ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Selected by his hometown team in the first round of the NFL Draft should have been a dream come true for Felix Anudike-Uzomah but his first few weeks as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs proved frustrating.
He sustained a torn ligament in his thumb on the final defensive play of the Big 12 Championship game for Kansas State. The injury required surgery in early April, and it limited the rookie during the club’s offseason workouts.
“It was very tough,” Anudike-Uzomah said Wednesday. “Especially they drafted me to play right away, drafted me in the first round, so all the coaches expect a lot of out of me. It was just very hard, very tough that I can’t do exactly what they want me to do right away.”
On the first of training camp, however, the former Lee’s Summit High School product could finally unleash himself on the football field once again.
“My hand is 100 percent,” he said. “Everything’s fine.”
Anudike-Uzomah sustained the injury on the Wildcats’ fourth-down stop at the goal line against TCU. He didn’t realize the ligament was torn until he started training for the NFL Draft. He was advised to have his thumb repaired following Kansas State’s pro day on March 31.
Anudike-Uzomah took part in day activities despite the thumb injury and a hamstring issue. His three-cone time of 6.94 seconds was faster than any defensive end at the NFL Scouting Combine this year. His short shuttle 20-yard shuttle time (4.34 seconds) would have ranked third-best while his broad jump (10 feet, 4 inches) would have put him in the top 10 among edge rushers.
The 21-year-old also met with the Chiefs’ scouting staff at his pro day, including assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi.
“He’s an impressive young man, and it’s going to be great to add him to the group here with all these other guys,” Borgonzi said following Anudike-Uzomah’s selection in April.
Unable to take part in team drills during OTAs and mandatory minicamp, he applied himself in other ways to hone his craft.
“It was a lot of mental reps, a lot of mental, learning the playbook, a lot of knowing their technique,” he said. “Even though I can’t do it on the field, it’s just I got to do it mentally.”
Last year’s Big 12 defensive player of the year also leaned on his fellow rookies, especially offensive tackle Wanya Morris, whom he faced off against in college, and former Kansas State teammate Ekow Boye-Doe, an undrafted free agent cornerback.
“They already know how big it is,” Anudike-Uzomah explained. “I’m (a) hometown kid, everybody’s leaning on me. They always try to preach me up because they know it is very different in my shoes, especially being a first-round draft pick in your hometown, they know it’s very different. They always try to keep my head up, try to keep me motivated and keep going and try to keep me just basically telling me every day what the goal is.”
That goal is to get on the football field. The Chiefs drafted George Karlaftis in the first round a year ago and signed edge rusher Charles Omenihu to a two-year, $16 million free-agent deal in the offseason. Fourth-year veteran Mike Danna also returns but Anudike-Uzomah knows there’s an opportunity to get on the field and make an impact in his rookie season.
“Day by day, just impress the coaches, because at the end day, if you don’t impress the coach, you’re not going to get on the field,” he said. “Obviously, learning that playbook, learning my technique, doing everything that is possible for the coaches to be impressed by what I do on the field will eventually, hopefully, have me on the field.
As a hometown product landing with the Chiefs, Wednesday proved an emotional day for Anudike-Uzomah. This may have been his first day in St. Joseph in a Chiefs uniform, but it wasn’t his first time at the team’s training camp.
“I had to soak it all in at first because I remember sitting in the stands, I believe it was 2013, sitting out in the stands just watching all the guys,” Anudike-Uzomah said.” and “And then me actually walking on this grass pad just to come down to camp, it’s a dream come true. But at the same time, although I’m in this dream, I have to show for it.”
