Here’s a Good Friday afternoon news dump that counts as good news for the Chiefs and receiver Rashee Rice.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the league concluded today that Rice “has not engaged in conduct that violates the personal conduct policy” regarding allegations of domestic violence made by his former girlfriend.
Said Rice’s attorney, Sean Lindsey: “Mr. Rice wants to thank the NFL for their thorough investigation, and looks forward to the start of the 2026-27 NFL season.”
The investigation opened in January, when social-media allegations surfaced regarding Rice. In February, Rice was sued by the alleged victim.
The lawsuit remains. If Rice ultimately loses, that could prompt the NFL to take another look at the situation. For now, though, the league has decided there’s no basis for imposing discipline for Rice.
And the stakes were high for him. After missing six games in 2025 due to a Personal Conduct Policy violation resulting from a street racing incident that happened just over two years ago, Rice would have been subject to enhanced penalties as a repeat offender.
Chiefs Clips
Arvell Reese may not make it past the second overall pick in the draft later this month, but other teams at the top of the draft order will be ready if he does slip past the Jets.
NFL Media reports that Reese has visited with four of the next seven teams on the draft board, including the three teams slated to pick directly after the Jets at No. 2. The edge rusher has spent time with the Cardinals, Titans, and Giants as well as the Chiefs. Kansas City has the ninth overall pick.
Per the report, Reese has also met with the Cowboys, who have the No. 12 pick.
It seems unlikely that Reese will be available if Dallas stays put, but the Cowboys do have a pair of first-round picks this year — the Chiefs do as well — so they could try to make a jump up the board if they are convinced Reese is their guy.
Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey is one of the top prospects in the 2026 draft, a likely top-10 pick.
He spent the week visiting with the Cowboys and the Chiefs and took a top-30 visit to the Cardinals the week after the Scouting Combine, NFL Media reports.
The Cardinals draft third, the Chiefs ninth and the Cowboys 12th.
Dallas, though, also has the 20th overall pick, so it could seek to move up to select Bailey, who would fill a big need.
Bailey has also visited the Titans, according to Jim Wyatt of the team website. The Titans draft fourth overall.
Bailey, 22, began his collegiate career at Stanford before transferring to Texas Tech for his senior season. He earned unanimous All-America honors and was Big 12 defensive lineman of the year.
In his four-year college career, Bailey totaled 163 tackles, 42 tackles for loss, 29 sacks and 10 forced fumbles in 46 games.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The NFL announced that the Falcons will be the designated home team for a game in Madrid this season, but they have not announced the other team that will be heading to Spain in the fall.
One team is lobbying the league for a chance to head across the Atlantic Ocean. Chiefs president Mark Donovan told Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star that they hope to be joining the Falcons overseas.
“We’ve been very open and aggressive with the league — as we have been since the beginning — that we want to play in Spain this year,” Donovan said. “We think it would be a great market, game [and] matchup.”
The Chiefs are one of three teams — the Bears and Dolphins are the others — that the NFL has granted marketing rights in Spain. The Bears are also on the list of Falcons home opponents for the 2026 season.
The NFL’s push to play more games overseas, and to expand the regular season to 18 games, go hand-in-hand in the view of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
Hunt said that by adding a game to the regular season, the NFL can increase its footprint in other countries while maintaining the same number of home games.
“Growing the number of international games, that’s something we’re very supportive of,” Hunt said, via ESPN. “From a schedule dynamic, having 18 games would facilitate that.”
The Chiefs have played four international games, in Brazil, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Hunt is among the owners who’d like to play overseas every year — without losing any home games.
The Chiefs are adding a former first-round pick to their defense.
Kansas City has agreed to sign cornerback Kaiir Elam, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.
Elam, 24, split last season between the Cowboys and Titans. Buffalo traded him to Dallas at the beginning of the league year in March after his first three seasons with the club. Elam appeared in 10 games with seven starts for Dallas before the Cowboys waived him in November.
He signed with the Titans shortly thereafter and appeared in four games with the club over the rest of the season.
The No. 23 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Elam has appeared in 43 career games with 19 starts. He’s recorded eight passes defensed with two interceptions.
The Chiefs have voids to fill in their secondary after trading Trent McDuffie and losing Jaylen Watson in free agency.
After the Bears’ postseason loss to the Rams, it didn’t take long for word to emerge that Eric Bieniemy would be back with the Chiefs in 2026 as their offensive coordinator.
At the annual league meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid shared his excitement for having Bieniemy back in the role he previously occupied from 2018-2022.
“Yeah, I’m fired up to have him back,” Reid said. “When you lose a Matt Nagy, to bring a guy in who can just step in and go — that’s not an easy thing to do. So, I’m fired up to have him back. He brings great energy. Loves doing what he’s doing. All he wants to do is win football games and have a great offense. Ultimate team guy.”
Since departing the Chiefs, Bieniemy served as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator in 2023, UCLA’s offensive coordinator in 2024, and the Bears’ running backs coach in 2025. Those experiences have given Bieniemy some different perspectives and new ideas as he returns to Kansas City.
“Yeah, listen, anytime you leave and go different places, you’re going to kind of sort through some things and then learn some things,” Reid said.
The Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII over the 49ers the year after Bieniemy departed the franchise. But the team’s offense has lacked some cohesion and explosiveness over the last two seasons.
Bieniemy’s return could make for some significant progress in both areas in 2026.
With Patrick Mahomes on the mend from a torn ACL suffered late in the 2025 season, there’s certainly a chance he won’t be ready for the start of the regular season.
That’s part of why Kansas City traded for Justin Fields to be the team’s backup QB.
The No. 11 pick of the 2021 draft, Fields has plenty of experience for a backup, having started 53 games for the Bears, Steelers, and Jets over the last five seasons.
But while Fields has been more effective as a runner than a passer in the league, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid noted on Tuesday how the different elements of Fields’ skillset can fit within the offense.
“I like his game,” Reid said at the annual league meeting on Tuesday. “He can do the drop back game, he can do the movement stuff, play-action — whether it’s a naked or a sprint-out game. He has that whole package that he can do. He understands the screen game, understands how to set it up. He obviously — he’s going to be one of the better athletes on the field when he’s out there. He’s fast, big, likes to play the game. So, I mean, all the stuff I like.”
Given Fields’ athleticism, talk seems to follow the quarterback wherever he goes that there could be some sort of package to get him on the field at a different position. Reid effectively said he’s not planning much for that, but the head coach also didn’t close the door on that idea.
“We’ll see how that goes. I’ll talk with him and see where he’s at with that,” Reid said. “But he’s more than a gadget guy, that’s not how I’m looking at it. That’s not why we brought him in. We brought him in to play quarterback if he’s needed to play quarterback.
“And then whatever goes from there — if he gets bored, we’ll have a couple of things for him,” Reid added with a chuckle.
Fields rushed for 1,143 yards with eight touchdowns in 2022, leading the league at 7.1 yards per carry.
Last season for New York, Fields started nine games, compiling a 2-7 record. He completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,1259 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception. He took 71 carries for 383 yards with four TDs, which works out to 5.4 yards per attempt.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is making steady progress in his rehab from reconstructive knee surgery, but it’s currently unclear when he’s going to be ready to fully participate in practice.
At the annual league meeting on Tuesday, Reid said that it’s difficult to determine if Mahomes is ahead of schedule. But so far, Mahomes is doing well.
While it seems unlikely that Mahomes would be able to participate in many aspects of the offseason program given that he suffered his torn ACL in December, there’s a chance he could be on the field for training camp. Reid was asked if, philosophically, he would rather have Mahomes on the field in a limited capacity or keep him on the physically unable to perform list to effectively protect the QB from himself.
“Yeah, I’m going to defer to the experts at that,” Reid said. “If he’s good to go, he’ll go. If he’s not, then we’ll manage that. So, we’ll just cross it as we go. Everybody’s different. Everybody heals different, everybody’s injuries are a little bit different. Put him in a category — but we’ll see. We’ll see where it goes. He’s doing good now, which is a plus. We’ll see.”
Mahomes recently posted a video of himself doing some light throwing, which is a positive sign for his recovery.
If Mahomes is not ready for the start of the regular season, the Chiefs now have Justin Fields as their backup quarterback.
