Almost the only negative to be found in the Kansas City Chiefs‘ Week 7 shutout victory over the Las Vegas Raiders was the significant injury suffered by rookie defensive tackle Omar Norman-Lott. The second-round
pick stayed down after a Raiders’ blocker drew a flag for landing on him — which Arrowhead Pride’s John Dixon believes was not the cause of the injury — and within 24 hours, we knew Norman-Lott had suffered a torn ACL .
The season-ending injury leaves Kansas City’s defensive line with two defensive tackles who can line up alongside All-Pro Chris Jones: Jerry Tillery and Derrick Nnadi. Head coach Andy Reid — while acknowledging that veteran defensive end Mike Danna is an “option” to play on the interior — believes the team now has enough players to keep the defensive interior stocked.
“I’m good with where we’re at — although I thought Omarr was coming on, for sure,” Reid pointed out to reporters on Thursday. “He is going to be a good football player after he gets this thing worked on.”
Norman-Lott made an impact right out of the gate, earning his only sack in his first game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2 — and then totaled three tackles when he started the Week 3 win against the New York Giants.
His impact hasn’t been as noticeable since then, but a practice-week injury kept him out of Kansas City’s Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars and limited his snaps in the two games that followed. But before landing on the Reserve/Injured list, he clearly left a strong impression on Jones.
“Oh man, that’s my little brother,” Jones told reporters on Friday. “[It’s] a very unfortunate situation — and I’m praying for him. He is such a little hungry bull. He was finally getting it together and coming along… he was finally getting healthy.”
As Jones noted, the torn ligament is just the latest injury Norman-Lott has dealt with since being drafted by Kansas City with the 63rd overall selection in last spring’s NFL Draft. A preseason ankle injury kept him out of Week 1. More recently, a shoulder issue sidelined him.
“I was really disappointed to lose Omarr,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo admitted on Friday. “It was kind of an up-and-down year for him in terms of being healthy. He lost a lot of time in training camp.”
Spagnuolo will have to figure out how to make up for the rookie’s absence.
“I thought [what] he gave us was some juice inside with the way he moved,” he noted. “We won’t have that. We’ll [have to] get some next guys to step up. Jerry will get more time [and] Derrick will get more time. I think Derrick has been practicing and playing really solid for us, so we need that.”
Spagnuolo’s remarks reflected the front office’s offseason challenge: the departure of defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, who signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Carolina Panthers. Wharton finished last season with the second-most sacks (6.5) of any Chiefs defender — a higher mark than Jones (5).
The team relies on having another interior player who can benefit from the attention Jones draws from opposing pass protectors — and simply put, Tillery and Nnadi aren’t likely to assume that role. But the three-time All-Pro has been seeing Norman-Lott grow into it.
“I started being dependent on him to take on the double team for me,” Jones observed on Friday. “To have him go down, we lose a big part of our defense. Even though he is a young player, we ask him to do a lot.”
Echoing Reid’s earlier acknowledgment, Spagnuolo believes there are ways to make up for Norman-Lott’s absence.
“We may have to ask some of the ends to go inside to mix and match it a little bit,” he said. “We took a little bit of a hit there because I thought Omarr was doing that — and I expected him to continue that way.”
With only 73 snaps over five games, Norman-Lott’s impact might have been hard to see — but the team is well aware that over the rest of the season, he will be missed on the field.
