Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs have brought a key special teams contributor back to their building.

Kansas City announced on Wednesday that the team has signed linebacker Cam Jones.

Jones, 26, started his pro career with the Chiefs, signing with the club as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He appeared in all 17 games for Kansas City in 2023 and 2024, playing around two-thirds of the club’s special teams snaps in each season.

The Chiefs let Jones go during roster cuts last year and he was claimed by the Jets, appearing in 10 games before he was waived in December.

While Jones signed a one-year deal with the Giants in March, New York waived him on July 25.

As a corresponding move, the Chiefs waived defensive end Anthony Dunn.

Frank Gansz Jr., who spent decades as an assistant coach in the NFL, college football and multiple spring leagues, has died at the age of 64.

Gansz was most recently special teams coordinator of the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League, and they announced his death today.

Best known for coaching special teams, Gansz was a special teams coordinator in three different NFL stops, with the Oakland Raiders from 1998 to 2000), the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001 to 2005 and the Baltimore Ravens from 2006 to 2007.

Gansz’s father, Frank Gansz Sr., also primarily coached special teams, aside from a two-year stint as head coach of the Chiefs in 1987 and 1988. Gansz Sr. won a Super Bowl ring as the Rams’ special teams coordinator in 1999.

Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy returned to the team last week after leaving the team to be with his wife Mia as she recovered from being shot in late July and he spoke to reporters for the first time since getting back on Tuesday.

Bieniemy opened the press conference by thanking the press corps for respecting the family’s privacy in the wake of the shooting, which led to Bieniemy’s son being arrested for allegedly committing the crime. Bieniemy said “it feels good to be back” and that his wife is doing well enough that she signed off on having him return to work.

“She is on a road to recovery,” Bieniemy said. “She is doing great. It’s one of the main reasons why I’m back here because of her recovery. She is truly a soldier. She’s a saint. It’s been incredible to watch, but I know I was driving her and a bunch of family members crazy in the house. She was like ‘you have my blessing to leave.’ So it was time to come back.”

Bieniemy said he felt like he was still a part of the team because he “had an opportunity to tap in” to practice remotely. That led to a lot of “colorful” language that he said surprised family members, but has been greeted with both familiarity and comfort to Chiefs players who had missed Bieniemy’s presence around the field.

The Chiefs return to action on Saturday, with their first preseason game of 2026. They have a long way to go to get back to where they were, not all that long ago.

One key difference between last year and this year is the return of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

After being away from camp for two weeks following the shooting of his wife, Mia, Bieniemy is back — and tight end Travis Kelce thinks the Chiefs will be better for it.

“Intensity is the first thing,” Kelce told reporters this week. “And that intensity is infectious. Makes you want to scream ‘motherfuck’ at everybody doing the wrong thing. And I love that shit. That’s one of my favorite things about him. I don’t think there’s enough of that in the world, let alone in this building, and I think E.B.'s one of those guys where his accountability is gonna piss you off. But if you treat it the right way and you act the right way, respond the right way with it, you’re gonna become better of it, and it’s gonna make the team a better team because of it. And it’s one of those things that I think we really missed here in Kansas City.”

Bieniemy’s return could be the kick in the ass the Chiefs need, in order to get them back to the top of the division, the top of the conference, and perhaps the top of the league.

And it’s a great opportunity for the Chiefs. They’ve quickly become a borderline afterthought. They could be planning to remind everyone quickly why and how they won three Super Bowls in five seasons — and why, before last year, their worst finish with Patrick Mahomes as the starting quarterback was losing the AFC Championship in overtime.

Emmanuel Ogbah is officially back with the Chiefs.

There was word earlier this week that Ogbah would be signing with the AFC West club and Friday’s NFL transaction report brought word that the deal is done. Defensive back Bryce Phillips was waived in a corresponding move.

Ogbah had 32 tackles, 5.5 sacks and a forced fumble in 10 games for the Chiefs before suffering a season-ending pectoral tear in 2019. He signed with the Dolphins as a free agent the next year and moved on to the Jaguars for the 2025 season.

Ogbah has 332 tackles, 48 sacks, two interceptions, nine forced fumbles, and five fumble recoveries over his entire career.

Phillips is an undrafted rookie out of San Diego State.

Rams rookie quarterback Ty Simpson will make his preseason debut on Saturday against the Chiefs. But he will not be Los Angeles’ first signal-caller up.

Via multiple reporters, head coach Sean McVay said in his Thursday press conference that Stetson Bennett will start the preseason opener.

Bennett, a fourth-round pick in 2023, is currently in line to serve as Matthew Stafford’s backup, as Jimmy Garoppolo was not re-signed in free agency — though Garoppolo is still available.

Bennett has not yet appeared in a regular-season game. Last year, he completed 69 percent of his passes for 512 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions in the preseason, good for a 105.7 passer rating.

Simpson is set to come in at some point after Bennett. The Rams also have rookie Matthew Caldwell on their roster at QB.

The Rams have not played starters in the preseason under McVay for the vast majority of his tenure with the team.

Additionally, McVay noted offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase will serve as the offensive play-caller for Saturday’s game. McVay handles those duties for L.A. in the regular season.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said last week that quarterback Patrick Mahomes would probably sit out the team’s first preseason game and he gave a more emphatic answer about Mahomes’s status on Thursday.

Reid said at a press conference that Mahomes will not play against the Rams. Reid previously said that he did not know if Mahomes will play at all in the preseason, but he did not offer any definitive answers about the team’s final two games on Thursday.

Keeping Mahomes on the bench is a departure from how the Chiefs have typically handled preseason work in past years, but the quarterback’s recovery from a torn ACL dictated a change to the usual routine.

Justin Fields, Garrett Nussmeier, and Chris Oladokun will handle the quarterback work for the Chiefs this weekend.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says he can be better this year, and the Chiefs must be better this year.

In 2025, the Chiefs were perhaps the most disappointing team in the NFL, finishing 6-11. Kelce led the team with 76 catches for 851 yards, but he said he needs to do more as a team leader.

“Just being a better leader,” Kelce said. “When we get stuck, with adversity hitting, who’s going to want you in that foxhole with you? That’s one of those things, I want to be one of those guys that everybody counts on to be there and get us out of that foxhole.”

The Chiefs need players and coaches holding each other to high standards, and Kelce said offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is one of the best at doing that. But Kelce said he’ll do it too.

“There were things I could have done better in that regard,” Kelce admitted.

Kelce said missing the playoffs has players motivated to turn things around.

“Everybody feels everything’s got to get turned up a little bit, and that’s what you’re seeing right now,” Kelce said.

The Chiefs are going through a hard training camp, and Kelce embraces that.

“I feel ready to rock and roll,” Kelce said. “Just trying to make sure I set that example for the guys around me, that this is the standard.”

Travis Kelce’s wedding to Taylor Swift in July was the celebrity social event of the summer, as the couple assembled guests at Madison Square Garden in New York for the occasion.

Speaking to the media for the first time at this summer’s training camp on Wednesday, Kelce reflected on the special occasion.

“Wedding was the best night of my life. I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and had fun with us. That’s about all I really got from that night,” Kelce said, via Jesse Newell of TheAthletic.com. “It was a crazy night. It was full of a lot of celebration. But [now] it’s football, baby.”

Kelce, who will turn 37 in early October, is heading into his 14th pro season. The four-time, AP first-team All-Pro told reporters his body feels good as he goes through training camp, noting he’s physically “ready to rock and roll” in 2026.

“I still got a lot of love for this game,” he said. “I still think I can go out and play at a high level, and I want to go out there and prove to myself that I can play at a better level than I did last year. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing for me is making sure that I’m accountable for the guys in this room every single play that I’m out there.”

Kelce started all 17 games for the Chiefs last season, catching 76 passes for 851 yards with five touchdowns.

Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice had an unexpected 30-day offseason jail stint, due to a positive THC test while on probation for felony charges arising from a 2024 street-racing incident.

The timing, which is never really ideal, became especially problematic because it kept Rice away from the team during the offseason program. At first, he was unable to engage in rehab after a recent knee surgery. (He later got permission to leave the jail for the treatment he needed.)

He spoke to reporters on Tuesday for the first time since his incarceration.

“It was a learning experience and a reality check,” Rice said, via Nate Taylor of ESPN. “Don’t focus on the past. Focus on what’s going on now. I’m doing [well] mentally.

“It was mentally tough. They gave me ways to communicate with my teammates still and as well as my athletic trainer. Besides the hard times in there, I kept my mind right watching shows and as much Kevin Hart as I could to laugh.”

There’s nothing to laugh about now when it comes to Rice’s NFL career. It’s a pivotal season, the last one of his rookie contract. He’ll make a mere $1.56 million, and the Chiefs have shown no inclination to sign him to a new contract.

He got off to a great start as a rookie in 2023. Appearing in 16 games with eight starts — and taking only 58 percent of the snaps in the games he played — Rice still generated 938 receiving yards. He learned the offense faster than Tyreek Hill did.

By the playoffs of Rice’s first year, it was clicking. He had 262 receiving yards on 26 catches in four postseason games.

Then came the high-speed misadventures in Dallas. Then came the regular season, with a Week 4 knee injury that wiped out the rest of his second season. Last year started with a six-game suspension.

This year begins with a largely clean slate. He now needs to show what he can do, in order to get the contract he thought he’d have by now.

There’s no guarantee he’ll get it. With the franchise tag for receivers well below the current market, the Chiefs may decide to use the device to hold him in place for 2027 before making a long-term commitment. It would give them two full years to see whether he truly has learned the lessons flowing from the off-field misconduct.