Former Cardinals captain D.J. Humphries could start for Chiefs on Sunday
Dec 6, 2024, 1:16 PM
There’s momentum for former Arizona Cardinals captain D.J. Humphries to play for the first time in another uniform when his Kansas City Chiefs host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
The Chiefs last week pulled starting left tackle Wanya Morris mid-game after he struggled. Kansas City had already benched rookie Kingsley Suamataia in Week 2.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid has yet to confirm Humphries will get the start Sunday, even though signs point in that direction if the former Cardinal proves to be in shape and ready.
“I don’t think that’s probably fair to D.J. right now, with him coming off this offseason,” Reid said about naming Humphries as the starter earlier in the practice week, according to ESPN. “So I think we just play it by ear as we go and if he feels OK then we’ll give him an opportunity. If it’s not where it needs to be, then you don’t, so we will just see how it goes.
“This week I’ll have a better idea as we go and he’ll have a better idea.”
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A start would be Humphries’ 99th NFL game played in his career. He spent the prior 98 games as a pro playing for the Cardinals, who picked him 24th overall in the 2015 draft.
Humphries, 30, signed with the Chiefs on Nov. 22 but hasn’t played since Week 16 of last season, a New Year’s Eve win for Arizona over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Humphries suffered a torn ACL in that game, forecasting the Cardinals ultimately deciding to release him in March. The move freed up $15.9 million in cap space and spread out a dead-money hit over two years because it was a post-June 1 designation.
The release allowed Arizona to transition tackle Paris Johnson Jr., the sixth overall pick in the 2023 draft, from the right spot to left.
Former Cardinals teammate DeAndre Hopkins helped recruit Humphries to the Chiefs, according to ESPN, but it was Humphries’ 8-year-old son, Dash, who spoke it into existence.
“He didn’t bat an eyelash, didn’t care about me getting released,” Humphries said. “(Dash said) ‘I really want you to go to Kansas City so you can play with Patrick Mahomes. You could probably win a Super Bowl.’
“He didn’t have a care about what’s going on. His automatic mind was like, ‘You should go to the Chiefs.’ From then on, everybody would say something here and there and I was like, ‘My son said that’s where I’m going.’ Fast forward to now. Here we are. I’ve been calling him every day like, ‘Man, you’re a trip. You spoke it.'”
