As expected, the Kansas City Chiefs have announced on their social media account that they have re-signed defensive tackle Mike Pennel.
To make room on their active roster, Kansas City released defensive tackle Malik Herring, who has been a gameday inactive for all but two of this season’s games.
Pennel, 34, had been a surprise release at final roster cutdown before the 2025 season got underway. At the time, we assumed this was the first move in a maneuver that would put another player on the practice squad after the initial 53-man roster had been set — but then, we learned that the team had been in negotiations with the Cleveland Browns to acquire defensive tackle Jowon Briggs, who was ultimately traded to the New York Jets.
So the Chiefs traded with the Jets to re-acquire 29-year-old defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi — and that led to the team parting ways with Pennel. He then signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, who released him at his request on Tuesday after he appeared in all eight of this season’s games, collecting 15 tackles (four solo, one for loss). He immediately scheduled a meeting with Kansas City for Wednesday.
Asked about Pennel being on the premises during his Wednesday media availability, head coach Andy Reid — as usual — deferred to general manager Brett Veach.
“I haven’t seen Mike Pennel,” he declared. “But he was a good kid when he was here — a good player — so if he’s back up, that’s great; [he’s] another good player in there. You guys know him. He’s got a good attitude.”
But that was as far as Reid would go.
“I’ve been cramming,” he explained. “We’re on a short week. All that stuff is out there. I don’t want to say, ‘I don’t care,’ but I’m trying to take care of the other part of it.”
He’ll now be able to get back to it with a player who had a role in four of the team’s five recent Super Bowl appearances.
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