Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says he’s as enthusiastic as ever as he heads into his 14th season in Kansas City.
Kelce told Pat McAfee that he still loves playing football and that he believes Chiefs GM Brett Veach and head coach Andy Reid are serious about putting a team together that can win a Super Bowl this year. Kelce particularly praised the move to sign Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker away from the Seahawks.
“Making another run at it and the Chiefs are making moves,” Kelce said. “We’ve got Brett Veach and Andy Reid going and getting the Super Bowl MVP.”
Kelce said he thinks his teammates are all in agreement that they need to be a lot better than last year, and that starts with hard work in the offseason.
“I need to get back into the gym and hunker down and get back to the craft,” Kelce said. “We’ve got to be even hungrier than we were before. . . . There’s a lot of dog mentality right now to get this thing fixed.”
And Kelce is ready to work toward one more ring.
Chiefs Clips
The Chiefs are re-signing wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Thornton, 25, originally joined the Chiefs’ practice squad on Nov. 18, 2024. He signed a futures contract after the 2024 season and had a career year in 2025.
He caught 19 passes for 438 yards and three touchdowns last season, while averaging 26.4 yards on 18 kickoff returns.
The Patriots drafted Thornton in the second round in 2022, but he was with them for less than three full seasons.
Thornton made 39 receptions for 385 yards and two touchdowns in 28 games with the Patriots.
The Chiefs, who have lost several defensive backs in recent days, have added one.
Via NFL Media, Kansas City has agreed to terms with Ravens safety Alohi Gilman. It’s a three-year, $24.75 million deal, with $15 million fully guaranteed.
Gilman was a sixth-round pick of the Chargers in 2020. He was traded to the Ravens during the 2025 season, as part of the Odafe Oweh trade.
Gilman, who played college football at Notre Dame, started five games for the Chargers last year, and 12 for the Ravens. For his career, he has 85 regular-season appearances and 51 starts.
He agrees to terms on the same day former Chiefs safety Bryan Cook agreed to terms with the Bengals.
The Chiefs have now lost three cornerbacks in less than a week — one via trade, and two in free agency.
The latest to go if Joshua Williams. A fourth-round pick in 2022, NFL Media reports that Williams has agreed to terms with the Titans on a two-year deal.
Williams is the ninth free agent with whom the Titans have struck a deal on Monday, and the third cornerback. The others are Alontae Taylor and Cor’Dale Flott.
Williams has 65 regular-season appearances and 12 starts in four seasons. He also has appeared in 10 postseason games, and three Super Bowl.
Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee appeared in court on Monday for a preliminary hearing on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. And the case against him includes some unusual, and particularly incriminating, evidence.
Via Local 3 News, the prosecution offered testimony indicating that Lee had consulted ChatGPT on how to deal with a person who is unresponsive. The message came from Lee’s phone.
Lee also asked ChatGPT about the injuries that would be consistent with someone falling in the shower.
Body camera footage showed Lee telling a police officer that the victim, 29-year-old Gabriella Perpetuo, may have slipped and fallen in the shower but that Lee didn’t know what had happened to her. The police report in the case indicates that blood was found through the house, along with broken glass.
Authorities also said that Perpetuo had “multiple stab wounds, black eyes, bite marks, and blood coming from her nose and mouth.”
Prosecutors have not ruled out seeking the death penalty against Lee.
He was a first-round pick of the Jets in 2016. Lee also played for the Chiefs and the Bills.
In addition to the criminal prosecution, Lee faces a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit.
Last week, the Rams traded for Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie. This week, the Rams signed Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson in free agency.
The details have emerged as to the three-year, $51 million deal.
Here are the details:
1. Signing bonus: $12.74 million.
2. 2026 base salary: $2.25 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 per-game active roster bonuses: $510,000 total.
4. 2027 offseason roster bonus: $4 million, guaranteed for injury.
5. 2027 base salary: $11 million of which is fully guaranteed at signing, and the remaining $2.99 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing. The remaining injury guarantee becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2027 league year.
6. 2027 per-game active roster bonuses: $510,000 total.
7. 2028 base salary: $16.49 million.
8. 2028 per-game active roster bonuses: $510,000 total.
The contract gives the Rams an out after one year, but they’d owe him $11 million. $6.99 million can be avoided by releasing him after one year.
The deal averages $17 million, with $15.5 million paid out in 2026, $18.5 million in 2027, and $17 million in 2028.
A seventh-round pick in 2022, Watson appeared in 15 regular-season games last season, with 15 starts.
It was reported earlier on Monday that tight end Travis Kelce was expected to return to the Chiefs for 2026.
Now, there are more details on what that looks like.
According to multiple reports, Kelce has agreed to a one-year deal worth $12 million that can be pushed up to $15 million with incentives.
Kelce, 36, was set to become a free agent. But his representation then conveyed to interested teams that he was not going to leave Kansas City.
The Chiefs’ all-time leader in receptions (1,080), receiving yards (13,002), and touchdowns (82), Kelce started all 17 games in 2025. He finished the year with 76 receptions for 851 yards with five touchdowns.
Kelce was also a Pro Bowler for the 11th consecutive season.
#MinshewMania is headed to the desert.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew is signing a one-year deal with the Cardinals, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
The contract is worth $8 million, per Schefter.
Minshew, 29, spent last season with the Chiefs. While he started one game after quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down with a torn ACL, Minshew suffered a bone bruise in his knee that kept him out for the rest of the season.
Minshew has started at least one game every season since the Jaguars selected him in the sixth round of the 2019 draft. He went 7-6 as a starter for Indianapolis in 2023, earning a Pro Bowl berth. He started nine games for the Raiders in 2024, completing 66.3 percent of his throws for 2,013 yards with nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
In all, Minshew has appeared in 63 games with 47 starts for Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and Kansas City.
With Kyler Murray on his way out, Minshew will join a QBs room with Jacoby Brissett and Kedon Slovis.
Another player in the Chiefs’ secondary is about to leave Kansas City.
The Bengals are expecting to sign former Chiefs safety Bryan Cook, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The team and Cook’s agents have agreed on a three-year, $40.25 million deal.
Cook has started all 17 games for the Chiefs each of the last two seasons. His departure comes after two Chiefs cornerbacks, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, both landed with the Rams. The Chiefs’ secondary will look a lot different in 2026.
The Bengals desperately needed to bolster their defense, and with Cook they think they’ve done it.
The Chiefs are adding a big man to their defense.
According to multiple reports, Kansas City has agreed to a three-year deal with nose tackle Khyiris Tonga.
The initial reporting indicates Tonga’s contract is worth $21 million with $14 million guaranteed.
Tonga, 29, was originally a Bears seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft. But he’s bounced around a bit, spending time with the Falcons, Vikings, and Cardinals before landing with the Patriots last March.
He appeared in 14 games with eight starts for New England in 2025, recording 24 total tackles with two tackles for loss, two QB hits, and a pair of passes defensed.
Tonga also showed some positional flexibility, playing 14 offensive snaps as a fullback for New England, particularly on plates near the goal line.
With the way Kansas City crafts unique plays near the end zone, Tonga could be a factor offensively for the Chiefs as well.
