Even Without Willie Gay Jr., the Chiefs Have a Ton of Linebackers to Work With

Simply put, the Chiefs have a ton of cooks in the kitchen — almost too many to handle. That's with Gay injured. The top four was always going to consist of Hitchens, Gay, Niemann and Bolton. No surprise there; bringing both Harris and O'Daniel into the season is the shocker. While O'Daniel is a special teams standout and a possible Dave Toub selection, Harris' odds of avoiding roster cuts didn't seem great. Even with Gay on the shelf, it doesn't seem that he'll receive a decent share of on-field snaps.

Without an athletic linebacker like Gay on the field, the Chiefs' defense will be tested over the first few weeks of this season. Niemann is all but guaranteed to see an uptick in overall snaps, while Bolton's base snaps should remain the same. Gay's feature was likely to come in sub-package situations (when the team takes a linebacker off the field in favor of an additional defensive back). This is where the roster construction gets puzzling.

Harris doesn't appear to be a suitable option in base, nor sub-packages such as the dime. O'Daniel has never been a focal point on defense and will almost surely maintain a heavy special teams role. Hitchens, Niemann and Bolton will be relied upon to weather the storm until Gay returns. That could have been the case without two more linebackers behind them. 

Of course, depth is never a bad thing. Sure. With that said, even with one of their more promising young players slated to miss time, the Chiefs have at least one linebacker who may not see the field. Would that roster spot have been better used at another position? A case can certainly be made. Perhaps the team values Harris as an insurance policy with potential. At the end of the day, there are plenty of linebackers for Steve Spagnuolo to work with.