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Chiefs have kept C.J. Hanson on ice for a year and there’s a reason for it

Posted on May 23, 2025 - 5:14 pm by

One year ago, Brett Veach decided to dramatically overhaul the Kansas City Chiefs’ depth along the defensive line. The Chiefs general manager utilized three of his seven selections in the 2024 NFL Draft on offensive linemen, giving the team an abundance of new young talent up front.

While the spotlight has been on other players, the third and final lineman taken in that draft class was a seventh-rounder who has remained quite silent in his first season in Kansas City. C.J. Hanson, a prospect taken out of Holy Cross, was submitted on the Chiefs’ draft card at No. 248 overall, and he remains a mystery headed into the 2025 season.

While anything is possible for Hanson, and history says quiet seventh-round choices aren’t around for long, there’s also good reason to believe that the Chiefs might just have a diamond in the rough in Hanson.

C.J. Hanson has always been a long-term project for the Chiefs.

It’s be easy to forget what made the Chiefs look Hanson’s way in the first place, which is understandable, but it all starts with that RAS—his Relative Athetic Score—a metric designed by Kent Lee Platte that takes into account a player’s height, weight, bench press, leaping drills, speed drills, and more. The result is a number measured up to 10.0.

Back to Hanson. Platte’s RAS for Hanson measured out to 9.84, which is basically otherworldly for an offensive lineman. Per Platte, it ranks at No. 26 overall among a group of 1,582 linemen from the mid-’80s to 2024. Yeah, that’s impressive.

Of course, NFL Draft history is littered with busts who were excellent at the Combine or at their respective Pro Days yet never turned in anything meaningful on the field. That said, Hanson is made of the sort of uber-athletic clay that coaches look forward to molding.

Beyond the raw athleticism, Hanson also entered the draft with an impressive amount of experience and reliability. While at Holy Cross, he’d started 38 games at right guard over three seasons and was named First-Team All-Patriot League in his final two seasons as a Crusader. He was also a team captain, and that leadership speaks volumes about the kind of person he will be for the Chiefs.

That said, the Holy Cross mention is itself an issue, as few prospects ever find their way to the NFL via the Patriot League. Hanson might have a solid body of work for that level, but the leap in competition and exposure to the workings of the game at the highest levels of football is a challenge for anyone.

In addition, Hanson was also a bit leaner than he needed to be coming out of college, which isn’t uncommon, despite his decent size at 6’5″, 300 lbs.

Hanson was always going to need a season to make the transition. Holy Cross was a run-heavy school and Hanson was already lean, so gaining a year with the Chiefs’ training staff to bulk up is essential, even as he’s also learning to adjust to the NFL. That’s a lot of physical and mental development.

There is a reason, however, that the Chiefs have kept Hanson on the active roster all this time, even if they weren’t going to play him. He’s always been a long-term stash and 2025 is the first season that fans might begin to get a glimpse of what Veach envisioned when he decided to draft him a year ago.