It’s a strange coincidence, to say the least, that free-agent receiver Tyreek Hill has made multiple headlines about a potential return to the NFL in the same week that his divorce trial commenced.
The civil action, which had been mentioned in none of the reports regarding the possibility that he’ll be signing with a new team, began on Tuesday. His ex-wife, Keeta Vaccaro, testified on the first day of the trial regarding her allegation that Hill physically abused her while they were married.
Via Jesse Newell of The Athletic, Vaccaro’s testimony included an accusation that Hill tried to punch her in the stomach while she was pregnant in July 2024.
She explained, per Newell, that she put her hands on her stomach to block the punch. Vaccaro also said, per Newell, that Hill told her at the time that he didn’t want the baby.
Vaccaro called the day “probably the worst of all these abuse times.” She also claimed that, on the same day, Hill pulled her hair and ripped it out.
As explained on Monday, the NFL continues to investigate Hill under the Personal Conduct Policy in connection with Vaccaro’s claims. Potentially aggravating circumstances, if a violation is found, include Hill’s 2015 guilty plea to domestic assault and battery by strangulation in an incident involving his then-pregnant girlfriend.
The broader question is whether any team would sign Hill before the situation is resolved. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has nevertheless said that Hill could potentially sign this week. The Chiefs reportedly are “very interested” in a reunion.
As it relates to maneuvering the NFL’s in-house justice system, Hill’s best move would be to negotiate a resolution to the Personal Conduct Policy situation as soon as possible, so that he can begin serving any suspension immediately.
Frankly, it’s possible that the sudden emergence of news regarding Hill’s return is aimed at getting Hill credit for any games missed while the process plays out. Hill could argue that, without the allegations made by Vaccaro in court, someone would have signed Hill this week.
Chiefs Clips
Sunday’s late afternoon game on CBS was the NFL’s most-watched broadcast of the season so far.
The Sunday late window, which was mostly Chiefs-Raiders but also includes the markets that had 49ers-Broncos, drew 28.448 million viewers, making it this year’s most-watched NFL game, CBS announced.
CBS says it was also the most-watched Week 4 game in NFL broadcast history. (Historical numbers are not apples-to-apples comparisons, as there have been changes in how out-of-home viewers are measured.)
The Chiefs have been a big ratings draw throughout the Patrick Mahomes era, and this year is no different. The Raiders’ surprising 3-0 start made their matchup with the Chiefs a particularly big game, and although the Chiefs ultimately won 30-27, the Raiders made it an exciting game and had a fourth-quarter lead. It was a game that earned its big audience.
The MVP award has become, essentially, a “best quarterback” award — with rare exceptions.
No non-quarterback has won the MVP prize since Vikings running back Adrian Peterson eked out the distinction over Peyton Manning in 2012. In the current century, a non-quarterback became the MVP only four times: Marshall Faulk in 2000, Shaun Alexander in 2005, LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, and Peterson in 2012.
This year, a couple of running backs deserve serious consideration, based on what we’ve seen through four weeks.
Falcons running back Bijan Robinson is a touchdown waiting to happen, on any given play. His opening-drive 59-yard touchdown run on Monday night in New Orleans set the tone for Atlantas’ 45-24 win.
Though four games, Robinson has 494 yards rushing and 120 yards receiving and five total touchdowns.
Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III has become the straw that stirs the Kansas City cocktail. He has 537 yards rushing, 84 yards receiving, and six total touchdowns. He’s also the third player in NFL history to have 170 or more rushing yards in two of the first four games of a season, joining only Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson.
Both Robinson and Walker have 99 touches. Walker has gained 621 yards. Robinson has gained 614.
When it comes to the MVP betting odds (which are instructive to the general perceptions that surely will influence some or many of the 50 Associated Press voters), both Robinson and Walker are low on the list. Robinson, who was 70-1 when Simms and I discussed the dynamic earlier this morning on PFT Live, is now at 60-1. Walker is 50-1.
Currently, the eight highest players on the list of odds are quarterbacks.
Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs sits at 30-1, which may be a reflection of the bets made on him before the season started. (He has 102 touches and 540 yards from scrimmage, with seven touchdowns.)
Here’s the real question. Is the perception of “value” skewed by the fact that the best quarterbacks make so much more money than the best quarterbacks? The top of the quarterback market is approaching $65 million per year. Gibbs, the highest-paid running back, is at $22.5 million annually.
Robinson sits at $22.25 million per year. Walker, who signed as a free agent months before the Robinson and Gibbs deals were done, is making $14.35 million per year. (To put it apples-to-apples terms, the Gibbs deal is worth $16.995 million per year from signing, Robinson’s deal has an average of $16.36 million from signing.)
The best running backs are far more valuable to their teams than the market suggests. The existing market held back Walker, Robinson, and Gibbs. The enhanced injury risk at the position is a major factor in the unwillingness of teams to embrace the financial risk that the player at some point won’t be available.
While their “value” may not properly be reflected in their contracts, it needs to be recognized in their consideration for the MVP award. The present betting trends show that it’s not. Whether it will be comes down to the ability and willingness of the voters to stop viewing the MVP as a quarterback prize and to start looking at the definition of the prize, as articulated by the AP.
“The player who was most valuable to their team over the course of the season.”
Robinson and Walker fit the bill. Gibbs will, too, if the Lions can recover from a sluggish start and become true contenders.
Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton went for more tests on his injured ankle on Monday and they confirmed that he will need to have surgery to repair a dislocation.
Per multiple reports, Thornton will have surgery this week and is expected to be out 3-to-4 months while he recovers from the injury. The shorter end of that window leaves open the possibility that he could return during the postseason should the Chiefs make it back after missing last year’s playoffs.
Thornton’s injury came as he was tackled at the end of a 55-yard catch in the fourth quarter of the 30-27 Chiefs victory. Thornton also caught two touchdowns earlier in the game and finished the day with five catches for 111 yards.
With Thornton out and the Chiefs missing a deep threat, it’s no surprise that Sunday also brought a report that the Chiefs are interested in a reunion with Tyreek Hill. Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus said on Monday that the veteran wideout could sign with a team in the coming days.
Receiver Tyreek Hill could be signing with an NFL team (possibly the Chiefs) very soon. There’s an issue beyond the status of his knee that could impact his availability.
Per the NFL, Hill remains under an active Personal Conduct Policy review.
The investigation was sparked by the divorce filing initiated by his wife, Keeta Vaccaro. She has made specific allegations of domestic violence against Hill.
The full details of her contentions came to light in October 2025.
Hill’s history complicates the situation. Past incidents, including a 2015 guilty plea to domestic assault and battery by strangulation in an incident involving his then-pregnant girlfriend, could result in an enhanced suspension — if the league finds a Personal Conduct Policy violation in connection with Vaccaro’s allegations.
The league rarely provides a timeline for Personal Conduct Policy investigations. The case almost always remains pending until it suddenly isn’t.
With Hill not playing, there’s less urgency to resolve the situation. If/when he signs with a team, the probe could quickly move back to the front burner.
Kenneth Walker has obviously been a major piece of Kansas City’s offense since signing with the team as a free agent this offseason.
But his performance in Sunday’s win has catapulted his 2026 season into the realm of downright historic.
According to NFL Research, Walker became just the third player in NFL history to rush for at least 170 yards twice within his team’s first four games. The other two players to accomplish the feat are Hall of Famers Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson.
Notably, Brown (1958 and 1963) and Simpson (1973 and 1975) both did it twice.
As for Walker, he put up 173 yards rushing in the Week 1 win over Denver and had 179 yards rushing in Sunday’s victory over the Raiders. He also had the league’s longest run of the year so far with his 76-yard scamper in the second half.
Walker leads the NFL with 537 yards rushing, 6.2 yards per carry, and 621 total yards from scrimmage.
While he isn’t No. 1 in carries, he’s close. Baltimore’s Derrick Henry has 89, while Walker has 87.
Walker and the rest of the Chiefs will get a break in the coming days with a Week 5 bye.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill could be back in the NFL very soon.
Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN that he plans to begin negotiations with teams about a contract for the wideout. Rosenhaus added that he does not expect it to take a long time for those talks to lead to an agreement.
“I would anticipate Tyreek potentially signing with a team over the next few days,” Rosenhaus said.
One of the teams that Rosenhaus is expected to be talking to is the Chiefs. Word on Sunday was that they have already reached out to show their interest in a reunion with Hill and their urgency to get something done went up when Tyquan Thornton dislocated his ankle during Sunday’s win over the Raiders.
Hill spent his first six seasons with the Chiefs and was a three-time first-team All-Pro while helping the team win the first of three Super Bowls under head coach Andy Reid. He was traded to Miami ahead of the 2022 season, but could be back with the Chiefs in the near future.
Last year, before then-Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill suffered a serious knee injury, the Chiefs were interested in trading for him. Now that he’s available to be signed by anyone, the Chiefs are interested in signing him.
Via Mike Silver of The Athletic, the Chiefs are “very interested” in a reunion with Hill. The team, per Silver, has already reached out to Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, regarding the possibility of bringing Hill back.
The first question is Hill’s health. Silver says he’s targeting a return in November.
Hill posted “hm” on Twitter after Chiefs receiver Tyquan Thornton suffered a dislocated ankle. Receiver Rashee Rice injured a hamstring earlier in the game.
A fifth-round pick in 2016, the 32-year-old Hill spent six seasons in Kansas City. A big contract for receiver Davante Adams in March 2022 prompted Hill to seek a trade to a team that would pay him more.
He spent four years with the Dolphins.
As Silver explains, multiple Chiefs players endorsed Hill’s potential return.
“That’s out of my hands, but I know I’d love to have ‘The Cheetah’ back in this building,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “He’s a brother. He’s one of those people who, when he sets his mind to something, he usually delivers. You saw that with Miami, when all the haters were saying he couldn’t play and he went and had his best year. I’d be excited by what he could do (here).”
“I have no idea [if that would happen], but it’d be pretty cool,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones was more blunt: “I hope we do. It’d be dangerous. . . . Dangerous!”
During a media tour in New Orleans prior to Super Bowl LIX, Hill admitted that he regrets leaving the Chiefs. If/when he’s healthy, he could get a chance to return — fueling the effort to chase another Super Bowl ring.
Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton dislocated his left ankle in Sunday’s victory over the Raiders, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports. Team doctors put the ankle back in place.
Thornton will undergo an MRI and receive a second opinion on Monday.
“That doesn’t look good,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, via Jared Sapp of SBNation. “He’s going to fly back with us, and we’ll get further evaluation later.”
Thornton didn’t seem to realize his ankle was injured until he tried to stand up after a 55-yard catch. He finished with five catches for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
“That’s a rough one,” Reid said, “especially a guy like Tyquan [who is] a great father, a great husband and all that. Just his attitude. His attitude is unbelievable. He’s great for the team and kind of a leader for that group. For that to happen, especially with the year’s he’s having — he’s had a phenomenal year to this point — and on a great play on top of that, it’s a tough one to see for all the guys.”
At halftime, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak told CBS’ Tracy Wolfson that his team would win Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.
He ended up being wrong, but not for a lack of fight.
Kansas City defeated Las Vegas 30-27 on Sunday with a surge in the fourth quarter.
Kenneth Walker scored a pair of touchdowns within 20 seconds of game time to put the matchup out of reach.
The Raiders had taken a 19-17 lead with 4:53 left in the contest on Matt Gay’s 48-yard field goal. But after that, the Chiefs got in the end zone in large part due to a 55-yard catch from Tyquan Thornton. While Thornton suffered a lower-leg injury on the play and had to be carted off, he set up Walker for a 2-yard touchdown run to give the Chiefs the lead back.
Then Las Vegas fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving Kansas City the ball back deep in opponent territory. Walker needed just one play to go into the end zone, putting the Chiefs up 30-19 with his 22-yard score.
But that left plenty of time for the Raiders to get a couple more possessions. Kirk Cousins connected with Brock Bowers on a 20-yard touchdown to cut Kansas City’s lead to three. While the onside kick attempt failed, the Raiders got the ball back with no timeouts at their 1-yard line with 1:16 on the clock.
Las Vegas got lucky that a replay review was not instituted after a pass over the middle to Tre Tucker gained 23 yards. The ball hit the ground, but it was ruled a completed pass. Cousins spiked the ball to stop the clock before a review was called for, leaving the Raiders with 10 seconds left at the Kansas City 49.
But on the next play, Cousins’ pass was intercepted by safety Xavier Nwankpa, which effectively ended the game.
Walker has continued to make a significant difference for Kansas City’s offense, finishing with a career-high 177 yards rushing. He also rushed for a career-long 76-yard run, which helped set up a touchdown to Tyquan Thornton earlier in the fourth quarter.
Thornton had an excellent game before he had to exit in an air cast, catching five passes for 111 yards with two TDs.
Mahomes finished the game 15-of-30 for 225 yards with two touchdowns and no picks.
On the other side, Cousins continued his excellent start to the season, finishing 31-of-52 for 365 yards with two touchdowns and no picks. Brock Bowers had six catches for 86 yards with a touchdown and Michael Mayer had eight receptions for 82 yards.
Ashton Jeanty was held to 58 yards on 15 carries while he had six receptions for 68 yards.
With the win, the Chiefs are now 4-0. They will have their bye next week before hosting the Chargers in Week 6.
The Raiders are now 3-1 with a strong start to the 2026 season. They will be on the road in Week 5 to face the Patriots. Las Vegas beat New England on the road last year to start the season — one of just three wins for the club in 2025.
