{"id":898347,"date":"2026-05-22T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/898347\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:24:21","slug":"kansas-city-chiefs-sign-second-round-pick-that-travis-kelce-called-a-freak-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/898347\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Chiefs sign second-round pick that Travis Kelce called a \u2018freak of nature\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs have officially signed the second-round pass rusher who already has Travis Kelce excited about what he can bring to Steve Spagnuolo\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

R Mason Thomas arrives in Kansas City with the kind of athletic profile that makes him difficult to ignore, especially for a team still trying to create more consistent pressure off the edge.<\/p>\n

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The rookie now has his contract done before training camp, giving the Chiefs a clearer path to start developing him as part of their defensive line rotation.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Cooper Neill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs sign R Mason Thomas after drafting Oklahoma pass rusher at No. 40<\/p>\n

NBC Sports<\/a> reported that the Kansas City Chiefs signed R Mason Thomas to his rookie contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne more member of the Chiefs\u2019 2026 draft class has put pen to paper. According to the league\u2019s daily transaction wire, second-round pick R Mason Thomas signed his rookie contract on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThomas, who was selected at No. 40 overall in April, played his college ball at Oklahoma,\u201d NBC Sports\u2019 Myles Simmons revealed.<\/p>\n

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Thomas earned first-team All-SEC honors in 2025 after recording 6.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss in 10 games for Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Across his college career, he finished with 17 sacks and 25.5 tackles for loss, giving Kansas City a young edge defender with real production behind the traits.<\/p>\n

Travis Kelce sees R Mason Thomas giving Kansas City Chiefs pass rush new burst<\/p>\n

On an episode of the New Heights podcast, Kelce made it clear that Thomas\u2019 athleticism has already caught his attention.<\/p>\n

Kelce said, \u201cThe guy is a freak of nature in terms of athleticism and explosiveness. I can\u2019t wait to see how this guy gets after the quarterback.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of something that the Chiefs have been looking at to get better at, and that\u2019s getting after the QB and really putting quarterbacks under duress,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

That fit is what makes the signing more interesting than a routine rookie transaction. Thomas is not the biggest edge rusher in the class, but his burst, first step and ability to threaten the outside shoulder give Kansas City a different kind of speed option.<\/p>\n

Spagnuolo can bring him along as a situational rusher while Chris Jones and George Karlaftis continue to draw attention up front. The Chiefs do not need Thomas to become a finished product immediately, but they do need his explosiveness to translate into pressure snaps.<\/p>\n

Kelce\u2019s excitement reflects that bigger hope. Kansas City has added a young defender who could help turn athletic promise into the quarterback disruption its defense has been chasing.<\/p>\n

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Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs have officially signed the second-round pass rusher who already has Travis Kelce excited about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,2025,7,303,118,110,2438,2437,6,32197,195,500],"class_list":["post-898347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-chiefs","tag-chris-jones","tag-football","tag-george-karlaftis","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-nfl","tag-r-mason-thomas","tag-rookie-contract","tag-travis-kelce"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116619395985077960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898347","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=898347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}