The Kansas City Chiefs will likely lose and gain players when NFL free agency begins next week. For weeks, fans and analysts have speculated about Leo Chenal's future, and whether he'll leave K.C. when the market opens.
The 25-year-old linebacker will be an unrestricted free agent, and bringing him back might not be high on general manager Brett Veach's priority list. First, Veach needs to retool the offense and give Patrick Mahomes the help he needs to lead this team back to the mountaintop, so there might not be that much money to spend on defense.
Secondly, the Chiefs are $6.9 million over the salary cap, according to OverTheCap, and while they can do more financial juggling to lower that number, that might not be enough to keep their former draft pick there.
And now that the NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports that the New York Giants will release veteran LB Bobby Okereke, the Chiefs should have even less incentive to give Chenal another contract in free agency.
Chiefs Could Sign Bobby Okereke as Leo Chenal's Replacement
With Chenal's exit looming, the Chiefs' linebacker room might look a whole lot different than last season.
Jack Cochrane, who's been mostly a special teams contributor, is also a pending free agent and has played 250 defensive snaps since 2023. Jeffrey Bassa and Cooper McDonald will probably have bigger roles playing depth roles as rookies, but that only makes the need for an experienced veteran like Okreke all the more important.
Okereke started all 17 games and posted 143 tackles (78 solo) for the Giants last season, the third-highest mark of his career. He had six pass breakups, two tackles for loss, two interceptions, one sack, and one quarterback hit.
While he posted a subpar defensive run grade (45.5), he's usually been an above-average run-stopper, logging three seasons with a Pro Football Focus run defense grade above 71.8 before last year's outlier. Also, the negative game script may not have helped his case.
Of course, it's not like Chenal isn't a key player or that the Chiefs should just cut ties with him. He's been a key contributor to two Super Bowl wins and a pillar of Steve Spagnuolo's defense since he entered the league in 2022.
With that in mind, Spotrac projects Chenal's next contract to be three years for $13.9 million, with an average annual value of $4.6 million. However, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report projects he'll get around $5.5 million per season, and as affordable as that might be, the Chiefs have different priorities, especially when Chenal's production has recently trended in the wrong direction (25 solo tackles in 2025 vs. 40 in 2023 and 2024).
The Chiefs already met with Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez at the NFL Scouting Combine, so they might have accepted that Chenal won't be part of the team moving forward.
Now, with a proven veteran like Okereke up for grabs, the Chiefs have another reason to turn the page for good.