Kansas City Chiefs
Cap Space (per Over the Cap): -$54.6 million
Biggest Positions of Need: Cornerback, Running Back, Defensive Tackle
Top Trade Targets
Draft Picks
WR Jordan Addison
RB David Montgomery
The Chiefs definitely come into the offseason as more likely sellers than buyers on the trade market. They have to clear the most cap space just to get in the black and that could mean trading someone like Trent McDuffie.
That being said, they could use as many draft picks as they can get in those deals to get cost-controlled assets on the roster.
There’s still room for a smart GM like Brett Veach to add talent to the roster that won’t hurt their cap situation. For instance, Jordan Addison is now extension-eligible, but the Vikings will have a new general manager.
Minnesota could be looking to move on from Addison after he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The charges were later dropped, but he’s had mutliple arrests since being draft. He could get a fresh start in Kansas City. He would only account for a $2.6 million cap hit this season.
Kansas City Chiefs
Regardless of how the 2025 season unfolded, it’s hard to bet against the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes under center.
There are indeed plenty of question marks surrounding his receiving corps, including whether tight end Travis Kelce will return for his 14th NFL season and regarding which young receiver can take a step forward between Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice.
Otherwise, the team’s offensive line, when healthy, looked steady in 2025. Rookie left tackle Josh Simmons showed promising signs (75.5 PFF pass-blocking grade), while Kingsley Suamataia took a big step forward at guard (65.1 PFF overall grade) in his second NFL season. Right tackle might be a concern due to Jawaan Taylor‘s performance over the past couple of seasons, but otherwise, the front should not be a long-term issue.
Similar to past seasons, the Chiefs’ defense should have plenty of talent to complement Mahomes and the offense over the upcoming years. Admittedly, elite interior defender Chris Jones may be on the decline after earning a career-low 70.5 PFF overall grade in 2025, so Kansas City should be looking for help along the defensive line. But as long as the defense is serviceable, the offense has all the tools to carry the team into the postseason, at the very least, every year.
Mudd’s name came up last week after former Patriots coach Bill Belichick was not chosen for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Some blamed it on the Patriots’ Spygate scandal in which they were accused of videotaping an opponent’s coaching signals.
Former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson mentioned that while in Kansas City, Mudd had done the same thing as the Patriots. “If they are using the EXCUSE of spygate that’s ridiculous…many teams (including ourselves) tried it..Howard Mudd at Kansas City who later coached for Bill Polian and Tony Dungy gave us the idea..he was the best..we didn’t get anything and stopped but many teams gave it a try,” Johnson wrote on X.
Former Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said neither Mudd nor Schottenheimer recorded opposing teams. “In the time that he worked with Marty and myself at the Chiefs, he never did anything wrong or illegal to my knowledge,” Peterson wrote in a message to The Star.
“As for ‘stealing defensive signals,’ Howard had an uncanny ability to do that legally by simply watching the opposing team’s defensive coordinator on the sidelines without the use of cameras or other technology! He was an excellent NFL player, and assistant coach for many years that we lost a few years ago in a bad motorcycle accident. May he now rest in peace.”
Todays announcements of regular-season games in Madrid and Paris bring the total of overseas games in the upcoming season to eight, which is the most ever. And it’s possible that the league could still announce more games outside the United States.
The full slate of international games will include three in London, one in Rio de Janeiro, one in Munich, and one in Melbourne in addition to the Madrid and Paris games. Rio is expected to be televised in prime time in the United States, Melbourne is slated for Sunday afternoon (Monday morning in Australia), and London, Munich, Madrid and Paris will all kick off on Sunday morning in the United States.
Among living artists, Drake — who was, in a way, part of last year’s Super Bowl halftime — was the most popular choice.
Some of the more passionate and/or interesting responses:
An AFC offensive player: “Beyonce. They should just let her do it every year.”
An NFC offensive player: “I’ve gotta get George Strait in there, followed by a close Chris Stapleton. His national anthem was awesome, so let’s give him halftime.”
An NFC defensive player: “I feel like we should have had E-40 or somebody from the Bay (area) do it.” (An NFC defensive player from a different team concurred regarding this year’s show: “A collective of artists from the Bay Area, similar to the L.A. halftime show.”)
Another NFC defensive player: “Florence & The Machine. But I don’t know if everybody would rock with that.”
And an AFC special teamer: “Bad Bunny is awesome. I’ve been to a concert before, and he’s great.”
“You may be getting ahead of yourself on the second part,” he said regarding the question on discipline. “We are going to look at all the facts. We are going to look at the context of those and try to understand that, we will look at how that falls under the policy. But let’s get the facts first.”
Asked to clarify if the NFL was opening an investigation, Goodell said the league needed to gather the facts first before determining that step.
“I don’t even know the status of all the release. I know that 3 million documents came out last week. Listen, we’ll continue to follow any of the facts that come up and determine if we open an investigation based on those facts,” he said.
Goodell acknowledged he was concerned with how the scope of that story reflects on the league but said, “that’s why we have a personal conduct policy and why we will look into the facts.”
With the Saints’ new coaching staff choosing to build around 2025 second round selection Tyler Shough at quarterback this season, Haener was waived at the final roster cutdown. He spent the 2025 season on New Orleans’ practice squad.
The Chiefs will manage this offseason not knowing when star quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be available after suffering a torn ACL and LCL in December. With Mahomes likely out until training camp in even the best-case scenario, expect the Chiefs to make multiple moves in the quarterback room. Before adding Haener, longtime practice squad passer Chris Oladokun was the only healthy quarterback on the 2026 roster.
Haener’s presence does not change expectations that Kansas City will seek a veteran backup to run the offseason program. Even with his signing, the Chiefs may add to the room in the later rounds of April’s draft or by aggressively signing one of top remaining arms in undrafted free agency.
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