{"id":114143,"date":"2025-06-08T17:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T17:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/114143\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T17:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T17:35:10","slug":"chiefs-wanted-to-re-sign-dt-tershawn-wharton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/114143\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Wanted To Re-Sign DT Tershawn Wharton"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Milton Williams<\/a> spurned the Panthers\u2019 advances<\/a> in March, Carolina pivoted<\/a> to another notable defensive tackle in this year\u2019s free agent class, Tershawn Wharton<\/a>. The former undrafted find of the Chiefs may have been something of a consolation prize for the Panthers, but his original club wanted to keep him in the fold.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Per David Newton of ESPN.com<\/a>, Kansas City simply could not match the contract that Carolina authorized for Wharton (three years and $45.1MM<\/a>, including $30.25MM in full guarantees and an additional $9MM available in incentives). That stands to reason given that the defending AFC champions entered the offseason with little financial flexibility and made the surprising decision<\/a> to use the franchise tag \u2013 worth a fully-guaranteed $23.4MM \u2013 on guard Trey Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kansas City\u2019s decision on Smith precipitated the trade<\/a> of its other starting guard, Joe Thuney<\/a>. With a glaring left tackle need, the club\u2019s biggest FA outlay was earmarked for former 49ers swing tackle Jaylon Moore<\/a>, who landed a two-year, $30MM contract<\/a> (the Chiefs doubled down on the position by selecting Ohio State OT Josh Simmons<\/a> in the first round of April\u2019s draft).<\/p>\n

The Chiefs\u2019 salary cap picture prevented them from spending big on a Wharton replacement, but second-round draftee Omarr Norman-Lott<\/a> will have the opportunity to fill Wharton\u2019s shoes. KC did add Jerry Tillery<\/a> to the defensive front while re-signing Charles Omenihu<\/a> and Mike Pennel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newton seems to suggest that Wharton \u2013 a Missouri native who became the first player from Division II Missouri University of Science and Technology to make a modern-era NFL roster \u2013 preferred to remain with his hometown team. The ESPN scribe writes, \u201c[i]n a perfect world, Wharton would have remained in Kansas City, where he won two Super Bowls and went to four.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, the soon-to-be 27-year-old also believes there are new opportunities in Charlotte to go along with his new salary. As Jeff Hawkins of the Charlotte Post<\/a> notes, Wharton believes he was miscast when Kansas City deployed him as a pass-rushing nose tackle in its 4-3 alignment, and he expects to build on his breakout 2024 showing as a member of Panthers DC Ejiro Evero\u2019s 3-4 scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy has a purpose in everything that he does,\u201d Evero said of Wharton. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really, really impressive to watch. \u2026 So it\u2019s great to add guys like that who can bring that experience, that mentality and that work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wharton played 20 games (12 starts) in 2024, including playoffs. He tallied 37 tackles, 8.5 sacks, and a forced fumble as an integral member of Steve Spagnuolo\u2019s stout unit that finished in the top-10 in total defense and in the top-five in scoring defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Milton Williams spurned the Panthers\u2019 advances in March, Carolina pivoted to another notable defensive tackle in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2063],"tags":[260,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,14639],"class_list":{"0":"post-114143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-carolina-panthers","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tershawn-wharton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114648955285112536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}