Players with Something to Prove at Training Camp: Pt. 2, Defense
From a former first-round pick trying to salvage his career to a second-year safety looking to reclaim lost trust, here is a look at the defensive players with the most at stake in St. Joe.
Training camp opens July 29 at Missouri Western State University, and while the offensive side of the ball got its share of attention last week, the defensive roster has its own collection of players with significant things to prove over the next several weeks.
Here is a position-by-position look at the defensive players with the most at stake when the pads go on in St. Joseph.
Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Defensive End
At this point, anything Felix Anudike-Uzomah shows would be a welcome addition. The Chiefs have opted not to address defensive end through free agency this offseason, so any production at all from the former first-round pick would be a net positive.
Kansas City lost Charles Omenihu and Mike Danna to free agency, meaning some combination of Anudike-Uzomah, second-round rookie R Mason Thomas, and Ashton Gillotte will have to pick up the slack behind George Karlaftis from an already thin grouping. There is still an argument to be made that an additional depth piece should be added before camp breaks.
The local plot of this story and the lack of production has been well documented here, but so far, his development arc has essentially frozen. To make matters worse, his 2025 season was completely lost after a devastating hamstring injury last preseason.
In 2024, Anudike-Uzomah showed some promise as a player who could hold up against the run, though his draft profile coming out of Kansas State always pegged him more as a speed rusher. The tools that made him a first-round talent have not disappeared at 25, and the depth chart in front of him is not so deep that snaps are out of reach.
Staying healthy and simply being playable would go a long way. The bar Danna and Omenihu set last season was not particularly high. His NFL future beyond 2026 is very much on the line, but 2026 is a great place to start. The Chiefs need him, and he needs to have an impactful preseason.
Omarr Norman-Lott, Defensive Tackle
Norman-Lott finds himself in a similar position to Anudike-Uzomah in some respects, though with one significant difference. He is only entering his second NFL season and is coming off a Week 7 torn ACL, which affords him a degree of patience that a player like Anudike-Uzomah no longer has.
The Chiefs made Norman-Lott a second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft despite him being a part-time player who averaged just 17 snaps per game for Tennessee as a fifth-year senior. What made him stand out was his production in those limited snaps.
He led all FBS interior defensive linemen with an 18.9 percent pass rush win rate and racked up 43 pressures and 10 sacks over his final two seasons with the Volunteers, according to PFF. That is significant production from an interior lineman.
Upon arriving in Kansas City, he appeared to add considerable weight and shifted from a three-technique to a nose tackle role in the base defense. Whether the two were connected is unclear, but shoulder and ankle issues followed throughout the preseason, causing him to miss Week 1 before a torn ACL in Week 7 ended his season entirely.
In the limited action he did see, he posted six pressures and a sack, all of which came across just two games in Weeks 2 and 3.
He did not participate in any offseason team activities, so exactly when he will be ready remains to be seen. The depth chart has also changed significantly around him, with the additions of Khyiris Tonga and Peter Woods joining Chris Jones, who is still playing at an All-Pro level.
That slots Norman-Lott fourth on the interior depth chart when he does return. When he steps back onto the field, his weight and position will be the first things to monitor. The NCAA and NFL are not a one-to-one comparison, but the fact is that he had a history of production playing at a lighter weight and playing over a guard and tackle rather than a center and guard.
Could the Chiefs turn him back into a situational pass rusher? Careers that begin the way his has can unfortunately unravel quickly, which is why getting as much as possible out of a former Day 2 pick matters sooner rather than later.
Jeffrey Bassa, Linebacker
Jeffrey Bassa’s safest role in 2026 is likely still as a special teams ace. That said, it would be encouraging to see the 2025 fifth-rounder out of Oregon eclipse the 4 percent defensive snap share he logged as a rookie.
What he did in those 39 snaps was not nothing, however. Fifteen tackles and a forced fumble in limited action is a respectable return.
The Chiefs somewhat famously selected him over a running back in that draft, a significant position of need at the time, because the coverage linebacker was too good a value on their board to pass up. That kind of organizational conviction suggests there is a belief he can contribute beyond special teams.
The departure of Leo Chenal to the Washington Commanders opened a door, but it is not a straightforward one for Bassa to walk through. The issue is stylistic.
Bassa is a fundamentally different player than Chenal, and the snaps Chenal vacated are more likely to go to 2025 undrafted free agent Cooper McDonald, who is better suited to fill that role despite being less athletically gifted.
Bassa earning defensive time would mean either nudging Drue Tranquill off the field or pushing Tranquill into more of a strongside role than he typically occupies. A strong camp could change the conversation entirely.
Tranquill’s own future with the team beyond 2026 makes the linebacker room worth watching closely. The opportunity is there, but Bassa has to seize it.
Kristian Fulton, Cornerback
The cornerback room is loaded with players who have something to prove this summer, and it is worth acknowledging all of them before zeroing in on Fulton specifically.
Mansoor Delane has enormous expectations as the sixth overall pick, the highest the Chiefs have used on a player since 2013. Nohl Williams needs to solidify himself as a genuine starter after flashing in a limited rookie role. L’Jarius Sneed has until the end of camp to prove he is healthy enough to be worth a roster spot on a non-guaranteed contract.
And among Kader Kohou, Jadon Canady, and Chris Roland-Wallace, someone needs to emerge as the team’s starting nickel corner, with Kohou specifically needing to demonstrate he is fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered last offseason.
With all of those bodies competing at the position, Fulton is the one most squarely on the chopping block. He flashed enough down the stretch in 2025 to convince the Chiefs not to release him and save $5 million on the cap, but that reprieve does not have to be final.
If he is unreliable again, Brett Veach can still make that move on cutdown day in late August. The second year of a two-year, $20 million deal is enough to earn him a chance, but Fulton needs to be at least earning third corner reps in St. Joseph, or his time in Kansas City could end before the season even begins.
If Delane, Williams, Sneed and Fulton play well, there is still room for all of them, due to injury concerns, but it all starts with a healthy and productive August.
Jaden Hicks, Safety
Like Bassa, Jaden Hicks was a player the Chiefs selected in the fourth round because he was simply too good a value to pass up.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic, whose draft guide is among the most respected in the industry, had Hicks as his top-rated safety and the 39th overall prospect in the 2024 class, describing him as “a rangy, intimidating presence with elite size and multi-dimensional traits.”
At 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, the size and football intelligence that made him coveted were on display in his rookie season. He created five passes defensed and three interceptions while collecting 29 tackles on just 31 percent of snaps played.
Year two was a different story. With Justin Reid departing for a payday with the New Orleans Saints, the assumption was that Hicks would step into a larger role seamlessly. Instead, he played 42 percent of the snaps and produced little outside of 42 tackles, seemingly losing the trust of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo along the way.
The safety room heading into 2026 is still up for grabs, but it is an uphill battle. Free agent signee Alohi Gilman’s contract suggests he is in line to start, and Chamarri Conner’s move back to his more natural position at safety brings a player who logged 98 percent of snaps in recent seasons into the mix as well.
The team did lose Bryan Cook to the Cincinnati Bengals, but Roland-Wallace's status as a safety versus a nickel is a complication as well.
Spagnuolo does deploy three-safety sets quite often, but Hicks will need a very mature training camp to carve out anything more than a situational role on this defense. The talent and the pedigree are there. The question heading into St. Joseph is whether the trust can be rebuilt.
Part one of this series, covering the offensive players with something to prove, is available now on KCSN.