Ex-Chiefs 2nd-Round Pick Named UFL’s Defensive Player of the Year

Michigan Panthers defensive lineman Breeland Speaks, formerly of the Kansas City Chiefs, was named the UFL’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2024 season.

Speaks, 28, led the UFL with 9.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss this spring. He also recorded the most tackles for loss in a single game (4) and was the only player to record 3 sacks in two different games, per the UFL.

Speaks was a second-round pick of the Chiefs in 2018 out of Ole Miss. During his rookie season, he played in all 16 regular season games and recorded 24 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, and 1 forced fumble according to Pro Football Reference.

After suffering a knee injury during the preseason, Speaks was placed on injured reserve on August 31, 2019. While on IR, Speaks was suspended by the NFL in December of that year for four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. The Chiefs then waived Speaks in September 2020.

During the 2020 season, Speaks spent time on the Las Vegas Raiders’ and Dallas Cowboys’ practice squads. He then signed a reserve/future contract with the New York Giants in January 2021 but was waived by the team in May.

Rick Burkholder Speaks About BJ Thompson Incident

Speaking to the media on June 7, Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder spoke about second-year defensive end BJ Thompson, who suffered a seizure and then went into cardiac arrest on June 6. Burkholder was one of the staff members who rushed to Thompson’s aid when the incident occurred.

“We tried to stabilize BJ and then put him on the floor while he was still seizing and then he went into cardiac arrest,” Burkholder explained. “Our team of that group of people provided CPR for him. He had one AED shock and came back so he was only in cardiac arrest for probably less than a minute, minute-and-a-half. Our players, our security staff, everybody involved coaches staff, they were phenomenal in handling the crisis. We then turn him over to the fire department and the paramedics. Those paramedics do those practice sessions with us so there was some familiarity there with those guys.”

Burkholder also noted that Thompson is “coming through quite well” in his recovery.

Andy Reid: ‘Thank Goodness’ the Incident Happened Where it Did

Thompson had the seizure and went into cardiac arrest during a special teams meeting on Thursday. When speaking to the media on June 7, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was grateful that the team’s world-class training staff was close by when the incident occurred.

“That’s a tough situation. We’ve been through a couple of those before in my time and it’s never, ever fun,” Reid said. “Thank goodness. I mean, if it had to happen, no better place than right here where you have a support unit that knows what to do.”

Though Kansas City canceled all team activities on June 6, the team followed through with its final set of organized team activities (OTAs) on June 7.

The last time the Chiefs will meet this offseason is for mandatory minicamp, which will take place from June 11 to June 13.