Former Indiana football players are already winning awards just one month into the NFL season.
Kahlil Benson, Indiana’s starter at right tackle for much of the 16-0 national championship season in 2025, was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month for September, according to an article from the Kansas City Chiefs’ website.
Benson wasn’t selected in this past spring’s NFL Draft before attending a tryout with the Chiefs, impressing the staff enough to earn a spot with the organization for training camp.
Now, months later, Benson has been Kansas City’s starter at left tackle for each of the first three games of the season, all of which were wins.
He’s allowed just three pressures per game and has yet to give up a sack, per the article, protecting Patrick Mahomes II’s blindside as the Chiefs have burst back onto the scene as one of the top teams in football.
Benson hasn’t lost a football game since electing to return to Indiana in the spring of 2025, protecting Fernando Mendoza en route to the latter’s Heisman Trophy-winning campaign and all the way to the program’s first national championship.
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