Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters late last month that his goal is to play Week 1, though he recognizes that’s a long way away.
With Kansas City soon wrapping up its offseason program, Mahomes continues to be involved in practice. But he apparently did not do much more in minicamp than he had been during OTAs.
Via Jesse Newell of TheAthletic.com, Mahomes continued to participate in 7-on-7 drills during Tuesday’s mandatory minicamp practice. But he did not participate in team drills.
Newell noted that’s the same as what Mahomes did during voluntary OTAs last week.
Head coach Andy Reid said recently that Mahomes “busted his tail” to put himself in a position to participate as much as he has so far in the offseason program.
With Mahomes being the type of player who often needs to be held back rather than pushed forward when it comes to dealing with an injury, we’ll see how much progress the quarterback makes between now and late July when the Chiefs begin training camp.
Chiefs Clips
Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed is headed back to Kansas City.
According to multiple reports, Sneed will sign with the Chiefs. He visited with the team last week, but there wasn’t much need for either side to spend much time getting to know each other.
Sneed was a 2020 fourth-round pick by the AFC West team and he helped them win a pair of Super Bowls in his four years with the team. He was traded to the Titans before the 2024 season and he signed a four-year deal in Tennessee, but only played 12 games over two years with the team due to injuries and he was released in March.
Sneed had 303 tackles, 10 interceptions, 6.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in the regular season during his first stint with the Chiefs. He also had 72 tackles, two sacks, an interception and a forced fumble in 13 postseason appearances.
The Chiefs wrapped up contracts for both of their first-round picks on Monday.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they have agreed to terms with cornerback Mansoor Delane. Delane was the sixth overall pick in April and the Chiefs reached agreement with 29th pick Peter Woods on his first NFL deal earlier in the day.
Delane’s contract is a four-year pact worth a fully guaranteed $41.9 million. The Chiefs will also have a team option for a fifth season.
Delane joins the Chiefs after an offseason that saw them part ways with several cornerbacks, including Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. That puts the LSU product on track for a significant role right out of the gate in Kansas City.
The Chiefs have reached an agreement with one of their 2026 first-round picks.
Kansas City and defensive tackle Peter Woods have agreed to terms on his four-year rookie deal, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Schefter notes Woods’ fully guaranteed deal is worth $18 million.
Woods, 21, was selected with the No. 29 overall pick in the first round. It was the pick the Chiefs acquired from the Rams as part of the deal for cornerback Trent McDuffie.
Having played his college ball at Clemson, Woods was a first-team All-ACC selection in 2025.
The return of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy could be exactly what the Chiefs’ offense needed.
Bieniemy brings energy and, more importantly, extreme accountability. And the goal is obvious — get the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl, a year after missing the postseason.
“I know this sounds very high school-ish, this answer I’m about to give you,” Bieniemy said, via Jesse Newell of The Athletic. “We’ve got to get back to doing the fundamental things the right way.”
The focus on fundamentals includes basic aspects of the game. Footwork — for quarterbacks, running backs, offensive linemen. Basic details, like linemen having their backs flat in their stance before the snap and receivers running their routes with a plan to get open.
“If we can’t do those things the right way, it don’t matter who the hell we play,” Bieniemy said, per Newell. “So we’ve got to make sure we address those issues and get back to the bread and butter of how this game was played.”
The accountability manifests itself in the simplest of ways. As Newell explains it, Bieniemy kicked the entire starting offense off the field after the players failed to line up properly.
“We can’t get comfortable being comfortable, and not enjoying the fundamentals that we have to work on every single day,” Bieniemy said.
For a team that had won three Super Bowls and had gone to five in six seasons, it’s easy to become complacent about the day-in, day-out details. Bieniemy’s return brings the kind of a kick in the ass that the Chiefs may need after going 1-9 in one-score games in 2025 and missing the playoffs entirely.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has welcomed the approach, because Mahomes has seen what it can do. For any players who have arrived since Bieniemy left after the 2022 season (and a Super Bowl win), Bieniemy’s style could be exactly what the Chiefs need to get back to being the Chiefs the NFL have known since Mahomes became the starter in 2018.
The Seahawks will be defending their second Super Bowl championship in 2026. Before that can happen, the most recent win needs to be made official.
It will be on Thursday, June 11. That’s when, we’re told, the Seahawks will be getting their Super Bowl rings.
In a recent interview with #PFTPM, Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III said he’ll be back in Seattle for the ceremony — even though he left in free agency for the Chiefs.
He should be. It’s the crowning achievement of his NFL career to date, and the Seahawks should roll out the red carpet for the guy who stepped in and stepped up when running back Zach Charbonnet suffered a torn ACL in the divisional-round win over the 49ers.
The next goal for the Seahawks will be to win another one. Coach Mike Macdonald has rejected the “run it back” slogan for a twist on the phrase: Run it forward.
That task got a little more difficult this week, when Myles Garrett landed with the Rams.
The Steelers are bringing in a veteran tight end who will be a familiar face to some in the building.
Per Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Pittsburgh has agreed to sign Robert Tonyan to a one-year deal.
Tonyan, 32, played for the Packers from 2017-2022, giving him familiarity with both head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Tonyan’s best season came in 2020, when he caught 11 touchdowns from the QB.
He recently received a tryout with Pittsburgh and is now going to join the team’s roster.
Tonyan spent last season with the Chiefs, appearing in all 17 games. He was on the field for 12 percent of offensive snaps and 26 percent of special teams snaps, making just one catch on the season.
Having entered the league in 2017 as an underrated free agent, Tonyan has appeared in 107 career games with 24 starts for the Packers, Bears, Vikings, and Chiefs. He’s caught 149 passes for 1,550 yards with 17 touchdowns.
There may be a reunion in Kansas City.
Veteran cornerback L’Jarius Sneed is visiting with the Chiefs on Thursday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Sneed, 29, played his first four seasons with the Chiefs before they traded him to Tennessee in the 2024 offseason. Sneed was instrumental in helping Kansas City win back-to-back Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023.
But his two seasons with Tennessee were marred by injury, as Sneed played just 12 games over the last two years. He was on the field for seven contests in 2025, recording 26 total tackles with three passes defensed.
The Chiefs have to replace two starting corners for 2026, as Trent McDuffie was traded to the Rams and Jaylen Watson followed him to Los Angeles in free agency.
In his 69 career games with 66 starts, Sneed has tallied 10 picks with 43 passes defensed, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, and 6.5 sacks.
They have to install playing surfaces that meet exacting standards. They have to change the names of the facilities. They have to shut down all other business (such as major concerts) for the duration of the World Cup.
Given the hoops through which the 11 NFL stadiums will have to jump in order to placate FIFA, it’s fair to ask whether it’s worth it.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe recently took a look at that question. Said an NFL official from a team that won’t be hosting any of the World Cup games, “I know more than a few teams weren’t disappointed to lose the bid.”
That could be sour grapes, because those who won the right to host the matches are crowing about it.
“Can’t sleep,” Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones said recently, per Volin. “This is a great chance to associate with the worldwide love with soccer, and lets us put a little notch on our belt and share it with what soccer’s about, too. They’ll never be able to take away that we held those games in that stadium.”
Cowboys executive Stephen Jones echoed the sentiment: “We’ll be shut down all summer. But it’s worth it. I mean, this is about brand and, you know, being a part of something special.”
The Joneses wanted to host the matches badly enough to give up their suite for the matches.
“I think I’ve got to go someplace else, but that was a part of it,” Jerry Jones said. “We did a lot of things to make this work.”
The Cowboys, Patriots, Falcons, Texans, Chargers/Rams, Giants/Jets, Chiefs, Seahawks, 49ers, Dolphins, and Eagles will be hosting World Cup games in their stadiums.
The total revenue is projected, per Volin, to be roughly $11 billion. FIFA will pay rent for the stadiums, while keeping the revenue from sponsorships, tickets, suites, merchandise, concessions, and parking.
So how much will the teams get for hosting the World Cup? Per Volin, the terms “have been kept under wraps.”
Given that folks like Jones are not known for doing bad deals, they’ll surely be making more money to host the World Cup matches than they would have made in a normal summer.
Still, it’s a headache. Extra work, extra expenses, extra hassles.
Not to mention the P.R. bruise that comes from the perception/reality that NFL owners who are giving FIFA the surfaces it demands while stubbornly refusing to do the same for pro football players.
After the Chiefs finished last season 6-11 and missed the postseason for the first time since 2014, the club made several coaching changes, headlined by the return of Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator.
Bieniemy previously served in the same role from 2018-2022, winning a pair of Super Bowls with the club.
Now that Bieniemy is back, quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters on Thursday that the coach has had a tangible effect in the building.
“There’s a standard that you have to practice with, and you have to play with,” Mahomes said of Bieniemy’s return. “He’s going to hold you to that standard, no matter who you are. From the first guy to the 90th guy right now, he’s going to hold you to that standard. I think that’s something — it’s hard to replicate, I think that’s the best way to say it.
“He has brought in a lot of concepts and a lot of things that I’ve really liked that we’ve added in now. It’s good to have him back in the building and having that energy back. A lot of these guys haven’t had an EB. They understand it and honestly, I think it’s been cool. They’re really receptive of it. Even though it’s hard, there’s hard days. They know why we’re doing it. You can see the guys, and they want to be great, and they want to be better than we were last year.”
Even as Bieniemy is crafting a standard, Mahomes acknowledged some of his younger teammates haven’t seen the coach completely go off quite yet.
“I’m not going to say he’s taking it easy — he’s pushing the guys, but he holds them to a standard,” Mahomes said. “They haven’t had those days — it’s usually training camp when guys get tired, and they lose that will to finish and do all the exact right things, and that’s when EB’s going to hold you to that standard. We haven’t gotten there yet, but as long as you keep having good practices, we can prolong that as long as possible.
“I love it, man, I truly do. I think you can feel it in the meeting rooms. The way he carries himself, with the confidence that he carries himself with, it really focuses you in on what you’re learning and the little details of things. It’s been exciting to me, that first meeting had me wanting to run through a brick wall, it had me ready to go.”
