Kansas City Chiefs: The Curious Case of Dorian O’Daniel

Is he a bust or primed for a bigger role? Breakout candidate or career special teamer? All of these questions seem to be valid when speaking about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Dorian O’Daniel.

After “banging on the table” for Patrick Mahomes during the 2017 NFL Draft, Chiefs Kingdom had high hopes for Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach as a drafter heading into the 2018 NFL Draft.

In his first draft as GM, Veach came away with what appeared to be an exciting draft at the time, but since 2018, only four of the six drafted players remain with the Chiefs and only one has been a consistent impact player in Kansas City.

The four players from the 2018 Draft Class remaining with the Chiefs are Breeland Speaks, Derrick Nnadi, Dorian O’Daniel, and Armani Watts. Nnadi has been a two-year starter at defensive tackle and is the only for sure “hit” from the draft class. Watts looked to have some upside, but has since found his niche as a special teams ace and provides depth at safety.

That brings us to Speaks and O’Daniel whom both have large question marks looming about them heading into year three. Speaks has been almost universally labeled a bust by Chiefs Kingdom, now whether that is warranted yet or not is a whole other conversation. O’Daniel, while also being a big question mark, is contrarily almost universally looked at as a high upside player who just needs his opportunity amongst Chiefs fans.

So that brings us to the “why’s”? Why is O’Daniel so loved amongst Chiefs fans? Why has he been strapped to the bench and special teams duties? And why this could be a make or break year for O’Daniel.