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NFL insider breaks down why Kansas really released Louis Rees-Zammit
By Josh Raisey
Louis Rees-Zammit’s bid to make the Kansas City Chiefs’ 53-man roster, or even make their practice squad, was scuppered by his inability to learn one very specific facet of American football, according to Kansas City Star journalist Jesse Newell.
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Joining Anthony Wootton on The TransAtlantic Sports Show recently, Newell said that the former Wales wing struggled with his pass protection, which was perhaps the leading reason why the Super Bowl champions released him, with the Jacksonville Jaguars picking him up for their practice squad instead.
While Rees-Zammit’s athleticism has been lauded by many, including Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, this is a technical area of American football that a career in rugby would not have helped with.
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Having watched the Chiefs’ training sessions closely throughout pre-season, Newell explained how the Welshman struggled with a particular pass protection drill. Moreover, he explained on the podcast how Rees-Zammit slipped down the pecking order as the training camp progressed.
“I was not surprised he didn’t make the 53-man roster,” he said.
“You could kind of see it coming throughout training camp, and we’re out there every single day at training camp. You know, the team practices with its top guys, then they have a second team, and then they have a third team and a fourth team. So earlier on, Louis was getting in with maybe the second and third team. As the practice went along, he was getting in with the third and fourth team.
“So it’s kind of the truth serum of the coaches, if you will. If those guys at the end of the roster are practicing against the other guys at the end of the roster, it sort of seems like it’s a long shot for them to make the team. Throughout this whole process, though, the Chiefs coaches have complimented Louis for his work. We loved talking to him in the media because he’s a really engaging guy. He seemed to really commit himself to this and seemed to be serious about this, which is something that needs to happen to make the transition that he’s trying to make to a completely different sport.
“But I think as it went along, one of the kind of glaring moments was – I think what the Chiefs wanted from Louis is, here in the NFL, there’s a very specific role on third down where if you can have a back out of the backfield who can pass protect for your quarterback and then also catch passes out of the backfield, that’s a role that every single team needs in the NFL.
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“But you have to be able to pass protect, and there was a pass protection drill that Louis did a couple of weeks ago, and one of the linebackers just kind of ran right over him because he doesn’t understand the technique yet, he doesn’t understand the leverage. So he’s a big guy, but he doesn’t understand sort of the nuances that will help him to stop this 250-pound guy coming straight at you and protect your quarterback.
“So I think the Chiefs were hopeful that this thing would come together very quickly. They were hopeful that he would learn all these things and could potentially play a role for them in that area as a third-down back and then on special teams as well—you know, the kickoffs, punt returns, all those sorts of things. It just didn’t come quite fast enough. And so I was not surprised he was cut from the 53-man roster. I was a little bit more surprised by what happened later this week with him joining a different team.”
Newell added an additional reason why the Chiefs passed on signing Rees-Zammit to their practice squad, which is the position they find themselves in heading into the new season.
The Chiefs are in pursuit of a historic Super Bowl treble this season and are effectively only interested in the here-and-now rather than looking further down the line at a project.
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“I think the Chiefs seemed to see potential in him,” he added. “But potentially where the fit didn’t make sense is that this might be a better guy to have if you’re not a Super Bowl contender. If you are not a team that’s worried about winning right away… I mean, the Chiefs are so far on the other end of that spectrum right now—they’re going for the first three-peat in NFL history.
“So it might not be about two or three years down the line what you can get out of a guy. It might be more about how can this team, or this guy on the practice squad, help your team this year to potentially go win another Super Bowl and make history that’s never been done before.”
Given that the Jacksonville coach Doug Pederson is a “disciple” of Reid’s, Newell thinks the Jaguars could be a good fit for Rees-Zammit, although he stressed that the biggest challenge now is to learn an entirely new playbook.
The Jaguars get their NFL campaign underway on Sunday September 8 against the Miami Dolphins.
As a Brit born on the Welsh border and living in the US, this is actually a very interesting experiment. I would note that the best rugby to NFL player is Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle (lineman) Jordan Mailata, currently ranked as the top left tackle in the NFL. But it took him 3 years to become a starter- under now Jacksonville coach, Peterson.
Are you still gona talk about LZR 4 times a week now his out of NFL? Or has NFL stop pay you people to sell out my sport rugby union. If LZR go to rugby league next are you gona start promote that sport next? all of your writers who covered NFL should be fire.
You go on and on about this guy, almost as if he were as big a loss to rugby as might have been Dan Carter. He's not even the best wing in rugby, far from it - there are plenty of better players than him - Kolbe, Arendse, etc etc. I realise I don't have to read the garbage you keep posting about him but I'm registering my dissatisfaction anyway. In addition, this site is "owned" by World Rugby, to whose budget we contribute through our club subscriptions. And yet the site is an anthology of UK rugby, with the occasional snippet of news from elsewhere. I consider this a gross abuse of the power you've somehow managed to confer on yourself.
absolutely right JD, this garbage is so awful, i bet they wont talk about LZR 4 times a week now his out of NFL. these awful sellouts, people should be fired for promoting a rival sport on a world rugby owned website. Disgraceful.
Do you view the Northern or Southern edition of RP? I have to flick between when I want UK content from NZ, outside of internationals
LRZ is by far the best rugby player to ever transition to NFL. This is unexplored territory.
I don't blame RP for trying to trump him up. Rugby and NFL get compared so often that I think that there is a genuine curiosity in most people to see how a world class rugby player stacks up in the USA. I'm curious about LZR's Football career anyway.
Slow and white with little football know how...
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