Chiefs On SI Mailbag: What Are Fair Expectations for Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Cyrus Allen in 2026?

The Kansas City Chiefs' first preseason game is just around the corner, and there are only six training camp practices remaining in St. Joseph, Missouri. Before the team gets more information from Saturday's preseason kickoff against the Los Angeles Rams, what do you want to know about where the team stands now?

Jordan Foote and I (Joshua Brisco) are here for this week's edition of the Chiefs On SI mailbag, fielding your questions from the KC Sports Network Twitter/X accounts or @jbbrisco.com on BlueSky. Let's get into it.

"Does FAU become a useful rotational player? Is the contract year still undefeated?" -@jettyrat_RB

Former first-round defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah is one of the more interesting stories of the Chiefs' offseason. His first two seasons had a couple of highlights here and there, but he never approached the production you'd want from a first-round selection. Then, he missed all of 2025 due to a preseason hamstring injury. However, even after declining his fifth-year option, the Chiefs appear to expect some legitimate production out of Anudike-Uzomah in his fourth season.

Even after the Chiefs reportedly signed veteran EDGE Emmanuel Ogbah, Anudike-Uzomah still has plenty of opportunity ahead of him. I see Ogbah's signing as a larger indictment on KC's questions about their internal candidates for the No. 5 or 6 defensive end positions.

As things stand now, Anudike-Uzomah (and Chiefs fans) should forget his original draft slot and focus on what he could be as a role player in 2026. He's clearly behind George Karlaftis, Ashton Gillotte and R Mason Thomas, but if he can be an NFL-caliber rotational piece, he can certainly extend his NFL career, perhaps even by remaining in Kansas City. —Brisco

"In order, who do you currently have as players 49-58?" -@krichardson.bsky.social

Ranking end-of-roster players in order before preseason game No. 1 would keep us here for quite a while, but I do have some top bubble candidates to keep an eye on over the next couple of weeks.

On the offensive side of the ball, the perceived battle between Garrett Nussmeier and Chris Oladokun immediately jumps out. There's ample incentive for KC to keep a third quarterback this year, and why not roll with the one the club used 2026 NFL Draft capital to acquire? At wide receiver, I'm not quite there with Jalen Royals being a cut candidate, but Andrew Armstrong delivering a quality camp thus far does have me thinking.

In the trenches, both the offense and defense are worth keeping an eye on. The Kahlil Benson hype train isn't slowing down even a bit, which might just push someone like Ethan Driskell to the practice squad. At defensive end, the Chiefs' reported pickup of Ogbah doesn't bode well for the likes of Vincent Anthony, Tyreke Smith or Anthony Dunn.

Finally, the secondary picture is quietly intriguing. Assuming health for everyone else, former first-round pick Kaiir Elam seems to be squarely on the outside looking in at cornerback. Undrafted rookie safety Xavier Nwankpa was one of the first men out in our first roster projection but continues to make a case to be included in edition 2.0.

The Chiefs have some calculus to do, but their three preseason games should provide clarity. —Foote

"Obviously Cyrus Allen is coming off an injury, but should we read anything into his days in pads having a lot less highlights?" -@EthanCo67716681

"According to Matt Verderame, Chiefs staff is high on Cyrus the Virus. Will we see more or less of him in preseason because of that?" -@Dusty_Roads_BBQ

Two questions for the price (free) of one! These are getting at different elements of the Cyrus Allen excitement, but they both help us look ahead to the preseason.

This often makes me feel like a party pooper during this time of year, but I generally try to read very little into training camp highlights in general. For what it's worth, Allen's pre-pads highlights also didn't particularly move me. However, I do take note from tweets like this one from Pete Sweeney out at camp:

"Patrick Mahomes' first two completions during the early team blitz period? Cyrus Allen."

Anything that indicates the building of trust and chemistry between Mahomes and one of his receivers matters to me, at least when it happens consistently. Either by choice or by injury-impacted necessity, it does still seem like Mahomes has given Allen lots of training camp attention; I don't really care if the highlights are spectacular until they come in an NFL stadium.

So, on that note, I do wonder how Allen will be used in the preseason. With Mahomes not expected to play in at least the first preseason game, I'd be a bit surprised to see Rashee Rice (knee) or Xavier Worthy (shoulder) take the field on Saturday while they continue their respective recoveries. I'm not sure that Tyquan Thornton needs many reps with Justin Fields, but you also probably don't want to start Fields with Royals, Armstrong, and Nikko Remigio as his starting receivers. That leads us back to Allen.

If the Chiefs are completely in love with Allen, they could sneak him through the preseason without showing the NFL what they have in mind for him when the season arrives. Still, I think Allen starts as the Chiefs' No. 4 receiver (already an accomplishment for a fifth-round rookie) and that it would be reasonable to give him a decent workload in the preseason so he can run his first NFL routes before the lights get brighter.

The last wrinkle worth noting is that Allen briefly exited practice on Tuesday and hasn't been back on the practice field for very long; perhaps he's entirely held out on Saturday, delaying this conversation by another week. —Brisco

"Which 1-on-1 would you dominate Jordan at, and vice versa?" -@bradbatchelder

This is the question we needed. After giving it some thought, I think I'm winning on both sides of the trenches. I'm betting on myself having a power advantage if I can show off some vaguely passable footwork. I'm definitely disrupting the pocket and probably dying a slow-enough death in pass protection. Heck, I think I could win my fair share of reps as a pass-catcher too. ...But I'm not covering Jordan unless the quarterback is having a terrible, terrible day. —Brisco

Even as someone who has a size advantage, I'd be a tad worried about the trenches. The individual drills up front tend to be defense-slanted, so I'm in agreement and think life as a pass rusher would be easier than as a pass protector. The bad news is I play with too high of a pad level to be consistent snap-to-snap.

I'm all over anything that puts me in coverage, whether I'm running a route to beat it or putting on a prime Darrelle Revis (Chiefs legend) performance in the defensive backfield. I'm getting physical at the line of scrimmage and setting the tone for the rep. Josh knows that, as there's video proof to back up my claim. —Foote

...No comment. —Brisco

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