Chiefs defensive backs coach Dave Merritt is not facing discipline under the NFL’s personal conduct policy after a domestic battery charge against him was dismissed.
The NFL found insufficient evidence of a violation of the policy, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.
Merritt was charged in April after he had been accused of causing bodily harm to his daughter. He pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed in May.
The NFL sometimes imposes league discipline even if a player or coach does not face criminal charges, but in this case, Merritt is free to resume coaching.
The 54-year-old Merritt has been the Chiefs’ defensive backs coach since 2019. He has previously held NFL coaching jobs with the Cardinals, Giants and Jets, and spent time as a college assistant coach. He was a 1993 seventh-round pick of the Dolphins and had a brief NFL playing career before going into coaching.
Chiefs Clips
Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is currently serving a 30-day jail sentence for violating his probation, a fact made more complicated by Rice having recently undergone a procedure on his knee.
With the Chiefs’ offseason program coming to a close, head coach Andy Reid told reporters that head trainer Rick Burkholder has been more in contact with Rice, who has been able to do some rehab activities.
“Just making sure that everything was set there where he could do some rehab with it, and still do the time that he needed to take care of. So, he’s on top of that,” Reid said. “Thank goodness that they’re allowing him to do it. They’ve been great with that.”
As for Rice’s return to the field, Reid said he thinks the wideout will be ready for training camp.
“He gets out [of jail] here somewhere in this next week,” Reid said. “So, we’ll see where it goes from there. He’ll be back up here and working.”
Rice was on probation after pleading guilty to charges arising from a March 2024 street-racing incident in Dallas. He served a six-game suspension to begin the 2025 season.
Offensive tackle Wanya Morris wanted to move on from the Chiefs and he’ll be doing so in the near future.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the Chiefs have agreed to trade Morris to the Falcons. Per multiple reports, the Chiefs will receive a 2027 sixth-round pick while also sending a 2027 seventh-round selection to Atlanta.
Word earlier this week was that the Chiefs and Morris had agreed to look for trade options.
Morris started 11 games for the Chiefs during the 2024 season and started 16 of his 43 overall appearances for the AFC West club. Falcons right tackle Kaleb McGary retired this offseason, so Morris will join Jake Matthews, Jawaan Taylor, Storm Norton, Michael Jerrell and Jack Nelson as the team’s tackle options.
Darron Lee, a first-round pick of the Jets in 2016, has formally been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Gabriela Perpetuo.
Via News Channel 9, a Hamilton County, Tennessee grand jury returned the indictment on Wednesday. Previously, prosecutors did not rule out seeking the death penalty.
The case includes evidence that Lee had consulted ChatGPT on how to deal with a person who is unresponsive. Lee also allegedly asked ChatGPT about the injuries that would be consistent with someone falling in the shower.
Prosecutors have dismissed a separate charge of tampering with evidence.
Separately, Perpetuo’s estate has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Lee.
Lee played three years with the Jets, one with the Chiefs, and one with the Bills. He last played in 2020.
The Chiefs’ offseason opened with questions about whether Patrick Mahomes would be ready for the start of the 2026 season, but things feel a lot less uncertain as the team’s workouts come to an end.
Mahomes has been able to participate in drills throughout OTAs and the team’s minicamp, which has head coach Andy Reid feeling confident about where the quarterback will be in his ACL recovery by the start of training camp. Reid noted at a Thursday press conference that “the healing process has to keep taking place,” but that what he’s seen from Mahomes over the last few months bodes well for his activity level this summer.
“I think we’ll be OK there as we go forward. . . . It looks like he’s going to be able to do some things during camp,” Reid said. “He did it out here so I would presume in 40 days he’ll be even better than that. We’ll see where it goes. You go through peaks and valleys with this thing where you might plateau for a little bit. You never know when those are gonna take place, but, so far, it’s been a steady climb up the hill.”
The injury didn’t stop the Chiefs from extending Mahomes’s contract this week and it doesn’t look like it is going to force them to play another quarterback when they open the season against the Broncos on the first Monday Night Football game of the season.
Most agents tend to characterize new contracts as “extensions,” even though there are no true extensions in the NFL. The old contract goes away, and a new one takes its place.
The player doesn’t have to wait for the new deal to kick in. The new deal starts now, usually with a signing bonus.
By focusing on the new years, agents calculate the “new money.” And the new-money average is always higher than the total value of the deal from signing.
If, for example, a player has one year left on a current deal at $1 million and he gets a three-year, $30 million “extension,” he has a four-year, $31 million deal. The new-money value is $10 million per year. The real value — the value from signing — is $7.75 million per year.
The new-money analysis is used because it makes the numbers bigger, and the contract seemingly better. Those who get the text messages from the agents with the news of the new deal, including the new-money average, pass that information along without mentioning what the new contract actually is worth.
Sometimes, there’s a new contract that exposes the flaw in the new-money analysis. The new Patrick Mahomes deal, for example, adds two years and $239.05 million in new money. Under the new-money analysis, his new-money APY is $119.525 million — nearly twice the prior high-water mark of $60 million per year.
Mahomes isn’t the first player whose new contract leads to new years and new money that generate a ridiculously high new-money APY. Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s contract from 2025 was reported as a six-year, $330 million deal, for an average of $55 million per year. The new-money APY, given what he was due to make on his prior four-year deal, is close to $90 million.
Also, Deshaun Watson’s five-year, $230 million deal with the Browns was signed while he had four years left on his prior deal with the Texans. The new-money average (on the one extra year) was likewise in the range of $90 million.
Then there’s the last deal (for now) that Aaron Donald did with the Rams. The team tore up the existing three years and replaced it with a three-year deal at a higher total payout. In that case, the new-money APY is, technically, infinity.
The extreme examples expose the logical hole in the new-money analysis. The reality is that the old deal is gone and a new deal has taken its place. Almost always, the average payout from the signing of the new deal is much lower than the new-money APY.
Which, again, is why agents use new-money APY. And the teams willingly allow it. If the bigger number makes the player feel better about the contract he has signed than the smaller (and truer) number would, that’s a win for the organization.
There were several reasons why the Chiefs missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 last season and defensive tackle Chris Jones has identified one area where he and the team needs to improve.
The Chiefs defense only recorded 35 sacks during the 2025 season, which continued a downward trend that started when they recorded 39 in 2024. The Chiefs had 57 sacks on their way to a Super Bowl title in 2023 and Jones, who had seven sacks last season, believes that needs to be reversed in order for the team to rebound this year.
“We’ve got to get more sacks,” Jones said, via Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star. “Last year, we [finished] at the bottom [in] sacks, and I think it affected the defense tremendously. And if we want this defense to be a success, I gotta get more sacks.”
Jones’s own run of being named a first-team All-Pro three straight years ended along with the Chiefs’ playoff streak. If he’s back on track, the Chiefs’ chances of making 2025 a one-year blip will look better as well.
Patrick Mahomes is making a little more history.
According to a joint report from ESPN and NFL Network, Mahomes has agreed to a reworked deal that will keep him under contract with the Chiefs through 2033.
Notably, the deal is worth $504.75 million, which is the first contract in NFL history valued at over a half-billion dollars.
“Over the last decade Patrick has become one of the most iconic, beloved sports figures of all-time,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said, via ESPN/NFL Network. “He has helped lead our franchise to five Super Bowl appearances and three championships, he has been instrumental in shaping the Chiefs brand and putting Kansas City on the world stage, and on top of it all he has been an outstanding role model in the community. Patrick is a generational talent and an elite human being, and I’m so excited he will continue to lead our team into the future.”
The report notes the new money is worth $239.05 million. The total value of the contract is $504.75 million from 2026 through 2033, with the first four years being guaranteed at signing.
The contract is worth up to $522.25 million with different incentives and contract escalators.
With his new money beginning in 2027, Mahomes’ deal averages an NFL record $64 million per year.
Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champion and two-time MVP, suffered a torn ACL last December. But he is on the mend, progressing to 7-on-7 drills during Kansas City’s offseason program. He said recently that his goal is to be on the field for Week 1.
He’s now in a position to start for the Chiefs for even more years to come.
The Chiefs may be making a trade involving an offensive lineman in the near future.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that they are exploring options for trading tackle Wanya Morris. The move comes after an agreement with Morris to look for a new place for him to play in 2026.
Morris was a 2023 third-round pick of the Chiefs and he has appeared in 43 regular season games over the last three years. He started 16 of those games and 11 of those starts came during the 2024 season, but he wound up being moved out of the first team ahead of the playoffs.
Morris would like to find a team that offers him a chance to return to a more prominent role and the Chiefs appear to be open to making that happen if a suitor presents itself.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters late last month that his goal is to play Week 1, though he recognizes that’s a long way away.
With Kansas City soon wrapping up its offseason program, Mahomes continues to be involved in practice. But he apparently did not do much more in minicamp than he had been during OTAs.
Via Jesse Newell of TheAthletic.com, Mahomes continued to participate in 7-on-7 drills during Tuesday’s mandatory minicamp practice. But he did not participate in team drills.
Newell noted that’s the same as what Mahomes did during voluntary OTAs last week.
Head coach Andy Reid said recently that Mahomes “busted his tail” to put himself in a position to participate as much as he has so far in the offseason program.
With Mahomes being the type of player who often needs to be held back rather than pushed forward when it comes to dealing with an injury, we’ll see how much progress the quarterback makes between now and late July when the Chiefs begin training camp.
