The NFL announced that the Falcons will be the designated home team for a game in Madrid this season, but they have not announced the other team that will be heading to Spain in the fall.
One team is lobbying the league for a chance to head across the Atlantic Ocean. Chiefs president Mark Donovan told Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star that they hope to be joining the Falcons overseas.
“We’ve been very open and aggressive with the league — as we have been since the beginning — that we want to play in Spain this year,” Donovan said. “We think it would be a great market, game [and] matchup.”
The Chiefs are one of three teams — the Bears and Dolphins are the others — that the NFL has granted marketing rights in Spain. The Bears are also on the list of Falcons home opponents for the 2026 season.
Chiefs Clips
The NFL’s push to play more games overseas, and to expand the regular season to 18 games, go hand-in-hand in the view of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
Hunt said that by adding a game to the regular season, the NFL can increase its footprint in other countries while maintaining the same number of home games.
“Growing the number of international games, that’s something we’re very supportive of,” Hunt said, via ESPN. “From a schedule dynamic, having 18 games would facilitate that.”
The Chiefs have played four international games, in Brazil, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Hunt is among the owners who’d like to play overseas every year — without losing any home games.
The Chiefs are adding a former first-round pick to their defense.
Kansas City has agreed to sign cornerback Kaiir Elam, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.
Elam, 24, split last season between the Cowboys and Titans. Buffalo traded him to Dallas at the beginning of the league year in March after his first three seasons with the club. Elam appeared in 10 games with seven starts for Dallas before the Cowboys waived him in November.
He signed with the Titans shortly thereafter and appeared in four games with the club over the rest of the season.
The No. 23 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Elam has appeared in 43 career games with 19 starts. He’s recorded eight passes defensed with two interceptions.
The Chiefs have voids to fill in their secondary after trading Trent McDuffie and losing Jaylen Watson in free agency.
After the Bears’ postseason loss to the Rams, it didn’t take long for word to emerge that Eric Bieniemy would be back with the Chiefs in 2026 as their offensive coordinator.
At the annual league meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid shared his excitement for having Bieniemy back in the role he previously occupied from 2018-2022.
“Yeah, I’m fired up to have him back,” Reid said. “When you lose a Matt Nagy, to bring a guy in who can just step in and go — that’s not an easy thing to do. So, I’m fired up to have him back. He brings great energy. Loves doing what he’s doing. All he wants to do is win football games and have a great offense. Ultimate team guy.”
Since departing the Chiefs, Bieniemy served as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator in 2023, UCLA’s offensive coordinator in 2024, and the Bears’ running backs coach in 2025. Those experiences have given Bieniemy some different perspectives and new ideas as he returns to Kansas City.
“Yeah, listen, anytime you leave and go different places, you’re going to kind of sort through some things and then learn some things,” Reid said.
The Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII over the 49ers the year after Bieniemy departed the franchise. But the team’s offense has lacked some cohesion and explosiveness over the last two seasons.
Bieniemy’s return could make for some significant progress in both areas in 2026.
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 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.”
