The Kansas City Chiefs 2023 training camp starts on July 22 (July 18 for rookies) at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. That is where head coach Andy Reid and company will figure out the Chiefs roster for this season that will help the team try and repeat as Super Bowl champions. This means there will be some tough or surprising cuts before the team kicks off Week 1 vs. the Detroit Lions, and players like running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, wide receiver Justyn Ross, and cornerback Dicaprio Bootle could be on the chopping block.
RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a first-round pick in 2020 who ran for 803 yards in his rookie season and just 819 in the last two campaigns combined. While the Chiefs were waiting on Edwards-Helaire to come good, they drafted Isiah Pacheco in the seventh round last year, and he rushed for 830 yards as a rookie with 197 more in the postseason.
Now, Pacheco is the no-doubt RB1 heading into Chiefs training camp, and Jerick McKinnon is the change-of-pace/3rd-down back on the Chiefs roster. That leaves Edwards-Helaire as the RB3 at best, with the younger and cheaper La'Mical Perine and Deneric Prince behind him, making (together) about half of the veteran’s $3.4 million salary in 2023.
Kansas City has championship aspirations, and they will need to make roster moves throughout the year, at the trade deadline, and late in the season to compete. Is it nice to have an above-average back as insurance at RB3? Absolutely. Is that peace of mind worth $3.4 million? That’s harder to answer.
And if the answer is no, then Clyde Edwards-Helaire could be in another uniform come Week 1.
WR Justyn Ross
The argument for wide receiver Justyn Ross facing the ax isn’t about money. He will count $750K against the cap this season, which is tied for the lowest salary amongst all Chiefs wideouts on the roster. And that is more of the problem. There are a lot of Chiefs wideouts on the roster.
The Chiefs head to training camp with 14 WRs under contract. They will ultimately keep six or maybe seven players at that position depending on how many RBs and TEs they have. That means eight players will not make the team after Chiefs training camp.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore, and rookie Rashee Rice are stone-cold locks. Justin Watson, Richie James, and John Ross are also all established veterans who will have a leg up for the five and six spots.
As for Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Cornell Powell, Nikko Remigio, Kekoa Crawford, Jerrion Ealy, Ty Fryfogle, and Justyn Ross, they are likely gone or on the practice squad at best.
Justyn Ross will be the hardest cut to make. The WR was a breakout freshman at Clemson in 2018 before spine and neck surgery cost him his 2020 season. In 2021, he came back with a team-leading performance but not to his freshman level.
The Chiefs got him as an undrafted free agent, and the team and its fans had high hopes that with some time and recovery, he could return to that superstar pass-catcher level he was at just four years prior.
Ross just hasn’t got there. Another surgery, this time on his foot cost him last season, and now he’s buried on a 14-player depth chart. He may come good someday and live up to his early potential, but it likely won’t be in Kansas City.
CB Dicaprio Bootle
Speaking of crowded depth charts, the KC secondary is another place where it’s going to be incredibly hard to stay on the Chiefs roster if you are currently a fringe player heading into Chiefs training camp.
Dicaprio Bootle is that type of fringe player. He’s been back and forth from the team’s practice squad the last two seasons after going undrafted out of Nebraska in 2021. The CB has played in seven NFL games in those seasons, though, and has been an important depth piece.
This year, the secondary is getting crowded with higher-drafted players and bigger-money free agents.
Most teams keep 10 defensive backs on the 53-man roster. And right now, the Chiefs' depth chart includes CBs Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams, L'Jarius Sneed, Jaylen Watson, and Nic Jones, as well as safeties Justin Reid, Deon Bush, Bryan Cook, Mike Edwards, and Chamarri Conner.
That’s 10 right there. If the team decides to cut one of the safeties (although, which one?), then Bootle will fight it out with (not that) Lamar Jackson and Kahlef Hailassie. In the end, those odds aren’t great to stay on the team.
Bootle could end up back on the practice squad, but both Jackson and Hailassie are younger and would make more sense in that spot.
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