Chiefs’ Ashton Gillotte on Josh Simmons scuffle, how the rookies push each other
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rookie Ashton Gillotte views training camp clashes as competitive growth.
- Gillotte adapts to Spagnuolo’s system while managing physical demands.
- Chiefs defense expects Gillotte to meet high standards set since 2019.
Rookie defensive end Ashton Gillotte has found his first Chiefs training camp to be educational for multiple reasons.
As with all the newcomers, there is much to learn in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s playbook. But the unexpected part was the weather.
“I didn’t think St. Joe was really going to be this hot,” Gillotte said Saturday. “It’s cooled off now, thankfully. But I thought they were exaggerating a little bit. I came from Florida, so I‘ve practiced in 110 (degrees) and been fine. But we don’t have the breeze here. It’s been hot.”
Although temperatures were in the low 70s at Saturday morning’s practice, just days earlier the heat index was at 110 degrees. That’s when Gillotte and fellow rookie Josh Simmons scuffled, and the video quickly went viral.
Gillotte said there were no hard feelings.
“Me and him already understood. Literally, like 10 minutes later we were dapping each other up,” said Gillotte, who was a third-round pick out of Louisville. “None of that is deep. It’s competitors trying to get better, trying to push each other.”
Working against the 6-foot-5, 310-pound Simmons hasn’t been easy. That’s how Gillotte, who is 2 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter than Simmons, wants it.
And in this instance, things were scorching on the field, and that was just fine.
“It’s great to have competition on the field,” Gillotte said. “That’s what we want. That’s the only way we get better is if we’re continually pushing each other to get better. Me and him have had a lot of mutual respect coming from college. Like, I watched his game, he watched my game. There’s a lot of mutual respect.
“So we’re on the field, I get the best of him, he gets the best of me. Tension is gonna build. It was hot. Who cares? At the end of the day, we’re teammates. We’re just going to keep pushing each other to get better.”
‘Maintain the standard’
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo praised Gillotte’s work at camp and hopes to use him in various spots in the future.
“I don’t know if we will get to that this year or that’ll be down the road,” Spagnuolo said. “But he’s one of those guys that I call a natural knee bender and he’s a big guy. ... He has got a lot of power from the hips down and I think he’s a natural knee bender. And that usually means you’re a pretty good football player. Just got to get the mental part going for all these young guys.”
For Gillotte, who had 26 1/2 sacks and 40 tackles for loss in 50 career games at Louisville, mistakes are going to happen early in his career. Not that he’s content with that happening.
That could be mishearing a call or running a play the wrong way. Listening is important to Gillotte, although he knows he’ll do things wrong at times. There is a lot to learn as camp progresses.
“We’re doing more and more install. Being able to run, mix in with the ones (first team), it’s been a privilege and honor,” Gillotte said. “So just taking it in stride and just making sure to keep my head up through it and realize that some mistakes are gonna happen, but making my best to make sure I don’t do the same mistake twice.”
Since Spagnuolo became the defensive coordinator in 2019, the Chiefs have been ranked in the top 10 in scoring defense each season except for one (2022). They were fourth a year ago.
Gillotte is aware of those expectations. He called it his biggest challenge.
“Just feeling like you have that responsibility to uphold the standard, like we don’t slow down just because you put in (a certain player),” Gillotte said. “You’ve got to be able to (hold) up on the same standard, get the same amount of pressure, know the playbook.
“So just for me, it’s just feeling accountable. Like I have to be able to rise to that challenge and do my part, and I just can’t get blown off the ball. I can’t basically go dead on a pass rush rep. Being able to just keep pushing.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2025 at 2:28 PM.
