The Kansas City Chiefs signed free-agent offensive tackle Kellen Diesch on Thursday, waiving fellow tackle Matt Waletzko with an injury designation to clear the roster spot. Diesch most recently played for the Louisville Kings of the spring-football UFL, winning a championship with that team earlier this year.
The move gives Kansas City fresh depth as well as size up front just as training camp injuries thin out the tackle room heading into the preseason stretch. The 6-foot-7, 300-pound Diesch was one of two tackles the Chiefs brought in for a tryout Wednesday, according to reporter Matt Derrick. The team made the signing on Thursday, according to an NBC Sports report.
Kansas City Chiefs Sign Kellen Diesch, Waive Matt Waletzko
Waletzko’s exit clears the corresponding spot. He had been dealing with a knee injury and had missed recent practice time. Kansas City’s offensive line has absorbed several absences already this camp, and Diesch’s arrival reads as a straightforward depth answer. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo framed the transaction as part of a broader trend, noting it marks another instance of a UFL player landing a spot on an NFL camp roster.
Diesch hails from the Dallas area, having grown up in Trophy Club, Texas, and played at Byron Nelson High School. He redshirted and served as a reserve at Texas A&M from 2016 through 2019 before transferring to Arizona State, where he started extensively in 2020 and 2021 and earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors both seasons. Pro Football Focus rated him the highest-graded tackle in the conference during his final year on campus, according to the UFL’s bio page. Diesch is listed as 26 years old, and his size and athletic testing have stayed the constant selling point through six pro stops without an NFL snap.
Miami signed Diesch as an undrafted free agent in 2022. He bounced from the Dolphins to the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans over the following three years without ever appearing in a regular-season NFL game, a run of practice-squad stops and brief waiver claims that ended when the Titans let him go.
Kellen Diesch’s UFL Run and His Path to Kansas City Chiefs Roster
Diesch pivoted to the UFL in 2025, signing with the Arlington Renegades before a trade sent him to the Memphis Showboats in exchange for offensive lineman J.D. DiRenzo. He appeared in six total games that year without a start, splitting time between the two rosters, according to career statistics at FootballDB.
This year brought more movement. Houston selected Diesch in the UFL draft, released him in mid-April, and the Louisville Kings picked him up shortly after. He appeared in seven games with two starts. Louisville finished 6-4 and won the 2026 United Bowl to take home the UFL championship.
None of that history guarantees Diesch a spot on Kansas City’s 53-man roster. He remains a long-shot for the initial cut given his lack of regular-season NFL snaps and a late arrival into an already crowded competition for backup line jobs. His stronger path runs through the practice squad, where his athletic testing and championship-tested reps at Louisville could make him an appealing emergency option if the Chiefs’ tackle injuries linger into the season.
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