What Has Happened to Kamalei Correa?

What has happened to Kamalei Correa?

One of the Tennessee Titans’ best players on defense during their run to the AFC Championship game in 2019 can’t hold a job in the NFL these days.

The Kansas City Chiefs released the 27-year-old outside linebacker Thursday, less than a month after they signed him. That means he is now on the hunt for his fourth team in a year – or that he has run out of chances.

Correa’s career looked to be on the upswing when he set career-highs with 37 tackles, five sacks, seven quarterback pressures and two passes defensed in 2019, his second season with Tennessee. A second-round pick by Baltimore in 2016, the Titans traded for him just before the start of the 2018 season.

The bulk of that production (22 tackles, five sacks, four quarterback pressures, one pass defensed) came when he stared six of the final eight games. He added 16 tackles, two sacks and two quarterback pressures in three postseason contests.

An unrestricted free agent last offseason, he re-signed with the Titans on a one-year deal and expected to pick up where he left off. Instead, he repeatedly has been sent packing, including once at his own request.

A rundown of the transactions involving outside linebacker Kamalei Correa since the end of the 2019 season:

April 9, 2020: Re-signed with the Tennessee Titans

Oct. 14, 2020: Requested the Titans trade or release him

Oct. 15, 2020: Traded along with a seventh-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft

Dec. 17, 2020: Placed on Jacksonville’s Exempt-Left Team list

Feb. 11, 2021: Cut by the Jaguars

May 6, 2021: Signed with the Kansas City Chiefs

June 4, 2020: Released by Kansas City

His troubles started when the Titans signed free agent Jadeveon Clowney. That relegated Correa to a backup, and after having appeared in three of the first four games, he said he wanted out. Franchise officials accommodated his request and shipped him to Jacksonville a day later.

Interestingly, a knee injury caused Clowney to miss the final seven games of the season. That would have given him the opportunity to repeat his second-half surge of the previous season.

Instead, he played six games for the Jaguars (all starts) before he left that team for personal reasons with three weeks remaining. He was inactive for the two games prior to his departure. Jacksonville released him ahead of the regular season finale.

Kansas City had seen Correa at his best. His 10 tackles in the 2019 AFC Championship (the Chiefs defeated the Titans 35-24) are his NFL career high, regular season or postseason, and twice as many as he has had in any other contest.

Yet, he was not a part for that team for long before franchise officials there decided they had seen enough.