B.J. Thompson 'trending upward' after cardiac arrest at Kansas City Chiefs OTAs

Second-year defensive end B.J. Thompson is trending upward following his cardiac arrest at Kansas City Chiefs’ OTAs, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

On Friday, it was reported Thompson was stable but unconscious. Now, Thompson is awake. Overall, the situation is working itself out as Thompson remains under medical supervision.

“He’s trending upward. I’ve been keeping in contact with his agent Chris Turner, who was in Kansas City with Thompson,” Fowler said on SportsCenter. “Turner said that as of yesterday afternoon that he has been awake and responsive after being unconscious for a while dating back to Thursday’s incident. So the team is overjoyed because I’ve talked to team sources who just said it was simply traumatizing. During that special teams meeting. There were dozens of players and coaches in there, pretty large setting and when this all went down, they had to just try to figure this out and were shook.

“And Harrison Butker, the kicker and James Winchester, the long snapper were two players in particular I was told that took leadership roles to try to just calm the room. The medical staff, I’m told, was amazing jumping into the fray very early, and now everybody moves on and they’re hoping for the best for Thompson and things seem to be looking up.”

The second-year defender saw action in one game as a rookie for the Chiefs, posting two tackles in a January matchup against the Chargers. He won his first Super Bowl ring with Kansas City in Super Bowl LVIII.

Thompson was a fifth-round pick for the Chiefs in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Stephen F. Austin. Thompson, an Arkansas native, initially started his career at Baylor before transferring to SFA in 2020. He became an immediate impact player for the Lumberjacks. 

He posted 8.5 tackles for loss and six sacks in 2020, and 12.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks in 2021. In his final season before entering the draft, Thompson had 23 tackles, five sacks and two forced fumbles in 2022.

While at Baylor, he played in nine games as a freshman and made one start. In 2018, he had just two starts but played in 10 games. He finished second on the team with four sacks, adding 5.5 TFL and 15 total tackles.

Nikki Chavanelle contributed to this report