The Kansas City Chiefs’ 2023 NFL Draft class was mostly signed to rookie-scale contracts by the end of the day on Tuesday, as the team announced finalized deals for five of the club’s first-year players. That list is growing by one additional player to end the week, as the team has yet another rookie signed as of Friday.
Per Field Yates of ESPN, the Chiefs have signed first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah to a rookie deal:
Anudike-Uzomah, the 31st overall pick and the final selection of the first round back in April, has been through rookie minicamp with the team and is now the sixth rookie to sign out of seven. He joins third-round pick Wanya Morris, fourth-round pick Chamarri Conner, fifth-rounder BJ Thompson, sixth-round selection Keondre Coburn and seventh-round pick Nic Jones as those under contract now for Kansas City. As of Friday afternoon, second-round wideout Rashee Rice is the only Chiefs rookie not currently under contract for 2023 and beyond.
At the time this article was published, the details of Anudike-Uzomah’s rookie deal with the Chiefs weren’t publicly available. Spotrac‘s preliminary estimates, however, project a four-year pact worth a total value of $11.82 million. That contract estimate includes a $5.59M signing bonus and a 2023 cap hit of $2.15M. Spotrac has the Chiefs estimated at a total of just under $2.31M in available cap space when counting their top 51 contracts on the team.
Anudike-Uzomah, a Kansas City native, recorded 8.5 sacks in his final season with the Kansas State Wildcats in 2022. He recorded 96 tackles and 19.5 total sacks over the course of his final two seasons, emerging as one of the more prominent pass rushers in the Big 12 conference. His blend of athleticism and youth makes him a projectable player with a decent amount of upside, which likely endeared him to the Chiefs during the pre-draft process. Now under contract with the team, his childhood dream is officially coming true.
