The Chiefs announced a pair of transactions on Monday afternoon.
They have signed defensive end Niles King to the active roster. They cleared a spot for King by waiving wide receiver Jeff Caldwell with an injury designation.
King signed with the Chargers after going undrafted out of San Diego State in April, but he was let go by the Chiefs’ AFC West rivals a couple of weeks later. He had 30 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks in his final college season.
Caldwell was also undrafted this year and signed with the Chiefs this spring. He played in their first preseason game, but did not see action against the Bucs on Saturday.
Chiefs Clips
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker kicked a 69-yard field goal on the final play of the first half Saturday night.
Butker and the Chiefs celebrated as if it was an NFL record . . . and it would have been had it been the regular season.
Jaguars kicker Cam Little kicked a 68-yard field during a Nov. 2, 2025, game against the Raiders to set the record. Little had a 70-yard field goal as time expired against the Steelers in the 2025 preseason.
Butker’s kick cleared the crossbar by a few yards.
He also had field goals of 45 and 58 yards in the first half as the Chiefs lead the Bucs 9-0 at halftime.
Former Steelers wide receiver Barry Pearson died Aug. 16, Chris Ward of steelersnow.com reports. Pearson was 76.
Pearson signed with the Steelers as a free agent in 1972 after starring at Northwestern. He played two seasons with the Steelers and three with the Chiefs.
He was on the field for the Immaculate Reception in the Steelers’ miracle win over the Raiders in the 1972 playoffs. It was his first career play.
Pearson brought in the play to quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
He caught the 46-yard game-winning touchdown on Monday Night Football against Washington in 1973.
The Steelers traded Barry to the Chiefs in 1974, and he led the team in receiving yards in 1975 with 608.
A serious knee injury in 1976 forced him to retire from football.
Barry later served as a wide receivers coach for Jimmy Johnson at Oklahoma State. He interviewed for a coaching position with the Lions, but instead returned to his wife’s family business and had a successful business career.
Barry is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years, Linda; their daughter, Jessica Pearson, and her husband, Shawn Koupal; their daughter, Devorah Pearson Gomez, and her husband, Jeff Gomez; and their three cherished grandchildren: Parker, Jackson and Gia.
Tyreek Hill became a free agent Feb. 16 when the Dolphins released him. The star wide receiver continues to rehab from a dislocated knee and multiple torn ligaments, including his ACL, in a Sept. 29 game against the Jets.
He is not ready to return yet, his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said Friday on The Pat McAfee Show.
“I don’t expect Tyreek to sign before the season,” Rosenhaus said. “He sent me video yesterday . . . of him running hills, and he looked great. I said to him, ‘You look great.’ He said to me, ‘I still have some work to do. I’m not ready yet.’
“I am not pressuring Tyreek. Nor am I setting a timeline for him. I think that what I have said to Tyreek is, ‘Take your time. It’s not when you come back. It’s how you come back. We want you to come back when you feel your best. There’s no sense of urgency timing wise. I think this is a future Hall of Famer who still has a lot of good football left in him. This was a devastating injury, but everyone’s going to be so impressed when they see how well Tyreek has rehabbed. It’s not hyperbole for me to predict that he will play this season. When I’m not sure, but I do think when he does sign, he will be a coveted player. He’ll be the kind of guy that will impact the playoff race and will certainly be successful when he signs.”
Hill said in a video he posted to social media on July 22 that he still has no power in his left leg after two surgeries.
He made 21 catches for 265 yards with one touchdown last season.
The Chiefs have an injury concern with one of their young defensive linemen, but it shouldn’t keep him out for too long.
Via Nate Taylor of ESPN, second-year defensive end Ashton Gillotte suffered a ruptured plantar fascia this week. But the Chiefs’ initial evaluation has the club optimistic that Gillotte could return in about three weeks.
That would give Gillotte a shot at being able to play in the Chiefs’ Week 1 matchup against the Broncos on Monday Night Football.
A third-round pick in 2025, Gillotte appeared in all 17 games as a rookie with two starts. He recorded 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, eight QB hits, and an interception in his first season.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said early this month that he didn’t know if quarterback Patrick Mahomes will play at all in the preseason and it looks like the team has settled on keeping him on the bench.
Mahomes did not play in the team’s preseason opener and Reid said at a Thursday press conference that Mahomes will not play in Tampa on Saturday. The Chiefs will wrap up the preseason against the Seahawks on August 28.
Assuming he sits that one out as well, Mahomes’s first game action since tearing his ACL in Week 15 last season.
Justin Fields will start at quarterback for the Chiefs and Reid said that he plans to play him into the second quarter. Garrett Nussmeier and Chris Oladokun will be the other quarterbacks for Kansas City this weekend.
The Chiefs worked out offensive lineman Kellen Diesch earlier this week and they liked what they saw.
Per multiple reports, the Chiefs are signing Diesch to their 90-man roster. They will waive offensive lineman Matt Waletzko to make space for the new addition.
Diesch most recently played for the Louisville Kings in the UFL. He also spent time in the spring league last year.
Diesch has not played in an NFL game, but has been on the offseason roster or practice squad of the Dolphins, Bears, Steelers, Browns, Patriots and Titans since leaving Texas A&M after the 2021 season.
The Chiefs have brought a key special teams contributor back to their building.
Kansas City announced on Wednesday that the team has signed linebacker Cam Jones.
Jones, 26, started his pro career with the Chiefs, signing with the club as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He appeared in all 17 games for Kansas City in 2023 and 2024, playing around two-thirds of the club’s special teams snaps in each season.
The Chiefs let Jones go during roster cuts last year and he was claimed by the Jets, appearing in 10 games before he was waived in December.
While Jones signed a one-year deal with the Giants in March, New York waived him on July 25.
As a corresponding move, the Chiefs waived defensive end Anthony Dunn.
Frank Gansz Jr., who spent decades as an assistant coach in the NFL, college football and multiple spring leagues, has died at the age of 64.
Gansz was most recently special teams coordinator of the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League, and they announced his death today.
Best known for coaching special teams, Gansz was a special teams coordinator in three different NFL stops, with the Oakland Raiders from 1998 to 2000), the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001 to 2005 and the Baltimore Ravens from 2006 to 2007.
Gansz’s father, Frank Gansz Sr., also primarily coached special teams, aside from a two-year stint as head coach of the Chiefs in 1987 and 1988. Gansz Sr. won a Super Bowl ring as the Rams’ special teams coordinator in 1999.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy returned to the team last week after leaving the team to be with his wife Mia as she recovered from being shot in late July and he spoke to reporters for the first time since getting back on Tuesday.
Bieniemy opened the press conference by thanking the press corps for respecting the family’s privacy in the wake of the shooting, which led to Bieniemy’s son being arrested for allegedly committing the crime. Bieniemy said “it feels good to be back” and that his wife is doing well enough that she signed off on having him return to work.
“She is on a road to recovery,” Bieniemy said. “She is doing great. It’s one of the main reasons why I’m back here because of her recovery. She is truly a soldier. She’s a saint. It’s been incredible to watch, but I know I was driving her and a bunch of family members crazy in the house. She was like ‘you have my blessing to leave.’ So it was time to come back.”
Bieniemy said he felt like he was still a part of the team because he “had an opportunity to tap in” to practice remotely. That led to a lot of “colorful” language that he said surprised family members, but has been greeted with both familiarity and comfort to Chiefs players who had missed Bieniemy’s presence around the field.
