Philadelphia has added a running back.
The Eagles announced on Thursday that they’ve agreed to terms on a one-year deal with Dameon Pierce.
Pierce, 25, was most recently with the Chiefs in 2025, appearing in one game for the club. He had signed with Kansas City off of Houston’s practice squad, where he’d previously spent all of his career.
The Texans selected Pierce in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. He appeared in 42 games with 20 starts for the club, rushing for 1,674 yards and eight touchdowns. He also caught 45 passes for 268 yards with one TD.
Pierce’s best season came in 2022 as a rookie, as he totaled 1,104 yards from scrimmage with five total touchdowns.
As the details regarding many of the free-agent contracts made their way to the light of day last week, one deal was absent.
We’ve now gotten our eyes on the full base numbers of the three-year contract signed by Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III.
Here are the terms of Walker’s new deal with the Chiefs:
1. Signing bonus: $13 million.
2. 2026 base salary: $1.215 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 workout bonus: $135,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
4. 2027 base salary: $14.1 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2027 workout bonus: $250,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
6. 2028 base salary: $14.1 million.
7. 2028 workout bonus: $250,000.
The deal has a base value of $43.05 million. That translates to an average of $14.35 million.
Coincidentally, or not, the running back franchise tag for 2026 was $14.293 million. The Seahawks decided not to apply it.
The Chiefs have fully guaranteed Walker $28.7 million over the first two years, an average of $14.35 million. With no guarantees for 2028, it’s a two-year deal with a team option for 2028.
While not at the top of the tailback market (Saquon Barkley at $20.6 million), it puts Walker not far behind Derrick Henry ($15 million APY) and ahead of Jonathan Taylor ($14 million APY).
That’s a very good deal for a running back who missed 10 games over his first three seasons and who rushed for a career-high of 1,050 yards as a rookie. The investment suggests that the Chiefs plan to use him heavily; last year, they paid only $1.5 million to Kareem Hunt and $1.12 million to Isiah Pacheco.
Either way, Walker will get $14.35 million in cash for each of the next two years, with every penny guaranteed. It speaks to a level of involvement in the offense that the starting running back usually doesn’t have in Kansas City.
The 2026 NFL draft is still more than a month away, but five teams have already accumulated two first-round picks.
The Dolphins became the latest team to get a second first-rounder when they agreed to trade wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos. Miami will have its own pick (No. 11 overall) as well as Denver’s pick (No. 30).
The Jets have their own pick (No. 2) and the Colts’ pick (No. 16) from the Sauce Gardner trade.
The Cowboys have their own pick (No. 12) and the Packers’ pick (No. 20) from the Micah Parsons trade.
The Browns have their own pick (No. 6) and the Jaguars’ pick (No. 24) from the draft-day trade a year ago that allowed the Jaguars to move up to draft Travis Hunter.
The Chiefs have their own pick (No. 9) and the Rams’ pick (No. 29) from the Trent McDuffie trade.
A sixth team was poised to get a second first-round pick when the Raiders agreed to trade Maxx Crosby to the Ravens, but that trade fell through and the Ravens kept their first-round pick.
Five teams don’t have a first-round pick: The Broncos, Falcons, Colts, Packers and Jaguars.
The teams with two first-round picks all missed the playoffs last season and are attempting to rebuild their roster. A draft with two first-round picks is a big part of the rebuilding process.
The Colts made a veteran addition to their defensive line group on Tuesday.
They announced the signing of defensive tackle Jerry Tillery. The team did not announce the terms of the contract.
Tillery spent the 2025 season with the Chiefs. He played in every game and started three times while picking up 20 tackles, 1.5 sacks and a fumble recovery.
The Chargers selected Tillery in the first round in 2019 and he remained with the team until being waived in November 2022. He was claimed by the Raiders and then moved on to the Vikings in 2024.
Tillery had 86 tackles, 12.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries in 96 appearances across those stops.
No one does “do as we say not as we do” better than NFL owners. Some of the ones who don’t want to be publicly criticized by players have no qualms about publicly criticizing them.
Case in point: Jets owner Woody Johnson. He and his partners successfully (sort of) stifled the NFL Players Association’s ability to publicize report cards that Johnson dismissed as “totally bogus.” Meanwhile, Johnson publicly criticized quarterback Justin Fields during the 2025 season.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that he’s got,” Johnson said during quarterly league meetings last October, regarding the Jets’ latest struggles with Fields at quarterback. “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good,” Johnson added.
Fields took the high road, but he surely was bugged at some level by the idea that he was being thrown under the bus by the boss. Now that Fields will be playing for the Chiefs, he’ll get a chance to prove Johnson wrong.
And, yes, the Chiefs host the Jets this season.
There’s no guarantee Fields will take a regular-season snap in 2026. Much of that depends on whether Patrick Mahomes is healthy when Week 1 rolls around. It also depends on whether the Chiefs put Mahomes on a pitch count as he works his way back to 100 percent.
Mahomes will want to do everything. The team may try to hold him in check, for his own good. Regardless, Fields becomes another weapon for the offense.
Besides, Fields wasn’t horrible last year. His passer rating was 89.5. He completed 62.7 percent of his passes, with seven touchdown passes and one interception. His career numbers aren’t awful, either; they’re not nearly as bad as Johnson’s assessment.
No one forced the Jets to give Fields $30 million fully guaranteed at signing on a two-year deal. Fields has had moments. And now he has extra motivation to use 2026 as the foundation for the chance to become the latest Jets alumnus to become a much better quarterback elsewhere.
Maybe he’ll eventually do well enough that, one of these days, the Jets will do a trade to bring him back. Like they did last week with Geno Smith.
