Tershawn Wharton

From rotational nickel rusher to a contract year explosion — 8.5 sacks in 2024 nearly matched his first four seasons combined.

Wharton was an undrafted MIAC product (Missouri S&T) buried behind Chris Jones for years. His first four KC seasons produced 9.0 sacks combined. Then 2024 happened: 8.5 sacks, 14 QB hits, 8 TFL — a true breakout in his contract year. Carolina paid him as a starter; the 2025 production has reset to a more rotational baseline (2.0 sacks through the slate so far).

2024: 8.5 sacks — second only to Chris Jones (12.0) on the entire Chiefs defense.

Wharton's 2024 wasn't a stat-padder against backups — it was the #2 sack total on a Super Bowl roster, behind a perennial All-Pro. The gap between Wharton (8.5) and KC's third-leading rusher (Karlaftis at 6.0) was wider than the gap to Jones.

That one season turned an undrafted rotation piece into a free agent the Panthers signed to anchor their interior pass rush.

5 seasons in KC produced 3 Super Bowl rings — the contract year was the one without one.

The inverse correlation is striking: in the three KC ring runs (LIV-winning was pre-Wharton; LVII and LVIII his rings), his regular-season production was modest — 1.0 and 3.0 sacks. The career-best 8.5 came in 2024, the year KC lost the Super Bowl.

Both versions of Wharton — the role-player champion and the breakout pass-rusher — sit on the same five-year tenure.

Career: 21.5 sacks across 6 seasons, with more than a third (8.5) coming in one year.

Through 2025, Wharton has 21.5 career sacks, 38 QB hits, and 20 tackles for loss. The career arc is unusually concentrated: 39.5% of his career sacks (8.5 of 21.5) came in 2024 alone.

For an undrafted DT to clear 20 career sacks is itself rare; for one to do it while being the second-leading sacker on a back-to-back Super Bowl champion is the part of the resume Carolina was counting on when they handed him starter money.

2022: 3 tackles all season — and he came out of that year a Super Bowl champion.

In KC's SB LVII-winning 2022 regular season, Wharton was credited with just 3 tackles — easily a career low. He played behind a loaded interior rotation (Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi, Khalen Saunders).

It's the kind of stat line that vanishes from a resume but explains why the 2024 breakout looked impossible from the outside: Wharton had been visible as a pure third-down interior rusher for years before KC gave him real snaps. Once he got them, 8.5 sacks showed up.