Kansas defensive lineman Gage Keys (7) celebrates a third-down stop against Kansas State during the third quarter on Saturday Nov. 18, 2023 at Memorial Stadium. Photo by Nick Krug

A depth chart doesn’t tell the whole story.

Last season, defensive tackle Blake Herold, then a redshirt freshman, didn’t get a spot on Kansas’ depth chart coming out of fall camp, as he was passed up in favor of several upperclassmen.

He made it on the depth chart by the third week of the season thanks to his high-level play. By the end of the 2024 campaign, Herold had played 277 snaps and become KU’s highest-graded defensive lineman on Pro Football Focus. At one point, then-defensive coordinator Brian Borland declared him the team’s second-best pass rusher.

Herold is firmly ensconced in the 2025 edition of the depth chart, which came out Monday, and will see significant time as long as he’s healthy (head coach Lance Leipold recently mentioned him as a player who had missed some practice time). But there could be other players just like him who aren’t listed this season and could still have a lot to say about how well KU’s team turns out this year.

Granted, the 2025 depth chart is a bit more expansive in its overall scope. Last year’s was a strict two-deep, as it included two players at each position with no instances of the word “or.” That meant 44 players on offense and defense combined. This year, there are eight ors and several other positions at which three players are featured regardless, making for a total of 51, excluding repeats (Mason Ellis is listed at multiple spots).

Still, there are a few contenders for notable roles who weren’t included.

photo by: Columbia Athletics/Stockton Photo

Columbia wide receiver Bryson Canty carries the ball ahead against Georgetown on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Bryson Canty: It’s not necessarily that Canty was the jewel of KU’s winter transfer class at the wideout position, because his fellow transfers Emmanuel Henderson Jr. (Alabama), Cam Pickett (Ball State) and Levi Wentz (Albany) had all showed significant promise. But Canty had by far the most distinguished career to that point and therefore seemed in line for immediate production.

Henderson has five career catches, and Wentz started playing both football late. Both entered college as something other than wide receivers. Granted, Wentz and Pickett were each coming off solid seasons at their respective lower-level schools. But Canty was a two-time first-team all-conference selection at Columbia and had a pair of seasons with at least 700 receiving yards and six touchdowns — once in nine games, once in 10 — to his name.

Canty was always going to be at a bit of a disadvantage due to joining the Jayhawks over the summer after he had obtained his degree from Columbia, but he made the trip to California with Jalon Daniels like most of the rest of the receiving corps and seemed poised to contend for a starting role. (And the summer arrival wasn’t an obstacle for players like Alex Bray, Enrique Cruz Jr. and Leroy Harris III, in terms of putting themselves in positions to contribute immediately.) But Canty hurt his leg early in fall camp and was not participating in the practice portions open to media for much of the final three cycles. That injury explains his exclusion from the depth chart.

Leipold said on Monday that Canty had put together a pair of promising practices and would dress for Saturday’s game against Fresno State. That’s a step in the right direction. But it’s clear that will take longer for Canty to emerge as a primary target for Jalon Daniels, if he does so at all.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Journal-World photo

Kansas defensive lineman Gage Keys celebrates a tackle for a loss against BYU Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

Gage Keys: When the 2023 season concluded, Keys, a former Minnesota transfer, looked to have put himself in position to compete for a starting job the following year after the graduation of Devin Phillips. He had shown flashes of brilliance as part of KU’s defensive-tackle rotation during his first stint in Lawrence.

But instead of returning for his redshirt junior season, he jumped from KU to Auburn, making what he later called “the mistake of being materialistic.” Keys knew almost immediately that he had gone down the wrong path, didn’t play much for the Tigers and went right back to Lawrence after the 2024 campaign.

Position coach Jim Panagos told him he would have to start at the bottom and earn his way back up the pecking order — “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Keys said — and he reintegrated himself nicely into a group with plenty of familiar faces from his previous stint with the Jayhawks.

Many of those players, such as the redshirt sophomore Herold and his classmate Marcus Calvin, grew substantially in Keys’ absence, while Tommy Dunn Jr., D.J. Withers and Kenean Caldwell continued to stake their claims for big roles. Nonetheless, Keys’ experience with the system and the culture seemed like it would be enough to get him back in the rotation pretty quickly.

“It’s good to have him back,” Panagos said during camp. “I’m used to him. He’s used to me. He brings familiarity to the program. He’s a good pass rusher. He’ll help us in third down.”

Keys will likely do that down the line, but as with Canty, injury issues are the apparent reason for his absence from the depth chart. Leipold recently described Keys as another player who had recently been limited in practice, and he was the only member of the group of six veteran scholarship defensive tackles left off the list — which means KU may rotate just five to start.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas running back Johnny Thompson Jr. takes part in spring practice on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Lawrence.

Johnny Thompson Jr.: Thompson’s omission from the depth chart is a different case, as it’s simply a product of KU’s choice to list its top two running backs by far, sixth-year seniors Daniel Hishaw Jr. and Leshon Williams.

They will certainly receive the bulk of the carries, but Thompson has a great chance to make an impact. First of all, he had less direct competition for reps at No. 3 spot for much of the offseason, as Harry Stewart III dealt with a knee injury. In addition, in one of KU’s scrimmages during fall camp, Leipold kept Hishaw and Williams out of live situations, making room for those further down the depth chart. Leipold said that Thompson seized the opportunity and was overall “one of the more improved football players on our team.”

From a skill-set standpoint, it just makes sense for Thompson to find his way into the game now and then. Hishaw and Williams are talented and experienced players, but they’re also both powerful, bruising runners, not necessarily complementary backs. Thompson is an elusive back who could provide a different sort of value on passing downs.

KU has a variety of wide-ranging weapons on offense this year — the four tight ends and six wide receivers (with ors at two positions) listed on the depth chart make that clear — and there are only so many touches to go around. But there is absolutely a situational use for someone like Thompson in the post-Devin Neal era.