Wiz Returns: How He Can Help the Chiefs “Run it Back” – By James S. McGregor – The Kansas City Chiefs brought a familiar face back a familiar face this week when the organization officially announced Nov. 24 that it had re-signed offensive lineman Stefan Wisniewski to their practice squad. This signing came shortly after his release from the Pittsburgh Steelers: he had spent most of the 2020 regular season on the Steelers’ injured reserve due to a pectoral tear.
Wisniewski played much of the 2019 season as a Chief, filling in as a starter down the stretch and including the team’s playoff run and victory in Super Bowl LIV. The organization made attempts to re-sign him during the offseason, but failed when the Steelers signed him in free agency to a contract that was set to cover two years and pay him a base salary of $2.85 million and a signing bonus of $375,000.
The player many fans have come to call “Wiz” returns to a K.C. offensive line that has spent much of 2020 in Fire Drill mode. There’s a rapidly-growing discussion and speculation regarding when he might be moved to the active 53-man roster, as well as how effective he might be and what he can contribute to the team that enters its home stretch at 9-1, just one game behind the Steelers for the first seed in the AFC playoff picture. The questions:
- Can he be a solid starter and fill-in for currently inactive players?
- Can he get on the active roster sooner-rather-than-later?
- Will he be ready and called upon to solidify the OL for the playoffs?
- How might his veteran experience (and particularly his playing time with the Chiefs during their 2019 Super Bowl run) impact the “Run it Back” tour?
These are all questions that are currently on the minds of many in Chiefs Kingdom, and I would like to attempt to address them here.
Current Status Along the Chiefs OL
The Chiefs OL has been somewhat of an enigma throughout the 2020 NFL season. This dates back even to the offseason when the organization had wanted to return Wiz to the team after he had performed well as a starter in the Super Bowl LIV victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Of course, the team was not able to re-sign him, and they had to begin to look elsewhere to fill the void. The team’s 2020 draft picks included one offensive lineman: OT Lucas Niang from TCU and K.C. also signed three undrafted free agent offensive linemen during this period: Yasir Durant (Missouri), Jovahn Fair (Temple), and Darryl Williams (Mississippi State).
Since then, between training camp and the regular season, the Chiefs have lost players due to both COVID-19 opt-outs (Niang and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif) and injury (most notably All-Pro RT Mitchell Schwartz). In the meantime, they have rotated many linemen at almost all spots alone the OL. The one constant this year has been at LT, where Eric Fisher is thus far having an outstanding season. Otherwise, there has been a “musical chairs” approach to the remainder of the offensive line, including seven players filling four chairs: Austin Reiter, Daniel Kilgore, Nick Allegretti, Mike Remmers, Andrew Wylie, Schwartz and Durant. Additionally, make that eight chairs with the recent return of Martinas Rankin to the active roster. The team has been able to make do with this piecemeal OL, but simply the potential of having Wiz back in the lineup to solidify things has been a major factor in the decision to bring him back to Kansas City.
Can/Will He Get Healthy?
There is no doubt that Stefan Wisniewski’s presence in the interior of the Chiefs offensive line came through as invaluable toward the end of the 2019 season and especially throughout the team’s Super Bowl run. The thought of having him back in Red and Gold is exciting for many throughout Chiefs Kingdom. However, his injury and lack of availability in 2020 should be a major cause for concern.
As previously stated, the Steelers released Wisniewski after he suffered a pectoral muscle tear and spent most of the time on the IR. Historically, for an offensive lineman to suffer a pec tear during the regular season, in many cases this could be a season-ending injury. Obviously, his ability to rehabilitate the injury and make himself healthy enough to be available for the active roster starts with the severity of the injury is a positive sign.
The severity of the tear remains unclear: whether there was a complete tear from the sternum, or if it was a partial tear that was just severe enough to keep him off the field during his remaining days in Pittsburgh. What we know is that the Steelers placed him on the IR in mid-September, that it was determined that the injury was not severe enough to require any surgery, and that he has been working on rehab for approximately two months now. Additionally, one may fairly assume that Brett Veach, Andy Reid, Steve Spagnuolo, and the rest of the staff would presumably not be eager to entertain the idea of bringing in a player this late in the season (even Wiz) unless they fully intended for him to play and contribute. We’ve seen time and time again that Veach does his homework before bringing any player into the locker room, so we should probably assume that there is some level of confidence that Wiz will indeed return and contribute at some point this season.
How Valuable is His Experience?
Simply put, Wisniewski has the experience of a champion, something that holds great value with any team in any sport. Drafted in 2nd round of the 2011 NFL Draft, he has seen time with the Raiders — insert cringe here — Jaguars, Eagles, Chiefs and Steelers. He played in 14 games and started 11 during the Eagles Super Bowl run of 2017 where he got his first Super Bowl ring. He was signed by the Chiefs on Oct. 9, 2019. He went on to fill-in admirable, so much that he earned himself a starting role during the playoffs, and he played his role well, keeping Patrick Mahomes clean on route to the Chiefs 1st Super Bowl appearance and victory in 50 years.
Wiz understands the offense, and if healthy could fit immediately into the lineup almost without missing a beat. Not much has changed with the team since they won the Super Bowl, so there would be little to know learning curve for him at all.
The main question that remains is: when will he be ready to go? Information on him right now is vague, but we probably should not hold our breath that he’ll be ready to play anytime before Week 14 or 15… possibly even 16 or 17. Let’s just hope that the Chiefs local beat reporters continually hammer Reid for some clarity on Wiz over the course of the coming weeks, and that Wiz continues to get himself ready to play.
James S. McGregor — ArrowheadOne
Happy Thanksgiving!
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