The Kansas City Chiefs took a big step towards turning their season around in Week 6 with a crucial win against the Detroit Lions to improve to 3-3. Despite the encouraging win, however, many problems remain. Among those is the underwhelming defensive line play that is causing all sorts of trouble for Steve Spagnuolo and Andy Reid.

One of the biggest factors for why the line has struggled has been Derrick Nnadi’s disappointing performance. Once again looking like the weakest link in the starting lineup against the Lions, Nnadi is making the Chiefs regret the offseason decision to bring him back.

Chiefs’ Decision to Bring Back Derrick Nnadi Aged Like Milk

Initially, the Chiefs let Nnadi sign with the New York Jets at the start of free agency. Following the injury concerns of their rookie defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott, however, the Chiefs decided to trade for Nnadi to bring him back, giving up a conditional 2027 sixth-round selection. Considering how they took a seventh-round pick back in return, the price tag for the trade is somewhat negligible. The performance on the field, however, clearly suggests that the Chiefs would have certainly been better off not making the move.

Fans watching the game on Sunday saw a broadcaster note that Nnadi was ranked 119th out of 119 eligible defensive tackles in the league in Pro Football Focus defensive grades. That didn’t change in Week 6 after Nnadi received a 29.8 defensive grade in the 25 snaps he played, keeping him in the same spot as the worst-graded player of his position.

Combine that with Jerry Tillery not making much of an impact and Chris Jones getting off to a slow start, and the Chiefs’ interior defensive line problems are easily explained. As a result, Kansas City currently allows the sixth-most yards per carry and rank in the bottom half of the league in all run defense metrics, and they’re looking like an average defensive unit overall.

The Chiefs lost Mike Pennel and Turk Wharton in the offseason, who played the lion’s share of snaps at defensive tackle last season, with Nnadi seeing 20% of defensive snaps. This season, Nnadi is up to 35% of the snaps despite struggling immensely. Norman-Lott’s injury has played a big part in this, but it’s obvious that the 29-year-old Nnadi doesn’t have much to give to the Chiefs at this stage of his career. Over the last several seasons, he has been nowhere near the player he was earlier in his Chiefs tenure, and GM Brett Veach’s decision to bring him back despite this overwhelming evidence has unfortunately come back to bite them.