Report: KC Chiefs Re-Sign DT Isaiah Buggs on Futures Contract

Kansas City plans to keep its in-season free agent pickup around for the offseason program.

With the Kansas City Chiefs' regular season and playoff run in the books, the franchise is moving forward in preparation for the 2024-25 campaign. General manager Brett Veach and his personnel staff are getting off to a nice start after winning Super Bowl LVIII, retaining some veteran talent along the defensive line.

According to a Tuesday afternoon report from Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the Chiefs are re-signing defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs. The 27-year-old will come back on a reserve/futures contract for the offseason program.

The #Chiefs re-signed DT Isaiah Buggs to a futures contract, per source. He finished the season on the practice squad for the Super Bowl champs.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 13, 2024

Buggs, a former sixth-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers, was signed to Kansas City's practice squad back in early January. While he entered the fold before the club's postseason stretch, he remained on the practice squad and was inactive for all four of the Chiefs' playoff games. Prior to being signed, he played in 10 games this season with the Detroit Lions (logging a combined 254 snaps) and made 12 tackles with a pass broken up, a quarterback hit and a fumble recovery.

In his five-year career, Buggs has played in 56 regular-season games split with Pittsburgh and Detroit. He has 89 tackles (four for loss), 12 quarterback hits, four passes broken up and two sacks to his name. His most impactful season was 2022, when he started 13 of 17 games for the Lions and played 67% of available defensive snaps. Emerging as a tone-setter and great cultural fit, the former Alabama standout enjoyed a solid stint with that franchise before being waived.

When Buggs originally signed to the Chiefs' practice squad, I wrote about his potential value here at Arrowhead Report. A futures contract was mentioned at the time: 

Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 335 pounds, Buggs will be an interior defensive lineman for Kansas City. Per Pro Football Focus, 997 of his snaps have been with him lined up in the B-gap before the snap and another 351 are A-gap reps. He joins a room that already has the likes of Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi, Tershawn Wharton, Neil Farrell and more at the helm as traditional nose tackles or three-techs. At the least, this is solid supplemental depth for the final part of the year and could potentially parlay into a reserve/futures contract following the conclusion of the season.

With rosters expanding to 90 men for the bulk portion of the offseason, this is a sound move by Kansas City. The team simply doesn't have many interior defensive linemen under contract moving forward, and Buggs' experience could come in handy. Consider him organizational depth with the possibility to stick around for training camp, the preseason and maybe beyond if he impresses during the offseason.

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