![\"Chiefs](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/RIvftQuHmW1EhC4z4TgjFXibm-8=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(815x205:817x207)\/Tershawn-Wharton-Kansas-City-Chiefs-Tout-112624-98137cb911fa40638b35a7620c41cb73.jpg\")
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Former Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton is the first player from Missouri Science & Technology in Rolla, Missouri to start a professional football game since the 1930s. After the Carolina Panthers signed him to a three-year deal worth up to $54 million in the offseason, he\u2019s preparing for his sixth NFL season \u2014 and making quite an impression on Carolina defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen you first meet him, he\u2019s got a presence about him,\u2019\u2019 Evero told ESPN. \u201cHe\u2019s got an aura about him. You watch him in the classroom, he\u2019s a notetaker. He\u2019s into it all the time in the weight room, on the field. And we know that he\u2019s coming from a place that has a really great culture and that played a really good defense \u2014 especially on the D-line.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It hasn\u2019t been easy for Wharton to reach this point. Signed to the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent during the coronavirus pandemic, he had to find a way to make the team in a season without offseason practices and preseason games. But Wharton always found a way to eliminate his own insecurities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get picked up, you feel like you belong automatically,\u201d he told reporters during November of his rookie season. \u201cYou\u2019re playing with champions [and] competing every day, The more and more I made a few plays in training camp, I realized, \u2018Oh, I can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And for the first time since joining the league, he\u2019ll be back in the role he had in Rolla: being a leader on the defensive line \u2014 and the interior player offenses were focused on stopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt S&T, I was the guy they were going to come after,\u201d Wharton recalled in 2020. \u201cNow being on a team with pros, I\u2019m not really the guy they\u2019re going to come after all of the time. That helped [my transition to the NFL].<\/p>\n
\u201cAt S&T my senior and junior year, I was a leader on he team. Right now [with the Chiefs], it\u2019s just kind of back to square one where you\u2019re coming in as a freshman at any school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s showing the way for young players like the Panthers\u2019 fifth-round defensive tackle Cam Jackson.<\/p>\n
\n\u201c[I\u2019m] just showing these young guys how to transition,\u201d he explained. \u201cBeing able to show them the way, on and off the field, on how to do things and establish that culture of winning.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Evero has noticed it.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis guy has a purpose in everything that he does,\u2019\u2019 he said of his new defensive tackle.. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really, really impressive to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, Wharton sees some of the attitude that Patrick Mahomes brought to the offense in Kansas City.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey both have a little vibe,\u2019\u2019 he noted. \u201cIt\u2019s not too uppity. They\u2019re cool guys. They\u2019re relaxed. Some people walk into the locker room and don\u2019t feel they can talk to the quarterbacks. When Bryce is around, he talks to everybody. Patrick did the same thing. He wasn\u2019t standoffish. Everybody could talk to him.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Wharton wasn\u2019t Carolina\u2019s first choice. They signed him after the New England Patriots outbid the Panthers for former Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Milton Williams. But now, he\u2019ll be the main man to bring Carolina\u2019s run defense back from its abysmal 2024 season, in which it gave up 3,057 rushing yards \u2014 the third-worst mark of the modern era.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s just a mentality, man,\u2019\u2019 said Wharton. \u201cDon\u2019t let a man dominate you with his game. That\u2019s what we\u2019re coming to do. Everybody in that room \u2014 and on that defense \u2014 knows it\u2019s going to stop.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former Kansas City defensive tackle is returning to the role he played for Missouri S&T.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":67420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n
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