The Chiefs have a vacancy at linebacker, but that doesn’t automatically mean Jeffrey Bassa is the answer.
Kansas City will open the 2026 season this September with a new starter at SAM after Leo Chenal left for the Washington Commanders in free agency. Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill are back, but the departure of Chenal has created an opening that many expected the Chiefs to address in the draft or in free agency. Instead, the current read is that the team may try to solve it with someone already on the roster.
That has led a lot of fans to circle Bassa, the Chiefs’ 2025 fifth-round pick, as the obvious next man up. On paper, it makes sense.
Among the reserve linebackers, he has the best draft pedigree. Jack Cochrane, Cole Christiansen, Cooper McDonald, and Ethan Downs all arrived as undrafted players.
But that line of thinking flattens the position into one generic job, and linebacker in this defense is not that simple.
The SAM spot is its own animal. It’s the strong-side linebacker role, the one that often lines up over the tight end and spends plenty of time fighting through blocks, setting the edge, and dealing with the run head-on.
The MIKE is the organizer in the middle. The WILL has more room to operate, more sideline-to-sideline responsibility, and usually more coverage work.
They are all linebackers, but they are not interchangeable.
That’s where the Bassa conversation gets tricky.
Chenal was built for the SAM role. He was the physical presence in that spot, the kind of linebacker who could hammer blocks and, at times, even line up like an extra defensive lineman.
Bassa, by contrast, is viewed as a better fit for the WILL position. His game is about space, not trench warfare.
He came into college as a safety, played middle linebacker at Oregon largely because of his leadership, and projected to the WILL spot in the NFL for that reason.
If the Chiefs were lining up today, the more natural candidate to play SAM would be Cooper McDonald. In his limited work last season, he looked more comfortable in the run-stopping, physical parts of the job than Bassa did.
That doesn’t mean Bassa lacked flashes. It means his best path may be in a different lane, possibly even giving Tranquill a push at WILL and bringing more athleticism and coverage ability to that role.
Tranquill, though, is not the easiest player to move aside. Steve Spagnuolo has always valued veterans who understand the system and line up correctly, and Tranquill fits that mold.
Still, there’s a wrinkle here: he’ll turn 31 before the season begins, and he’s set to be a free agent after this year. So even if Bassa doesn’t beat him out for a starting job right away, that doesn’t close the door on his future in Kansas City.
There’s also another name to monitor when camp opens next month: rookie R Mason Thomas. His speed off the edge doesn’t quite match the usual profile Spagnuolo wants from a defensive end on early downs, which raises the question of whether he could get a few snaps at SAM. That wouldn’t be a full-time plan, but Spagnuolo has never been shy about moving pieces around to keep offenses guessing.
That’s the real thing to watch when camp begins. The Chiefs’ linebacker room isn’t just about who is next in line.
It’s about which linebacker fits which job. And in this defense, those jobs are not all the same.
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