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 Clips
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.
The Seahawks will host the season opener on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Only the opponent is unknown.
With the Rams and 49ers playing in Melbourne on Thursday, Sept. 10, the Seahawks’ possible opponents are the Cardinals, Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Giants and Patriots.
You can now scratch off the Chiefs.
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said Monday that his team will not start the season in Seattle.
“I don’t think that’s on the table anymore,” Hunt said, via Nate Taylor of ESPN. “I think from a league standpoint, there would be some concern whether [Patrick Mahomes] would be ready to go.”
Mahomes tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a Dec. 14 game, and Dr. Dan Cooper repaired the tear the following day. Mahomes recently posted a video to social media showing himself on the field throwing the ball.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid is liking what he’s seeing of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is now throwing the football, three months after surgery to repair a torn ACL.
Reid said Mahomes is hard at work and doing well, although he declined to say whether Mahomes will be ready to play Week One.
“He’s doing great,” Reid told Judy Battista of NFL Network. “He spends a ton of time in the building. . . . He’s in there for seven hours a day. It’s showing, the progress. Now, to tell you a timeline? I mean, I know what he’s striving for. We’ll just see where it goes from there.”
If Mahomes can’t play at the start of the regular season, Reid said he’s confident that the Chiefs can win with newly acquired backup quarterback Justin Fields.
“Well, we snuck out and got a good quarterback to back him up,” Reid said. “So, if he doesn’t, you know, if he’s not able to make it for the beginning of the season, then we know we’ve got a legitimate backup there that can go win games for us.”
Week One is about nine months after Mahomes suffered the injury, which would be a relatively fast recovery time for a torn ACL. The Chiefs may have to start Fields at the beginning of the season, and Reid sounds confident about that.
Patrick Mahomes posted an encouraging video about where things stand in his recovery from a torn ACL, but the Chiefs aren’t getting ahead of themselves when it comes to planning to have the quarterback ready for the start of the regular season.
Head coach Andy Reid said from the league meetings in Arizona that Mahomes has looked great so far, but “we’ll just see where it goes from there.” The Chiefs traded for Justin Fields this month to give them another option in the event Mahomes isn’t ready to go and Reid said that the team is comfortable going that route if necessary.
“Well, we snuck out and got a good quarterback to back him up,” Reid said, via Judy Battista of NFL Media. “So, if he doesn’t, you know, if he’s not able to make it for the beginning of the season, then we know we’ve got a legitimate backup there that can go win games for us.”
Fields struggled with the Jets last season, but the presence of Reid on the sideline and players like Travis Kelce, Kenneth Walker and Xavier Worthy on the field around him should leave him better prepared to succeed if called upon in 2026.
Before he was a first-team All-Pro in the NFL, Marcus Peters played at McClymonds High School in Oakland, where he was coached by his father. Now Peters will succeed his father as the head coach at McClymonds.
Peters is the new head coach at McClymonds, where his father Michael Peters retired after last season. Michael Peters spent 33 years on the staff at McClymonds, including 13 as head coach.
Marcus Peters has big shoes to fill. His father won five state titles and went 142-24 as head coach at McClymonds. After retiring from the NFL following the 2023 season, Marcus Peters spent the last two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach to his father.
The 33-year-old Peters was the MVP of the Oakland Athletic League during his senior year at McClymonds. He then played college football at Washington and was a first-round pick of the Chiefs and the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year in 2015. He also played for the Rams, Ravens and Raiders.
“We are excited to see him now step into the role of head coach,” an announcement from the school said. “His experience at the highest level of the game, combined with his deep connection to our school, makes this truly an exciting moment for our football family.”
Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine. The time is not expected to hurt his draft status as a top-10 pick.
That’s why he decided not to run at Ohio State’s Pro Day on Wednesday, saying no teams have questioned him about his speed.
Instead, Tate did only position drills, catching passes from Julian Sayin.
“I definitely think it can be overvalued,” Tate said of the 40-yard dash, via Daniel Oyefusi of TheAthletic.com. “Like a couple of great NFL receivers right now like Puka [Nacua] and Jaxon [Smith-Njigba] like they probably didn’t run the fastest of times, but they’re the two best receivers in the league right now. It just depends on who’s looking at it and how y’all want to take it.”
Tate said he has top-30 draft visits scheduled with the Titans, Saints, Commanders, Giants and Chiefs. He has already visited the Browns. All of those teams draft in the top nine, with the Titans holding the fourth overall pick.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is on the mend.
Mahomes, who tore his ACL on December 14, posted a video to social media showing himself on the football field and throwing the ball, appearing to be well on his way to recovery.
“Day by Day! Felt Great being able to throw the ball around today!” Mahomes wrote in the caption to the video.
Throwing on his own is a far cry from being healed well enough to play in an NFL game, but Mahomes has said he plans on playing in Week One. That would put his recovery time at about nine months, which is on the fast side for a torn ACL but certainly not unheard of.
The Chiefs were struggling through a rough season last year even before Mahomes got hurt, and having him back is no guarantee that the Chiefs will be back near the top of the NFL, where they had been for all of his career until last year. But getting Mahomes healthy is the Chiefs’ top priority, and they have to feel good about where he is, three months after his injury.
Technically, tight end Travis Kelce has signed a new three-year deal with the Chiefs. And it’s a true three-year contract, without voidable years.
It’s structured to be a one-year deal, with what amounts to a placeholder provision for 2027.
Per a source with knowledge of the terms, the contract pays $12 million in 2026. The money comes in the form of a fully-guaranteed $3 million base salary, a $3 million fully-guaranteed reporting bonus earned on the fifth day of training camp, and a whopping $6 million in per-game roster bonuses — $352,941 for each of 17 regular-season games.
The per-game roster bonuses are fully-guaranteed, and they’ll be treated as earned if he’s on the 53-man roster (active on game days or not), on injured reserve, or on the physically unable to perform list. He’ll only not get the payments if he’s on the non-football illness/injury list.
For 2026, the contract includes incentives of up to $3 million. He gets up to $2 million if the Chiefs make the playoffs. For a postseason berth and 60 percent regular-season playing time, he gets an extra $750,000. At 70 percent regular-season playing time (also with a playoff berth), Kelce receives $1 million. At 80 percent regular-season playing time, and a playoff berth, the number maxes out at $2 million.
A Super Bowl berth and 60 percent regular-season playing time qualifies him for another $250,000. A Super Bowl berth and 70 percent regular-season playing time pushes the number to $1 million.
The contract has minimum salaries for 2027 and 2028, along with a $40 million roster bonus in 2028. The roster bonus becomes fully guaranteed as of June 8, 2027. This means that he’ll either be released or placed on the reserve/retired list before June 8 — unless the deal is restructured to modify or eliminate the roster bonus.
It essentially gives the Chiefs extended dibs on keeping Kelce in 2027, if he decides to play another year. And it gives both sides three extra months after the start of the league year to figure something out, while also keeping Kelce off the open market. (That term suggests that, yes, other teams had interest in his services for 2026.)
So, yes, it’s a three-year deal. However, unless the contract is renegotiated, the remaining two years will be torn up before June 8, 2027.
When tight end Travis Kelce agreed to return for the 2026 season earlier this month, word was that he would be signing a one-year deal worth up to $15 million with the Chiefs.
Kelce officially signed his new pact on Monday and the full details of the contract are a bit different than those initial reports. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media confirms that Kelce is set to make $12 million in 2026 with $3 million available in incentives and adds that it is a three-year deal worth up to $57.735 million in total.
Given Kelce’s annual deliberations on whether he’ll continue playing or not, the contract is likely structured to be revisited in the event the 2026 season is not Kelce’s final one in the NFL.
Kelce had 76 catches for 851 yards and five touchdowns for the Chiefs in 2025. The 2026 season will be his 14th with the AFC West club.
