Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach delivered a positive update on injured RT Lucas Niang during his Friday pre-draft press conference.
Niang suffered a torn patellar tendon in Week 17 against the Cincinnati Bengals, but he was recently in town for an MRI and to get checked out by VP of Sports Medicine and Performance, Rick Burkholder. According to Veach, everything with Niang is exactly as it needed to be.
“Jody (Fortson) I haven’t got an update on, just because I haven’t gotten with Rick (Burkholder) on him,” Veach told reporters. “Lucas (Niang) we did speak, I want to say about 3 days ago. Lucas actually flew in and got an update on his MRI and everything was exactly where it needed to be.”
Veach emphasized that there is always a concern in the recovery process from Niang’s particular injury, but Burkholder was excited by his progress. Veach also provided a potential timeline for Niang’s return to the field.
“With the bigger guys, you’re always worried about, especially with that injury — I’ll certainly defer to Rick, but just in general his timeline, Rick was excited about the degrees of flexion and flexibility,” Veach said. “It was a check-plus, so that means that it was where it needed to be. He’s right on schedule. And again, I don’t know if Rick had mentioned this, and at a certain point, he will. I think (Niang being ready) by the end of training camp is something that could happen, but he’s definitely on target to where he needs to be.”
Getting Niang back before the start of the 2022 NFL season would be an ideal situation. If he’s forced to remain on the Reserve/PUP list, it’d limit his season significantly.
Veach didn’t rule out the potential of adding some offensive line help in the 2022 NFL draft, potentially hedging some bets at the right tackle position.
“Offensive line depth is good in this draft,” Veach said. “So we feel like we can add depth and youth there.”
