Nick Bolton
Kansas City ChiefsModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 17 games
Draft & College
He went about where consensus had him.
Covers the college seasons in our data, which does not always reach back to a player's first year.
Comps
STM Take
Three Super Bowl rings plus the Missouri 2nd-round origin plus career STTM range mostly tier 3-5 across five years puts Bolton in the structural mid-prime LB class with championship-pedigree veteran value. The 2024-2025 regression from tier 3 (#21) to tier 6 (#43) flags either injury or scheme shift. The 2026 question is whether Bolton returns to tier 3 territory or whether the structural tier 5-6 finish becomes the stable late-prime baseline.
Bolton came out of Missouri as the Kansas City Chiefs' 2nd-round pick (58th overall) in 2021 and has won three Super Bowls (LVII, LVIII) anchoring the Chiefs' linebacker corps. His STTM career runs tier 3 (#21) rookie, tier 4 (#25) in 2022, tier 3 (#21) in 2023, tier 5 (#40) in 2024, and tier 6 (#43) in 2025.
Strengths
- Two Super Bowl rings (LVII, LVIII) plus the Missouri 2nd-round origin plus the consistent tier 3-5 STTM range establishes structural mid-prime ceiling.
- Five years of Chiefs system experience plus the structural anchor role gives him real championship-pedigree veteran value.
Concerns
- Two-year regression from tier 3 (#21) in 2023 to tier 6 (#43) in 2025 flags either injury, scheme shift, or one-year context spike.
- Kansas City's broader defensive identity transition compresses the structural support around Bolton's late-prime chapter.
What to watch: Whether Bolton returns to tier 3 (top 25) in 2026 with the Chiefs, the threshold for confirming the structural ceiling holds.