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 Clips
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.
The Dolphins and Cardinals aren’t the only teams taking massive dead-money charges for quarterbacks no longer on the team.
The Jets are, too.
As noted by Rich Cimini of ESPN, the Jets will carry $48 million in 2026 for 2023-24 starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers and 2025 starting quarterback Justin Fields.
Overall, the Jets have $104 million in total dead money this year, third highest in the league.
The cap charge for Rodgers arises from his 2025 release, a post-June 1 designation that spread the dead money over two years. The Fields charge comes from the back end of his two-year contract signed in 2025, the recent trade that sent him to the Chiefs, and the fact that the Jets will pay $8 million of his $11 million in 2026 compensation.
The good news is that the Jets got quarterback Geno Smith for only $3.3 million this season. The better news is that, per Cimini, the Jets are expected to have more than $150 million in 2027 cap space.
Still, the Jets will be operating in 2026 with more than a third of the $301.2 million salary cap devoted to players who no longer play for the team.
If Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who tore an ACL last December, isn’t ready for the first week of the 2026 regular season, his new backup will make a very specific type of history.
As noted by Rich Cimini of ESPN, a Week 1 start by Justin Fields for Kansas City would make him the first player in NFL history to open the season as the starting quarterback for four different teams in four consecutive years.
In 2023, Fields started for the Bears. In 2024, Fields started for the Steelers (Russell Wilson was injured). In 2025, Fields started for the Jets.
He’s already one of seven quarterbacks since 1950 to make three straight Week 1 starts for three different teams.
And with the Jets due to play in Kansas City at some point in 2026, the schedule makers could set the stage for Fields to potentially start against his most recent team for the second straight season. Last year, Steelers-Jets in Week 1 gave Fields an immediate shot at his most recent former team.
The Chiefs have struck a deal to hold onto linebacker Jack Cochrane.
They announced that they have re-signed Cochrane on Friday. No terms of the new contract have been announced.
Cochrane joined the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 2022. He has missed four regular season games since joining the team and has been a core special teams player throughout his time in Kansas City.
Cochrane has 62 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery in his 64 regular season appearances. He has one tackle in seven postseason appearances, but missed the playoffs after the 2024 season while on injured reserve.
Philadelphia has added a running back.
The Eagles announced on Thursday that they’ve agreed to terms on a one-year deal with Dameon Pierce.
Pierce, 25, was most recently with the Chiefs in 2025, appearing in one game for the club. He had signed with Kansas City off of Houston’s practice squad, where he’d previously spent all of his career.
The Texans selected Pierce in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. He appeared in 42 games with 20 starts for the club, rushing for 1,674 yards and eight touchdowns. He also caught 45 passes for 268 yards with one TD.
Pierce’s best season came in 2022 as a rookie, as he totaled 1,104 yards from scrimmage with five total touchdowns.
As the details regarding many of the free-agent contracts made their way to the light of day last week, one deal was absent.
We’ve now gotten our eyes on the full base numbers of the three-year contract signed by Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III.
Here are the terms of Walker’s new deal with the Chiefs:
1. Signing bonus: $13 million.
2. 2026 base salary: $1.215 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 workout bonus: $135,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
4. 2027 base salary: $14.1 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2027 workout bonus: $250,000, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
6. 2028 base salary: $14.1 million.
7. 2028 workout bonus: $250,000.
The deal has a base value of $43.05 million. That translates to an average of $14.35 million.
Coincidentally, or not, the running back franchise tag for 2026 was $14.293 million. The Seahawks decided not to apply it.
The Chiefs have fully guaranteed Walker $28.7 million over the first two years, an average of $14.35 million. With no guarantees for 2028, it’s a two-year deal with a team option for 2028.
While not at the top of the tailback market (Saquon Barkley at $20.6 million), it puts Walker not far behind Derrick Henry ($15 million APY) and ahead of Jonathan Taylor ($14 million APY).
That’s a very good deal for a running back who missed 10 games over his first three seasons and who rushed for a career-high of 1,050 yards as a rookie. The investment suggests that the Chiefs plan to use him heavily; last year, they paid only $1.5 million to Kareem Hunt and $1.12 million to Isiah Pacheco.
Either way, Walker will get $14.35 million in cash for each of the next two years, with every penny guaranteed. It speaks to a level of involvement in the offense that the starting running back usually doesn’t have in Kansas City.
The 2026 NFL draft is still more than a month away, but five teams have already accumulated two first-round picks.
The Dolphins became the latest team to get a second first-rounder when they agreed to trade wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos. Miami will have its own pick (No. 11 overall) as well as Denver’s pick (No. 30).
The Jets have their own pick (No. 2) and the Colts’ pick (No. 16) from the Sauce Gardner trade.
The Cowboys have their own pick (No. 12) and the Packers’ pick (No. 20) from the Micah Parsons trade.
The Browns have their own pick (No. 6) and the Jaguars’ pick (No. 24) from the draft-day trade a year ago that allowed the Jaguars to move up to draft Travis Hunter.
The Chiefs have their own pick (No. 9) and the Rams’ pick (No. 29) from the Trent McDuffie trade.
A sixth team was poised to get a second first-round pick when the Raiders agreed to trade Maxx Crosby to the Ravens, but that trade fell through and the Ravens kept their first-round pick.
Five teams don’t have a first-round pick: The Broncos, Falcons, Colts, Packers and Jaguars.
The teams with two first-round picks all missed the playoffs last season and are attempting to rebuild their roster. A draft with two first-round picks is a big part of the rebuilding process.
