Chiefs’ Frank Zombo ready if Tamba Hali can’t play Sunday

Tamba Hali didn’t practice on Thursday after undergoing surgery Tuesday to repair a broken thumb but he hasn’t been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns at Arrowhead Stadium.

Still, Frank Zombo is approaching the game as if he’s going to start.

“I haven’t been given the go-ahead, but I’m preparing as if I’m going to start,” Zombo said.

That’s not new for Zombo, who said he ramps up for every game with that idea. If he gets the call Sunday, the Chiefs will be without their two Pro Bowl outside linebackers, Hali and Justin Houston, who is recovering from a hyperextended knee. Dee Ford has started for Houston.

“One thing we’ve tried to do the whole year is operate with one (idea), and that’s whatever group is on the field the team on the field is the team,” defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said. “You try not to reduce your standards of what your expectations are.

“We have to play at a certain level and a certain manner all the time. We aren’t going to change what we do.”

Zombo has appeared in 71 games in six seasons, starting 14. He started five games in 2013, his first with the Chiefs, and has been productive in a reserve role this season. He had two sacks in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs’ victory earlier this month at Oakland.

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Frank Zombo ready if Tamba Hali can’t play Sunday."