The Kansas City Chiefs waived second-year offensive lineman Darian Kinnard on Tuesday.
The Chiefs opted to keep 10 other offensive linemen as they trimmed the roster down to 53 players. Kinnard barely missed the cut despite the team spending a fifth-round draft pick on him one year ago. Kinnard made the Chiefs’ roster in 2022 but appeared in just one game, earning six snaps on special teams.
Kinnard, a 6-foot-5, 322-pounder out of Kentucky, was always sort of a project for the Chiefs as the team attempted to use him at right tackle early on. Kinnard was projected as more of a guard coming out of college, and his struggles at the tackle position in the pros suggest that those projections may have been correct.
Even with the release, the Kinnard project likely remains unfinished. Plenty of raw talent remains, so Kinnard will probably find his way on the Chiefs’ practice squad if another team doesn’t claim him off waivers.
