Tyreek Hill is on the open market.
He’s posted himself working out in Kansas City.
The Chiefs could use some help offensively.
Eric Bienemy just returned to the organization as offensive coordinator.
Are you connecting the dots, too?
If it seems inevitable that Hill will rejoin the Chiefs at some point, head coach Andy Reid threw a little cold water on that notion during his Friday press conference.
“Yeah, listen, we go through everything and everybody. That’s how [G.M.] Brett [Veach] does,” Reid said. “I don’t even know if Tyreek is healthy right now to do anything. So, I’m sure he’s working hard on that part of it, trying to get that all straightened out.
“But yeah, listen, we talk about everything. So there’s nothing happening there, but we know what you know — that he’s out there and cranking away, trying to get himself back to where he can play, period.”
Hill suffered a torn ACL during in Week 4, prematurely ending his10th season. He caught 21 passes for 265 yards with one touchdown before the injury.
Two of Hill first-team, All-Pro selections for receiver came with the Chiefs — in 2018 and in 2020. He also was a first-team, All-Pro returner as a rookie in 2016.
In his six seasons with the franchise, Hill caught 479 passes for 6,630 yards with 56 touchdowns in 91 games. He also had 84 postseason receptions for 1,081 yards with five touchdowns in 13 games, winning Super Bowl LIV with the Chiefs to cap the 2019 season.
Chiefs Clips
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid will not be attending the scouting combine next week.
Reid told reporters in a Friday video conference that he recently had a procedure on his knee, so he will miss the festivities in Indianapolis.
“I’m on IR for about a second here,” Reid joked in his presser. “Not long.”
Reid noted that while the offseason has been longer than the Chiefs are accustomed to after missing the postseason for the first time since 2014 — and the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2017 — there is a silver lining in having the No. 9 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
“You try to find some positives in sitting where you’re at and why you’re there and the positives are you get yourself geared down and get better,” Reid said. “So, this has a chance to help you get better. And that’s how [G.M.] Brett [Veach] feels and that’s the way he’s going about it.
“And nobody wants to be picking at ninth, but we are — that’s the reality of it. And so, you dig in and you put a plan together and go for it the best you can.”
On Monday, a new lawsuit accused Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice of multiple incidents of domestic violence. The complaint came to light on Wednesday. His lawyer has issued a statement regarding the situation.
“On October 9th, 2025, well after the parties’ relationship had ended, Ms. Jones stated under penalty of perjury in a sworn Affidavit for Non-Prosecution that ‘Mr. Rice and I had a verbal argument, but he did not punch me,’” attorney Sean Lindsey said, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. “We will allow the legal process to run its course and will have no further comment at this time.”
The statement raises several questions. What was the specific context of the creation of the affidavit? The reference to “non-prosecution” indicates that there had been some sort of potential criminal action against Rice that was resolved with Ms. Jones signing the affidavit.
How did the affidavit come to be? Who wrote it? Under what circumstances did Ms. Jones sign it? Was she represented by counsel at the time?
Also, the affidavit speaks to one specific incident: A verbal argument in which Rice did not punch her. It doesn’t seem to be a blanket statement as to any other potential incidents between them, including those contained in the lawsuit, which does not specifically accuse Rice of punching her.
Regardless, the lawsuit says what it says. It will be for Rice’s lawyers to try to use the affidavit to secure a dismissal of the complaint, or perhaps to instigate a perjury prosecution of Ms. Jones.
For now, it’s about P.R. But the quote from Lindsey hardly constitutes full exoneration of Rice for the conduct cited in the complaint.
Unfortunately, that’s the message the statement is attempting to send — aided by the decision to blast Lindsey’s statement without context or explanation on an 11-million follower Twitter firehose.
Earlier this year, domestic violence allegations against Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice surfaced on Instagram. New allegations have emerged against Rice in a lawsuit that was initiated earlier this week.
Via James Newell of The Athletic, the civil complaint filed Monday in Dallas County District Court includes the following contentions: “Defendant Rashee Rice and Plaintiff Dacoda Jones lived together. Following an escalation in violent behavior, in December, 2023, Defendant Rashee Rice strangled Plaintiff Dacoda Joans [sic] at their shared home in Victory Park, Texas. Defendant Rashee Rice continued to repeatedly assault[] Dacoda Jones over the course of their relationship through July, 2025. Defendant Rice has grabbed, choked, strangled, pushed, thrown, scratched, hit, and headbutted Ms. Jones, as well as hit her with inanimate objects. Additionally, he has engaged in other violent and abusive behaviors towards Ms. Jones, including throwing objects, destroying property, punching walls, and breaking furniture, as well as locking her out in the middle of the night. Many of these behaviors occurred while Ms. Jones was pregnant.”
The league previously commenced a review based on the allegations from Instagram. The league undoubtedly will expand the investigation to include the claims made in the new lawsuit.
Rice served a six-game suspension to start the 2025 season, following a guilty plea to a March 2024 street-racing incident. His history could result in enhanced penalties, if the league finds he violated the Personal Conduct Policy again.
The situation also potentially impacts Rice’s probation resulting from the street-racing incident. The agreement was announced in July; if any potential abuse occurred after the five-year period of probation commenced, he could face an argument that he violated the terms of his probation.
The Chiefs have added another coach on the defensive side of the ball.
The team announced the hiring of safeties coach Andre Curtis on Wednesday. Longtime defensive backs coach Dave Merritt remains on the staff as well.
Curtis was the defensive pass game coordinator for the Cowboys in 2025, but is moving on after the Cowboys dismissed defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus after one year on the job. Curtis was the safeties coach on Eberflus’s staffs with the Bears from 2022-2024.
Prior to his time in Chicago, Curtis spent seven seasons with the Seahawks and he’s also had stints with the Saints, Rams, and Giants since entering the NFL ranks in 2006.
It remains to be seen if Patrick Mahomes will be helping the Chiefs as their quarterback in Week 1 of the 2026 season, but a tweak to his contract will help the team’s financial outlook heading into the offseason.
Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com reports that the Chiefs have restructured Mahomes’s contract. They converted $54.45 million of his salary into a signing bonus, which cut his cap number from $78.2 to $34.65 million for the coming season.
Moving the money into future years will add over $10 million to Mahomes’s future cap numbers and he’s now set to have a cap hit of over $85 million for the 2027 season. He’s currently signed through 2031, so the Chiefs could continue to move money into the coming years or they could work on another extension that knocks that number down.
Mahomes tore his ACL in December and said recently that he’s aiming to be back in action for the start of the regular season. That storyline will take on greater importance as Week 1 draws closer.
With the two-week window for applying the franchise tag open, the Jets have a decision to make about running back Breece Hall.
In a comprehensive item detailing the team’s various options, Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic concludes that “it feels likely” the Jets will apply the non-exclusive franchise tag or the transition tag to Hall, who finished his rookie deal with his first 1,000-yard season.
The non-exclusive franchise tag for running backs will result in a one-year, $14.1 million contract.
The goal could be to tag and trade Hall, either during the offseason (and, ideally, before the July 15 deadline for doing a long-term deal) or before the trade deadline. At that point, however, Hall’s new team would have him for only a portion of the season, with Hall heading for free agency in 2027 or a second tag, in the amount of $16.92 million.
If the Jets don’t tag Hall before next week’s Scouting Combine (a/k/a Tampering Central), Hall’s representation will undoubtedly develop a clear picture of other teams with interest in Hall, if/when he becomes a free agent.
The Jets didn’t trade Hall during the 2025 season, even though the Chiefs reportedly offered a fourth-round pick.
The Jets also could sign Hall, a second-round pick in 2022, to a long-term deal, like they did with 2022 first-round receiver Garrett Wilson. Alternatively, the Jets could sign Hall to a long-term deal and later trade him, like they did with 2022 first-round cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Buried in this current predicament is the fact that former Jets G.M. Joe Douglas hit on Gardner, Wilson, and Hall during the 2022 draft. Douglas has since been fired, Gardner has since been traded, and Wilson could ultimately be the only one left.
Proving yet again that, yes, dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things.
As the Chiefs plan to leave Missouri, Missouri continues to try to distance itself from the Chiefs.
Following a legislative effort to supplant the Chiefs with the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks as the state’s official football team, another measure has emerged that would continue the effort to detach the Chiefs from their long-time home.
Via Matthew Pilger of MissouriNet.com, Missouri House Speaker Pro‑Tem Chad Perkins has filed a bill that would end Chiefs-branded Missouri license plates.
“If I’ve given you everything you ask and treated you like a little princess and you leave anyway, then maybe I need to take a different tactic,” Perkins said. "[I]f you’re going to leave and go to Kansas, then why are we giving out license plates for a business that’s based in Kansas?”
Under the bill, issuance of Chiefs-branded license plates would end in 2026.
And Perkins would go farther than that, if he could.
“Arrowhead Stadium’s not owned by the Chiefs, it’s owned by the Jackson County Sports Authority,” Perkins said. “If I were the Jackson County Sports Authority, I’d tell him, get out right now. Just get your stuff and get out now. Go play football at a high school field in Overland Park. I don’t care. Get out. And you can sue me and we can go to court, and I think a Missouri jury might just agree with me right now, right?”
A new domed stadium in Kansas is scheduled to open in 2031. Multiple hurdles remain, however, before the project will achieve full funding. And it still remains possible that the project will fall through.
The sudden free agency of receiver Tyreek Hill is complicated by his recovery from a serious knee injury. There’s another caveat to consider.
Hill remains the subject of an active Personal Conduct Policy review. The NFL confirmed on Tuesday via email that the probe is ongoing.
Last year, Hill’s estranged wife, Keeta Vaccaro, made specific allegations of domestic violence against Hill. The full details of her claims came to light in October 2025, after the NFL commenced its investigation in September 2025.
It’s unclear what the league will determine. If a violation is found, other incidents could become aggravating factors when punishment is determined — including the situation from 2014 that resulted in his dismissal from the Oklahoma State football team. In 2015, Hill pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation, in an incident involving his then-pregnant girlfriend.
The team that signs Hill will be assuming multiple risks. First, he may not be the same player following his knee injury. Second, he could be suspended at some point during the 2026 season.
Receiver Tyreek Hill is a free agent for the first time in his career. A former Kansas City teammate wants him to come home.
Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones tweeted his plea to Hill on Monday night, telling Tyreek, basically, “It’s time.”
Before Hill suffered a serious knee injury in September 2025, widespread speculation connected the Chiefs to a potential in-season trade for Hill.
With offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy returning to the Chiefs, there’s a turn-back-the-clock vibe in Kansas City. A reunion with Hill could be the best way to make that happen.
Will he be the same guy he was when he last played for the Chiefs in 2021? No. But he’d be as good if not better than the other available options.
Hill will likely have options. The question becomes whether he wants a fresh start elsewhere or a second chance to do what he once did for the Chiefs, as they try to reestablish themselves following a very disappointing 2025 season.
