Chiefs' Re-Signing of Jack Cochrane Solidifies LB Corps for 2024
With Kansas City re-signing Cochrane, the linebacker room contains plenty of familiar faces as the NFL Draft approaches.
Coming into the 2024 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs have quite a few positions where it makes great sense to add at least one body. Linebacker, however, is one of the few that already contains plenty of in-house talent. With the re-signing of a familiar face, that's even more so the case.
On Tuesday, the NFL transaction wire revealed that Jack Cochrane is re-signing with Kansas City. Cochrane, who turned 25 in February, was an exclusive rights free agent this offseason. With two accrued seasons under his belt, Cochrane was extended a minimum qualifying offer by the team. As is standard for players with his experience, he'll make $985,000 in 2024-25. Cochrane will account for just 0.4% of the Chiefs' salary cap.
Thus far in Cochrane's career, he's played in 32 regular-season games with one start and logged 37 combined tackles (two for loss). He also has a pass broken up. He appeared in all 17 games for Kansas City this past campaign, playing 180 defensive snaps for Steve Spagnuolo's unit. As one of Dave Toub's valued core players, Cochrane amassed 336 snaps on special teams in 2023 before seeing the field 85 times in the playoffs.
Getting Cochrane back in the fold is a wise move. Not only does he have experience in the system but with the NFL's new kickoff rules rolling in, he'll come in handy. Toub, Spagnuolo and linebackers coach Brendan Daly all rave about his consistency and the value he brings. At the price point he comes with, a team can't do much better for an end-of-roster piece.
There's also a ripple effect on the linebacker unit as a whole.
Even after losing Willie Gay Jr. to the New Orleans Saints, the Chiefs have plenty of cooks in the kitchen. With the draft arriving on Thursday, Kansas City has a clear top three of Nick Bolton, Drue Tranquill and Leo Chenal. behind them, Cam Jones and Cole Christiansen make for nice depth. Retaining Cochrane serves as an insurance policy for injury and added competition for the latter two linebackers.
Cochrane also pushes linebacker even further down the list of needs. Aside from kicker and perhaps safety, there may not be a more well-insulated or secure group than linebacker on the roster now. In recent years, Veach has added talent on Day Two of the draft (Bolton, Gay and Chenal) and supported his current linebacker collective. Now, there's hardly room for such an acquisition. The most realistic draft-related path would be a late-round selection or undrafted free agent being a praised practice squad landing spot.
A team can never truly have too many players at one position, sure. Building for the future is also important. But given Cochrane's re-signing as an ERFA, the Chiefs can just about check that box off their to-do list. As the draft passes and the offseason program continues, don't be surprised if the club brings in one more piece at linebacker. Do be surprised, though, if the current rotation changes much at all.
