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The Kansas City Chiefs suffered disappointment to end the 2021 NFL season. What was supposed to be a coronation of a second half in the AFC Championship Game against the Cincinnati Bengals became perhaps the most infamous collapse of the Andy Reid era. The season ended at home in the conference championship for the second time in four seasons, but this may be the most painful of all.
Thus, the front office had work to do. Over the three days of the draft, the Chiefs snagged 10 new faces to add to the squad, and immediately after grabbed 10 more through the ranks of undrafted free agents.
It’s those players we’re looking at today, and one of them stands out above the others as the most likely to fight his way onto Reid’s 53-man roster come the end of training camp in late August. That player is former Clemson wide receiver Justyn Ross.
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Chiefs Undrafted Free Agent To Make 2022 NFL Roster
First, let me say that Justyn Ross shouldn’t be here. He should have been drafted and that would be that. However, two major setbacks tried to kill Ross’ career before it began.
During Clemson's spring practice in 2020, Ross suffered what appeared to be a stinger. X-rays then revealed he had been born with a spinal condition called Klippel-Feil syndrome and had a congenital fusion of his spine. Doctors warned him he may never play football again.
But that didn’t stop Ross, who returned to action in 2021. After a 1,000-yard, nine-touchdown campaign as a freshman in 2018, and 865 yards and eight scores the following year, it was unclear how Ross would cope both with his injury, and the transition from Trevor Lawrence to DJ Uiagalelei. The answer to the latter was that Ross' stats would suffer. Ross caught the exact same number of passes in 2021 as he did that freshman season in 2018 (46), but he only racked up 514 yards and three touchdowns.
This perhaps had more to do with shaky at best play from Uiagalelei, seeing as Ross accounted for almost a quarter of his yards and a third of all his passing touchdowns. Nonetheless, teams were concerned, and that's even before Ross had another surgery on a stress fracture in his foot in November 2021. All this is likely why Ross didn't hear his name called in Las Vegas during the draft.
With all of these setbacks, why should you believe that Justyn Ross will overcome them to make an NFL roster, let alone the roster of a Chiefs team that has hosted each of the last four AFC Championship Games? Because despite all the issues, he is still a phenomenal player. In fact, over the course of his injury recovery, Ross actually expanded his route tree. This is without saying that Ross was already one of the best route runners in the country before his injury. In 2021, he increased focus on his catching ability as well, becoming a receiver who rarely drops the ball.
Though his Pro Day 40 time of 4.64 may not wow you, he plays faster on the field, and that's showcased in his vertical ability on tape. Broken record and all that aside, Ross truly was one of the best in the country at his craft before his injury, and assuming he has put that behind him, at least for this summer when it really counts, there's absolutely no reason to believe Justyn Ross won't work hard to make sure his name is one of the final 53 tallied by Andy Reid.
