Darwin

Thompson

Drafted by the Chiefs in 2019, Thompson spent the previous two seasons on various practice squads after playing in Kansas City for the first two years of his career. It is unlikely Thompson breaks the opening day roster, something he will look to accomplish over the coming weeks.

Thompson spent all of last season on the Seahawks practice squad and hasn’t suited up for a game since 2020. An undersized back who has a career rushing line of 64-225-2, Thompson will likely find somewhere to compete for a job this offseason, but his days as an NFL contributor appear to be over. In addition to Thompson, the Seahawks also parted ways with DT Jarrod Hewitt, DB Chris Steele, WR Connor Wedington, and WR Easop Winston.

A sixth-round pick of the Chiefs in 2019, Thompson was on the fantasy radar for a moment but ended up falling out of favor in Kansas City and spent the end of this past season on the Bucs’ practice squad. He’ll look for a fresh start in Seattle with Rashaad Penny a free agent and Chris Carson’s (neck) future unclear.

We aren’t typically in the business of blurbing practice squad moves, but the ex-Chief lands in one of the league’s best offenses behind a pair of early-down backs in Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette who spent all of 2020 failing to run with No. 1 duties. Thompson will probably be the first man up to the 53-man roster if either RoJo or Fournette gets hurt.

Thompson, Kansas City’s sixth-round selection in the 2019 draft, failed to transition his Mountain West-high yards after contact per carry (5.07) in his final collegiate year into the NFL, totaling 80 career touches behind Damien Williams, LeSean McCoy, Darrel ‘The Mentor’ Williams, Le’Veon Bell, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire the past two years. His loss is another man’s gain as this move is simultaneously a tremendous sign that CEH walks into Week 1 at full health. Thompson could land on a practice squad elsewhere prior to the regular season opener.

We’ll see later whether CEH logged a limited session of a full practice ahead of this weekend’s game against the Browns. The Chiefs have said he would likely be ready for their Divisional Round game so this isn’t a surprising development. Even with a few days of limited practice, we should see Edwards-Helaire active against Cleveland. CEH had 36 touches in his final two games of the regular season before the hip and ankle injuries. Darwin Thompson’s impressive Week 17 showing could buy him some playing time this week if CEH is inactive.

With Clyde Edwards-Helaire (hip) still on the mend, the Chiefs mothballed both Le’Veon Bell (knee) and Darrel Williams. Thompson doubled his season touches total today. If CEH is healthy, Thompson will be likely to touch the ball during the postseason.

Rapoport didn’t mention RB Darrel Williams but given that he did say Thompson would be getting the bulk of the carries, it’s safe to assume Williams will be a non-factor for Week 17. Clyde Edwards-Helaire is out with a groin injury and could be sidelined for multiple weeks so the Chiefs will likely take a cautious approach with the use of his backups in a meaningless game. Thompson is a low-end RB3 because of his expected volume but all of that comes with the caveat that his offense will be helmed by Chad Henne this week.

Head coach Andy Reid has a long history of resting his starters when his team can’t improve their playoff positioning. Kansas City locked down the No. 1 seed Sunday with its lackluster victory over the Falcons. As head coach of the Eagles, Reid benched or limited his starters in Week 17 with nothing to play for. In 2017, Patrick Mahomes got his first pro start in Week 17 with Alex Smith held out ahead of the playoffs. Holding out KC’s starters will have an outsized impact on the Week 17 DFS landscape. 2019 fantasy football tout legend Darwin Thompson could see major snaps against the Chargers.

Thompson was operating as the No. 3 back for most of the game but received extra work late following Darrel Williams’ ankle injury. It’s an injury worth tracking for deep fantasy leagues, although neither offer standalone value behind Clyde Edwards-Helaire right now. Thompson is too small to take on a full workload but at least is an explosive player in small bursts.