Kansas City Chiefs first-round pass rusher Felix Anudike-Uzomah has been honing his abilities in 2024.

 

The Kansas City Chiefs took a big step toward ending their professional relationship with one of the more disappointing NFL draft picks in recent franchise memory.

 

Kansas City on Friday, May 1 chose to decline its fifth-year option on former first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah, a pass-rusher whom the Chiefs drafted No. 31 overall in 2023 out of Kansas State.

The Chiefs’ decision saved $14.5 million in 2027, though the team will still pay out the final year of Anudike-Uzomah’s four-season rookie contract worth just shy of $12 million total.

 

Now 24 years old, the edge-rusher missed the entire 2025 campaign due to a hamstring injury. He appeared in all 34 of the team’s regular season games across his first two seasons, but started just three contests.

 

Anudike-Uzomah has tallied eight tackles for loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles.

 

Chiefs Selected Replacement Pass-Rusher R Mason Thomas Out of Oklahoma

Kansas City Chiefs select R Mason Thomas 2026 NFL Draft

GettyEdge-rusher R Mason Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs.

 

Declining Anudike-Uzomah’s fifth-year option doesn’t guarantee that the Chiefs will part ways with the pass-rusher after his fully-guaranteed rookie deal is up next offseason, though Kansas City clearly has different plans at the top of the depth chart moving forward.

The Chiefs extended defensive end George Karlaftis in July of 2025 on a four-year contract worth $88 million total. Then, last weekend, Kansas City drafted former Oklahoma Sooners edge-rusher R Mason Thomas with the 40th overall pick in Round 2.

 

“The guy is a freak of nature in terms of athleticism and explosiveness,” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said on last week’s episode of New Heights. “I can’t wait to see how this guy gets after the quarterback. It’s been kind of something that the Chiefs have been looking at to get better at, and that’s getting after the QB and really putting quarterbacks under duress.”

 

Kelce went on to describe Thomas as a “game-changer,” which was just one of several notable mentions of high praise for the incoming rookie that indicate the team is going to rely heavily on his speed rush to complement the power rush of Karlaftis on the other side of the line as well as the ability of defensive tackle Chris Jones to apply pressure on opposing QBs up the middle.

 

Chiefs Were Pitched Trade Ideas Involving Felix Anudike-Uzomah Leading Up to NFL Draft

There was also talk from prominent analysts about the Chiefs potentially looking to trade Anudike-Uzomah leading up to draft weekend.

 

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell authored a pitch that would have included the defensive end in a deal with the Minnesota Vikings for an upgrade off the edge, namely Jonathan Greenard, whom Minnesota ultimately traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for two third-round picks.

 

“The Chiefs would love to come out of this draft with an impact edge-rusher,” Barnwell wrote. “This trade would value the difference between Greenard and Anudike-Uzomah — a former first-round pick who hasn’t impressed with the Chiefs — as being worth the 54th pick.”

 

Now that Kansas City has its defensive ends of the future, it is unlikely that Anudike-Uzomah will be back on a new deal in 2027, regardless of how the upcoming year plays out.

 

Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible