The Kansas City Chiefs made four roster moves on Thursday — two that are fairly minor, and two that are more significant.
The first is that defensive tackle Khalen Saunders — who has been on injured reserve since September 19 after dislocating his elbow in the Week 1 game against the Houston Texans — has been designated for return from IR. This gives the the team three weeks to get Saunders into game shape and be returned to the 53-man active roster. If he isn’t ready by that time, he’ll have to return to IR for the remainder of the season. When Saunders first went on the reserve list, we believed he would be out for a month; it’s possible he could be activated for the game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
The second is that the Chiefs have decided not to designate offensive lineman Martinas Rankin for return from the Active/Physically-Unable-to-Perform list. Rankin first went on the offseason version of PUP on July 31, but never returned from it before the final cutdown — forcing the team to put him on Reserve/PUP at the beginning of the season. Being on that list requires missing the first six games of the year. Now the Chiefs have five weeks to either designate him for return, place him on injured reserve for the rest of the season or release him outright. While it’s possible the Chiefs could yet decide to designate him for return, it’s looking more and more like he will miss the season.