Arrowhead Pride
The Chiefs’ second-round draft pick will have an interesting role in 2025.
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Tennessee defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott with the 63rd pick of the NFL Draft.
I previously analyzed Norman-Lott’s game in our On the Draft Board series and was pleasantly surprised when I viewed his film.
The big knock on Norman-Lott was that he had played only a small percentage of the team's snaps during his two seasons in Rocky Top, but the snaps he did play showed a powerful and explosive player.
Norman-Lott’s lack of snaps at Tennessee can also be attributed to the rotation-heavy looks that Tennessee deploys to keep players fresh through a long season.
Here are a few ways the Chiefs will use him in 2025:
The obvious spot for Norman-Lott to start to contribute first will be as an interior pass rusher. During the free agency period, the Chiefs lost Tershawn Wharton, who signed an expensive deal with the Carolina Panthers. Wharton was second on the team with 6.5 sacks during the regular season and two in the playoffs.
While not a starter for the Chiefs, Wharton played 62% of defensive snaps last season and was a key contributor as a penetrator in the backfield and pass rush specialist.
Norman-Lott and Wharton aren't parallel players, but they are very similar.
Both players use a good first step off the ball and solid leverage to create plays. Wharton is a better athlete and quicker overall, but Norman-Lott has more power and is more advanced with his hands than Wharton was coming out of college.
It is a passing league, and these are the traits that made Norman-Lott attractive to the Chiefs' scouts in the first place.
The Chiefs primarily play a base 4-2 defense, with multiple 4-3 looks thrown in, depending on the situation. It is most likely that Norman-Lott will rotate across multiple spots along the line. He has the size to line up as a 1-technique, 3-technique, 4i-technique, as well as head up against any player along the interior offensive line in a given situation.
Positional versatility is critical on the Chiefs' defensive line, and the particular alignment on any given play can often be based on where they decide to line up Chris Jones.
One of the most dominant defensive linemen of this generation, Jones alters game plans, and the attention he receives can create one-on-one chances for his teammates.
This is where Wharton thrived in the Chiefs' defense, and where players like Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna and George Karlaftis also benefit. Unlike Omenihu, Danna, and Karlaftis and Norman-Lott will only play inside snaps, but on pass rush downs when Jones is also aligned to the inside, this will almost certainly set up chances for him to win against solo blockers.
It is also highly possible that on snaps where Jones lines up to the outside, the team puts Norman-Lott beside him and lets him rush from the 3-technique spot, which is his natural...
