Kansas City had a significant turnover on the roster and it is going to take some young players to fill the void.
The first player to watch is free safety, Bryan Cook. Cook was on the roster last year and was able to see the field as the third safety. With Juan Thornhill leaving and signing with Cleveland Cook is the next man up in a secondary looking to improve on its play last season.
Cook is looking to become a bigger part of the defense and it goes past just his physical play. Cook is looking to be a leader on the field. During training camp, Cook said he wants to take charge in the leadership role.
As far as the leadership wise just making sure everybody in front of me is doing a good job, Cook said. “Making sure everybody is doing what they need to do.”
In order for him to get comfortable with this role moving forward he needs to show it during live action even if that action is during preseason.
The next player Chiefs fans should pay attention to is second-year wide receiver Skyy Moore.
With the loss of Juju Smith-Schuster and the injury to Kadarius Toney Moore is going to be a big part of the passing game heading into the season.
Moore is more confident in his role heading into the season. When asked about how comfortable he is said he is much further ahead now than he was last year as a rookie.
“Like thirty times more comfortable, Moore said. “You know just knowing having an idea on the whole playbook and going through it one year before and just understanding the culture that the Chiefs have in Kansas City.”
Moore also said he has spent more time during the offseason preparing for his second year in the league.
The first live-action of the 2023 season will show the possible fruits of his labor.
Felix Anudike-Uzomah is going to have a huge role on the Chiefs heading into the 2023 season. With the suspension of Charles Omenihu and the no-show for Chris, Jones Anudike-Uzomah becomes a player bound to get a lot of playing time.
Anudike-Uzomah has missed some of the off-season programming due to an injury to his hand. With him being a rookie he is an unknown commodity to the Chiefs and live action will go a long way in determining what his skill set truly is at the NFL level.
As a rookie, he should get significant snaps against NFL starters and NFL backups all throughout the preseason.
Keeping an eye out for his comfortable in the scheme is what is going to be important for the Chiefs. This means making sure Anudike-Uzomah is hitting the correct gap, not allowing a cutback on his side of the line and having good fundamentals against NFL talent.
If all three of these young starters look good against the rest of the league that will set the Chiefs on a good trajectory to go back to back super bowl champions
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