Former Samford quarterback Chris Oladokun played in an NFL regular-season game for the first time on Jan. 1, when he took five snaps for the Kansas City Chiefs.
But by that time Oladokun had won two Super Bowl rings with the Chiefs, and although Kansas City waived the quarterback on Tuesday, he’ll be back for a fourth season with the Chiefs in 2025.
Kansas City kept two quarterbacks – starter Patrick Mahomes and backup Gardner Minshew – when it reduced its preseason roster to the regular-season limit of 53 active players on Tuesday. Waived in that process, Oladokun re-signed with the Chiefs for their practice squad on Wednesday after he went unclaimed.
Since the Pittsburgh Steelers cut the seventh-round rookie during the 2022 preseason, Oladokun has spent most of the intervening time on Kansas City’s practice squad.
Each NFL team can have a practice squad of 16 players. Members of the practice squad do everything the players on the active roster do except play in games.
But two practice-squad members can be elevated to active status for each game, although no player can be elevated from the practice squad more than three times in a season.
Oladokun is among the nine players from Alabama high schools and colleges (except for Alabama and Auburn) who rejoined the teams that had just cut them as practice-squad members on Wednesday. The others were:
- Cornerback Cobee Bryant (Hillcrest-Evergreen) by the Atlanta Falcons
- Linebacker Jamil Muhammad (James Clemens) with the Los Angeles Rams
- Wide receiver Tejhaun Palmer (UAB) with the Arizona Cardinals
- Wide receiver Jamaal Pritchett (Jackson, South Alabama) by the New York Jets
- Linebacker Jamie Sheriff (South Alabama) by the Seattle Seahawks
- Safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig (Fultondale) by the Jacksonville Jaguars
- Running back Kimani Vidal (Troy) by the Los Angeles Chargers
- Wide receiver Jeremiah Webb (South Alabama) by the New England Patriots
Bryant, Muhammad, Pritchett, Silmon-Craig and Webb are undrafted rookies. Palmer, Sheriff and Vidal are second-year players.
