Kansas City Chiefs Offseason Preview

This is the latest in a series of NFL offseason previews.

2025 Season in a Nutshell

Fate showed up at their doorstep with a score to settle.

Coaching Situation

Andy Reid may be the greatest NFL coach of all time. Once per decade or so, however, he must collapse face-first into a vat of mac-’n’-cheese to recharge his cosmic batteries. Forget the Odin Sleep: this is the Velveeta Snooze.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo would follow Reid into hell and blitz the devil himself. Eric Bieniemy replaces Matt Nagy, who replaced Bieniemy, who replaced Nagy, as offensive coordinator.

Quarterback Situation

Patrick Mahomes will be “ahead of schedule” in recovering from his December ACL injury all offseason long. That’s because the “schedule” was established by Scottie from Star Trek. (It’s torn straight through, Cap’n. It’ll take months to repair. What? You need it by the end of the episode? Aye, Cap’n, I’ll change the laws of physics.) The words “miraculous” and “superhuman” will be bandied around for maximum engagement.

There will be rumors that Mahomes will start the opener. He won’t, but he will return by October. Once he’s back, everyone will scrutinize his every move and wince at every hit. He’s running weird, folks will say, ignoring the fact that Mahomes has always run like the world’s fastest toddler. There will be takes, takes and more takes.

Mahomes will end up having a subpar year by his standards while still being one of the NFL’s ten best quarterbacks.

Sorry for the spoilers. Try to pretend to be surprised when all of these things happen.

The Chiefs may need a September quarterback. It would not be out of character for them to do something splashy and strange (Russell Wilson! A rookie scrambler! Philip Rivers!) to find one. Remember: Reid’s the guy who signed Michael Vick fresh out of Leavenworth when the Eagles still had Donovan McNabb.

State of the Roster

In flux.

Travis Kelce is a free agent pondering life as a full-time celebrity sidepiece. Chris Jones has been in veteran ringchaser mode for a few years. Trent McDuffie is due for a contract extension and the subject of trade rumors. Rashee Rice is an unreliable character. The offensive line is facing a Ship of Theseus situation.

There’s still plenty of talent scattered all over the Chiefs roster, but it’s never a good sign when most of the recognizable names on the roster have a “Yes, but” story attached to them.

Cap and Draft Stuff

The Chiefs already fiddled with Mahomes’ contract to take their cap debt down from $60 million to around $11 million. Some likely cuts (Jawaan Taylor) and a few more restructurings (Creed Humphrey and Nick Bolton are likely candidates) should give the Chiefs a little breathing room.

But not much breathing room. The in-house free agent list, after Kelce, is full of starters and useful role players: Isiah Pacheco, Marquise Brown, Charles Omenihu, Jaylen Watson, Bryan Cook, Joshua Williams and many others. The secondary alone could be gutted if Cook, Watson and Williams leave, making speculation about a McDuffie trade for picks and cap relief seem unlikely.

Also, there’s the matter of either paying Kelce or investing in someone who could take something close to his place as a focal point of the offense.

The Chiefs pick ninth overall in the 2026 draft. It’s their first selection in the top 10 since they chose Mahomes 10th overall in 2017. They also select 40th and 74th in the first three rounds.

One Thing the Chiefs Should Not Do

Don’t bring Tyreek Hill back. He’s at the tail end of his issues-to-production curve. The Chiefs need an influx of playmaking talent, but they also need receivers who are available for 17 games, don’t cause off-field problems and work cheap.

The Chiefs should generally just shut out any noise about Tyreek, Jeremiyah Love with the ninth pick, Isaiah Likely “replacing” Kelce or any other storylines that are frothy and full of empty calories. The Chiefs need to work on their infrastructure, not generate headlines.

In Summary

If real life were Madden, it would be time to gut the roster of the Kelce-Jones generation, trade McDuffie for picks and sim the 2026 season. But real life is not Madden, so Reid and GM Brett Veach must navigate a minefield of expectations, salaries, egos, personalities and injury reports in search of a viable path forward through the middle ground between wishful thinking and a hard reboot.

For our purposes, it would be irresponsible to predict a quick turnaround for the 2026 Chiefs. But a team with the names Reid and Mahomes above the marquee should be capable of staying relevant as they rebuild on the fly.