The Kansas City Chiefs have placed one player on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list at the onset of training camp.
Andy Reid told reporters on Tuesday that fourth-year defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton would start out training camp on the active/PUP list. They made the transaction official on Wednesday ahead of the team’s first training camp practice, which was closed to the public.
Wharton suffered a torn ACL in Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season. He was subsequently placed on season-ending injured reserve. He’s still recovering from that injury and is not yet ready to return to practice in full.
What does Wharton’s movement to the active/PUP list mean, though? Here is an explanation from our earlier article:
When a player is placed on the active/PUP list, they still count toward the 90-man offseason roster. They’re permitted to participate in Chiefs’ team meetings, do solo conditioning and work with the team training staff. However, they’re prohibited from practicing with the team so long as they remain on the PUP list. They can be activated at any time during training camp, but things get tricky once we arrive at 53-man roster cuts.
If a player were to remain on the PUP list through training camp they’ll be sent to the reserve/PUP list to start the season. From there, they’ll have to wait for four regular-season games to elapse before the team can open their practice window. Once they return to practice, the team will then have a 21-day window to activate the player to the 53-man roster. If said player isn’t activated during that window, the Chiefs will be forced to place them on injured reserve.
The good news here is that Wharton was spotted working on the side with the training staff during practice on Wednesday. He’s making progress in his recovery and could even be activated from the list later on during training camp.
Wharton has appeared in 38 career games with the Chiefs, including two starts since joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of Missouri S&T. He has recorded five sacks, three forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, a pass defended and an interception during that span.
