The Seahawks won Super Bowl LX less than 24 hours ago and some have already turned their attention to Super Bowl LXI.
Sportsbooks have set the odds for who will be raising the Lombardi Trophy in SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027. The Seahawks are at the top of the list, but they aren’t the only team on that rung.
They aren’t even the only NFC West team. The Rams join the Seahawks at +950 at DraftKings at the moment.
The Bills have the top odds of any AFC team with the Eagles, Patriots, and Ravens tied for the fourth spot. The Packers, Lions, Chargers, and Chiefs round out the top 10.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Cardinals and Dolphins are both at +25000.
Chiefs Clips
When the 2026 regular season begins on the Thursday night after Labor Day (there’s a chance it’ll start a day or two earlier given the long trip the 49ers and Rams will make to Australia), the Seahawks will be hosting the game and hanging their newest banner.
The options include a potential Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots.
Other candidates are the Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Giants, and Seattle’s NFC West rivals — the Rams, 49ers, and Cardinals. (Again, the 49ers and Rams could be meeting in Melbourne in Week 1.)
Ten years ago, the Broncos and Panthers had a Week 1 rematch following Super Bowl 50. So it’s not unprecedented.
Still, based on tonight’s outcome, there may not be much appetite for an immediate rematch.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who is set to become a free agent next month, has not said whether he plans to play in 2026 or retire. If he wants to play, the Chiefs want him to keep playing in Kansas City.
Kelce and the team have been in touch and the Chiefs want him back, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
But the real question is how much they’re willing to spend to have him back. Salary cap projections for 2026 have the Chiefs in the worst cap shape in the NFL, about $55 million over the cap. They’ll make enough moves to get under the cap before the league year starts in March, but they’re not going to have a lot of money to sign Kelce to a lucrative contract.
And even if they did have the money, it’s not clear how much they’d be willing to spend, simply because Kelce is going to turn 37 this year and isn’t the same player he once was. Kelce averaged a career-worst 50.1 receiving yards per game in 2025.
It’s not surprising that the Chiefs want Kelce back. It would be a surprise if they’re willing to keep paying him the $17 million a year he’s been making.
Darron Lee, a first-round pick of the Jets in 2016, has been charged with murdering his girlfriend.
Via Fox 17 in Nashville, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office took Lee into custody on Thursday, after deputies were dispatched to a residence at which first responders were performing CPR on a female. Per the HCSO, she died as a result of her injuries.
The HCSO Criminal Investigative Services Detectives made a preliminary finding that the victim’s death was resulted from a homicide. Lee was identified as a suspect.
Lee has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Via TMZ.com, Lee is being held without bond.
The former Ohio State linebacker was the 20th overall pick in the 2016 draft. He spent three years with the Jets, one with the Chiefs, and one with the Bills. Lee appeared in 58 career regular-season games, with 38 starts, and he was a member of the Super Bowl LIV championship team in Kansas City.
Matt Nagy has landed on his feet in New York.
The former Bears head coach returned to the Chiefs after his four-year run in Chicago ended. When his contract as the Chiefs offensive coordinator expired, Nagy began interviewing for head-coaching jobs.
He was a finalist for the Titans job, and some thought he would be getting it. When that didn’t transpire, the Chiefs brought back Eric Bieniemy to serve as offensive coordinator, leaving Nagy without a job.
Now, Nagy has a new gig. Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Nagy will be the offensive coordinator of the Giants.
It makes Nagy arguably the most important member of John Harbaugh’s staff. Nagy will be charged with continuing the development of quarterback Jaxson Dart, and otherwise making the team’s offense go.
Nagy joined the Eagles the year that Harbaugh left to become head coach of the Ravens. While they’ve never worked together, they both share a strong connection to Chiefs coach Andy Reid — Harbaugh spent a decade with Reid in Philadelphia, and Nagy has 14 years with Reid, between Philly and Kansas City.
The Chiefs have added a quarterback to their offseason roster.
Jake Haener announced on Instagram that he has signed with the AFC West club. Haener closed out the 2025 season on the Saints’ practice squad and did not sign a future contract to remain with the team.
Haener was involved in a competition for the starting job in New Orleans with Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough last season, but wound up in third position. The 2023 fourth-round pick spent most of the season on the practice squad and did not appear in any games.
Haener made eight appearances in 2024 and started one game. He was 18-of-39 for 226 yards, a touchdown and an interception in those games.
The Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes coming off a torn ACL, so their other quarterbacks should get plenty of work in the offseason. Gardner Minshew and Chris Oladokun filled in after Mahomes’s injury, but Minshew is not under contract for 2026.
The NFL will be playing regular-season games in Madrid, Spain, for years to come.
The league announced today that it will return to Bernabéu Stadium, home of the soccer team Real Madrid, in 2026 and for multiple years beyond that. The Dolphins and Commanders played the NFL’s first game in Madrid in 2025.
Although the NFL has not announced which teams will play in Madrid this year, the Bears, Chiefs and Dolphins have marketing rights to the city as part of the NFL’s international program. Since the Dolphins played there in 2025, the Bears or Chiefs will likely be there in 2026.
The NFL’s Madrid announcement comes on the heels of a report that the league will play its first game in France in 2026. The league has also announced that it will play three games in London, one in Melbourne, Australia, one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and one in Munich, Germany in 2026.
Two Broncos offensive linemen have been named finalists for the NFL’s inaugural Protector of the Year Award.
Left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz are among the six candidates for the award. The prize is designed to honor the league’s top offensive lineman for a given season.
Bolles and Meinerz are joined as finalists by Dolphins center Aaron Brewer, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey, Lions right tackle Penei Sewell, and Bears left guard Joe Thuney.
The winner will be announced at next week’s NFL Honors show and will be chosen by a panel of former NFL offensive linemen. LeCharles Bentley, Jason Kelce, Shaun O’Hara, Orlando Pace, Will Shields, and Andrew Whitworth make up that panel.
Eric Bieniemy was enjoying his time as the Bears’ running backs coach, helping the team win an NFC North title and a playoff game.
But then a special opportunity came up and Bieniemy jumped at it.
“If ‘Big Red’ ever picks up the phone,” Bieniemy said Wednesday, referring to Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, “that’s the only person you’ll say, ‘Hey, you know what, it might be time to return home,’ because he’s given me this opportunity.”
Bieniemy, who spoke to Kansas City media in a video conference this week, is back as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator — the same position he held from 2018-2022, winning a pair of Super Bowls with the club. Since then, he’s served as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator, UCLA’s offensive coordinator, and the Bears’ RBs coach.
Bieniemy noted those experiences, particularly calling plays for the Commanders and UCLA, have helped him grow.
“[W]hen you’re doing it on your own, you have to find creative ways to implement a system,” Bieniemy said. “On top of that, you learn a lot about yourself. The good, the bad, and the ugly. … Just a dynamic of working with people, learning how to communicate and articulate your plan, and getting them to buy in. I think all that helps, and I think that any experience that you’ve had, whether it’s good or bad, it’s all something that we can learn from.
“With that said, I’ve learned a lot over the years. I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’m just excited just to get started and obviously today is day one, but I want to make sure day two, three, four, five that we hit the ground running with all this excitement and all this energy that’s being created.”
Bieniemy added he feels “like a kid in the candy store” returning to Kansas City.
“[H]aving this opportunity to come back and be put in this chair with coach Reid, that was just something that it’s tough to pass up on,” Bieniemy said. “With all that taking place, I’m excited, I’m fired up, it was one of them deals that happened fast and I’m looking forward to it.”
But even with Bieniemy’s experiences over the last few years with other teams, he said he won’t be too different.
“There are some things about me that have changed, but more than anything, EB is EB,” Bieniemy said. “We will still be disciplined and detailed in how we handle our business. There’s a standard of performance, there’s a standard of excellence that will be expected, but on top of that, there has been a great deal of wealth that I’ve learned. Through the good and through the bad and the thing that I appreciate has just helped me to grow into this role and have this opportunity to be in this situation again.”
There is some positive news on quarterback Gardner Minshew as he heads toward free agency.
Minshew is back to full health after suffering a bone bruise in his knee late in the regular season, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Minshew was originally thought to have suffered a torn ACL in Kansas City’s Week 16 loss to the Titans. But it was soon after revealed that while he did not tear his ACL, Minshew would still need to miss some time.
Minshew signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs last offseason to be the backup to Patrick Mahomes. He appeared in four games with one start for Kansas City, completing just 6-of-13 passes for 37 yards with an interception.
A sixth-round pick in 2019, Minshew has played 63 games with 47 starts for the Jaguars, Eagles, Colts, Raiders, and Chiefs. He’s completed 63.1 percent of his career passes for 11,987 yards with 68 touchdowns and 35 interceptions.
