The tough reality of this time of year is that not every player you see at training camp or in a preseason game will make a team’s roster. Players are gradually getting released and teams are going from 90 players to the 53-man roster by Tuesday.
Watching this process is not easy for the other players on the squad. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes noted how difficult it is to watch people who are fighting for a job and looking to live out their dream to then not make the final cut.
“It’s hard, I don’t like to follow it too closely,” Mahomes said, via NBC Sports. “I’m rooting for everybody. It’s hard to sit there and you don’t want to promote for one guy to make it over another guy because this is people’s livelihoods, this is people’s lives.”
Mahomes is not involved in the process and says he has trust that the higher ups will select players who will help the Chiefs win games.
“I let those guys, Brett Veach and coach Reid handle that, Clark Hunt, everyone like that,” Mahomes said. “They do a good job of finding the best players to put in position to go out there and have success. I don’t follow that too closely.”
More than 1,000 players will get cut in the next few days and Mahomes knows it is not an easy thing to watch.
“It’s hard for me,” he said. “I like all the guys in the locker room, it’s hard to see guys, even if it’s for a moment, their dreams kind of get cut right there so it definitely is a hard day for everybody in this league.”
The Chiefs have already made some cuts this month in the process of getting to the final roster for the 2023 season. The Chiefs will kick off the year with the first game of the season, facing the Detroit Lions on Thursday, Sept. 7.
