The Kansas City Chiefs selected Tennessee Volunteers standout Omarr Norman-Lott with the 63rd overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. During his two seasons in Knoxville, Norman-Lott totaled 9.5 sacks and applied pressure on 14.9% of his pass rush attempts. His presence provides the Chiefs with an interior rusher to complement Chris Jones.

Norman-Lott’s two biggest competitors for snaps are Mike Pennel and free agent signee Jerry Tillery. Jones will dominate the rotation once again, and there’s no realistic chance of Norman-Lott taking snaps away from the future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.

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Despite being healthy for most of 2024, Pennel played just 320 regular season snaps across his 17 appearances. Tillery, who spent last year in Minnesota, played 467 snaps across 17 games. His addition doesn’t even come close to replacing the 888 snaps vacated by Tershawn Wharton and Derrick Nnadi, who departed Kansas City as free agents.

The Chiefs lack developmental options behind Norman-Lott. Barring excellent offseasons, Fabien Lovett Sr. and Marlon Tuipulotu won’t require snaps in 2025. That limits Kansas City’s interior defensive line rotation to Jones, Norman-Lott, Pennel and Tillery, creating an excellent environment for the rookie to win snaps.

One of Norman-Lott’s greatest weaknesses as a prospect was his lack of involvement on run downs. He faced run plays just 250 times across his final three collegiate seasons. For reference, Jones, who isn’t an enthusiastic run defender, faced runs 224 times in 2024 alone. This trend might limit Norman-Lott to playing on passing downs, significantly reducing his snap total but refining his efficiency.

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Playing primarily on passing downs allows Norman-Lott to maintain his explosiveness and energy throughout games, resulting in beneficial matchups in key late game situations. This snap allocation often results in a boom in sack and pressure production for athletic rushers.

Norman-Lott may put together a watered-down version of Braden Fiske’s rookie campaign. If the new Chiefs rookie plays 500 snaps, with roughly 350 of those serving as pass rush opportunities, he could amass six or seven sacks and more than 30 pressures. Those aren’t Defensive Rookie of the Year numbers, but they serve as a solid foundation for Norman-Lott’s development.

This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: Chiefs rookie DT Omarr Norman-Lott 2025 stat projections