For the first time in seven years, the Kansas City Chiefs will not be playing on conference championship Sunday. As deflating as this past season was for both the 6-11 Chiefs and their fans, any failure provides an opportunity to get up, dust yourself off, and attack the biggest offseason this franchise has faced in quite some time.
We are all well aware of the shortcomings head coach Andy Reid and his team faced last season, so there is no need to rehash what’s understood. General manager Brett Veach, alongside Reid are already underway in reshaping the coaching staff, which had been a sore thumb in various positions, most notably replacing wide receivers Connor Embree with the more experienced and highly respected Chad O’Shea.
The Chiefs also brought back Eric Bieniemy as the new offensive coordinator, taking the place of much-maligned Matt Nagy and they are still in search of a new running backs coach after firing Todd Pinkston.
These changes are few and far between for Reid, as he is usually slow to let his coaches go, and when he does, Reid typically promotes from within. These out-of-the-ordinary changes are a welcome sign for fans and it should signify that major roster retooling is just around the corner for the Chiefs.
In this article, we'll look at a plan to get the Chiefs back to their championship standard and stockpile assets for a quick rebound in 2026.
Kansas City Has Major Decisions to Make This Offseason
Every year, each team needs to be compliant with the NFL’s salary cap, which is set at roughly $304 million this upcoming season. As it stands right now, the Chiefs sit a league-worst $55 million over the cap, forcing Veach to make some tough decisions on players under contract. There are, however, easy buttons to press for the Chiefs' front office to free up some money.
Key Salary Cap Moves
- Cut RT Jawaan Taylor (saves $20M)
- Cut DE Mike Danna (saves $9M)
- Cut LB Drue Tranquill (saves $6M)
- Restructure the contracts of RG Trey Smith and C Creed Humphrey (saves $10M)
- Restructure the contract of QB Patrick Mahomes (saves $15-$45M plus adding one void year)
The trio of Taylor, Danna, and Tranquill will unequivocally be let go as all three are in the last year of their contracts, and a decline in play doesn’t bode well for a costly extension. Smith and Humphrey each enter into the second year of four-year deals, and account for just over $42 million of the current cap. Restructuring each lineman's contract frees up another $10 million, but doesn’t add too much to future cap costs. Mahomes' contract might be the best in all of sports as the 10-year deal signed in 2020 allows the Chiefs to move all sorts of money around and push high cap costs years down the road. However much money Veach decides to free up is really up to how aggressive he wants to be in free agency.
Chiefs Notable Free Agents (w/Contract Projections)
- P Matt Araiza (1yr/$985k)
- WR Hollywood Brown (1yr/$6M)
- LB Leo Chenal (3yr/$15M)
- S Bryan Cook (3yr/$33M)
- RB Kareem Hunt (1yr/$2M)
- TE Travis Kelce (1yr/$10M w/2 void years)
- QB Gardner Minshew (1yr/$3M)
- RB Isiah Pacheco (2yr/$10M)
- WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (1yr/$1.5M)
- WR Tyquan Thornton (2yr/$6M)
- CB Jaylen Watson (3yr/$40M)
Kansas City has a whopping 29 free agents set to test the open market. To be frank, I wouldn’t bring back a sizable portion of that crew, and I don’t expect the Chiefs to act any differently, aside from a few guys to round out the practice squad and a few players from the list above. If the Chiefs believe that Mahomes will miss the first month of the season recovering from a torn ACL, Minshew might be good enough to keep them afloat until his return. Punter Matt Araiza will not be costly at all and was the lone bright spot on special teams in 2025. If the Chiefs are serious about retooling this roster, they cannot continue to go down the JuJu road, nor can they run it back with Hollywood Brown on another one-year prove-it deal.
Tyquan Thornton is the lone receiver who showed some real downfield prowess last season, as well as built a solid connection with Mahomes. I think it’s safe to say that both Hunt’s and Pacheco’s best years are behind them and that the Chiefs should look to both free agency and the draft to completely reshape the RB room. Kelce’s retirement decision looms, but the move to bring back Bieniemy seemed to reignite the Hall of Fame tight end and signal another season of the big Yeti. Chenal, Cook, and Watson are all worthy of an extension, and I do believe KC will keep two of the three, as each of the Chiefs could use a dependable addition to each position.
Trent McDuffie Trade Getting More Likely
As it stands right now, after all these moves, the Chiefs will have about 40 players out of their 53-man gameday roster under contract, along with roughly $30M to spend in free agency. It leaves a multitude of positions open for improvement, with little money to spend to fill all the holes. The best way for the Chiefs to build out a solid roster will have to be through hitting on this year's draft picks in a big way, of which Brett Veach has just six to work with.
There have been murmurs of a McDuffie trade for weeks now, as his situation is quite unique. As a former first-round pick in 2022, the Chiefs exercised his fifth-year option for this season, basically putting him on a one-year, $13 million contract. The worst and least likely option would have McDuffie play this year out and walk in free agency next offseason. I don’t see a world in which that happens, leaving just two scenarios.
The first is the Chiefs making a bold move to trade the All-Pro to a cornerback-needy team. What the Chiefs would get in return for McDuffie remains to be seen, but there would be no shortage of suitors. Given that McDuffie is mainly a slot-based CB and a tad undersized at the position for bigger receivers, it would probably land the Chiefs a late-first or early-second round pick alongside another mid-round selection.
The second option would be to extend McDuffie, and at a hefty price. At 5’10”, McDuffie is a tad small at the position and lacks elite ball skills. He has struggled at times on the boundary against bigger-bodied receivers like AJ Brown, Courtland Sutton, and Tee Higgins. But in the slot and at nickel, McDuffie is the best in the league at using positioning and angles, staying glued to the receiver's hip, and has flourished against some of the best slot-receivers in the league, including Amon-Ra St. Brown and Khalil Shakir. McDuffie wouldn’t outprice the likes of Sauce Gardner or Derek Stingley, but will no doubt cross the $25 million per year mark, which might not be feasible for a team as cap-strapped as the Chiefs.
Trading McDuffie would free up future years of money, allowing the team to sign multiple free agents and have a bevy of options in the draft.
Filling out the Rest of the Roster With Added Resources
Now with freed-up money and extra draft picks, the Chiefs are in a much better position financially to be aggressive in free agency and the draft. Instead of six draft picks, the Chiefs now have eight with half of them within the top 75 picks. Major positions of need this offseason are multiple difference makers along a defensive line devoid of talent outside of Chris Jones and George Karlaftis, as well as skill and speed at both running back and wide receiver.
Draft Picks (*courtesy of McDuffie trade)
- 1st round: No. 9
- 1st round: No. 29*
- 2nd round: No. 40
- 3rd round: No. 74
- 4th round: No. 109
- 4th round: No. 135*
- 5th round: No. 146
- 5th round: No. 176
With all of this said, it’s all projection, and it’s up to Andy Reid and Brett Veach on how serious they are about changing this roster for the years to come. The decisions made this offseason will legitimately shape how many Super Bowls the Chiefs can compete for within the next three to five years.