Drue Tranquill Exits Game vs. Packers With Apparent Injury

Tranquill, who signed with Kansas City during the offseason, has emerged as an even bigger piece than the club anticipated this year. A high-ankle sprain and dislocated wrist have limited Nick Bolton to just four games played, forcing Tranquill to emerge as the leading linebacker in the room. As a result, the fifth-year veteran has logged over 500 defensive snaps already this year (74% of those available). In the Chiefs' last four games, those percentages were 99, 95, 98 and 100.

Entering Week 13, Tranquill was doing a bit of everything for the Kansas City defense. Amassing 70 tackles (six for loss) with 3.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a pass broken up, his versatility is one of the brightest spots on that side of the ball. Additionally, Tranquill leads the team in Pro Football Focus "stops" by a comfortable margin. 

Earlier this week, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo spoke about the value Tranquill has brought to the team in the absence of Bolton. Here's some of what he had to say: 

"What I think gets lost in the whole translation here is we lost a really good football player in Nick Bolton for a number of games here and yet, I think I’ve said this before, we slid Drue in there and really haven’t skipped a beat in terms of having to cut things back, the communication, you guys know that the back end and linebackers have to be like this (hands together motion), the chemistry. We didn’t lose that at all, and sometimes that happens..."

This story is being updated.