things coming out of rookie minicamp.

So, does this positivity mean that there are gonna be a lot of these guys make the 53-man roster? Probably not.

Last season there were nine rookies on the 53-man roster and only three of them were undrafted free agents. Something similar to this is probably a pretty realistic scenario for this season as well.

There is still a lot of offseason ahead, so things are likely to change, but to this point, let’s look at the ten UDFAs most likely to make the 53-man roster.

Cody Thompson, WR, Toledo

Up to this point, the most chatter coming out of camp about undrafted free agents is definitely centered around Cody Thompson. Chiefs Reporter BJ Kissel raved about Thompson’s minicamp performance in his day two recap.

Kissel talked about Thompson catching everything in his vicinity and consistently getting open downfield. He even mentions Thompson making one diving catch on a bad throw. It sounds like Thompson is having an excellent start to his professional career so far with a great rookie minicamp.

Thompson, who holds a Toledo school record of 30 career touchdowns, was a high school quarterback before switching to wide receiver at Toledo. I always like receivers who have a background at quarterback because it’s not difficult to see how having that experience can help with route running and knowing what your quarterback is expecting of you.

Thompson also talked on Good Morning Football about how he has always been a contributor on Special Teams. This experience and willingness to work hard to get on the field wherever needed could help Cody Thompson land a roster spot.

Thompson was projected as a late round draft pick and after a good rookie minicamp, might be the most likely UDFA to snag a roster spot at this time, but he is still facing an uphill battle. The Chiefs have a lot of depth at the wide receiver position and this is the position with the most depth of UDFAs as well.

Tyreek Hill (we will assume for now that he is in this category still), Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Robinson, and Mecole Hardman probably all have a roster spot on lock. This leaves two or three spots for returning players Gehrig Dieter and Marcus Kemp, veterans like Sammie Coates, and all of the UDFA rookies.

Can Cody Thompson earn himself one of these wide receiver roster spots? He is definitely a player who could grab one of these spots and is a guy to watch as the cuts start dwindling down.