Arrowheadlines: Kansas City Chiefs News 7/9

Pre-Camp Reads: Looking at LB Dee Ford from Chiefs.com

Ford displayed some of the potential he showed at Auburn during the 2015 season, particularly in a close game against the San Diego Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium in December.

With Justin Houston out due to injury, Ford saw the bulk of defensive snaps in the game, and he shined, recording a team-high 7 tackles, 3 sacks and 3 passes defensed.

Perhaps the best play of Ford's career came on San Diego's final drive, when he stopped running back Danny Woodhead from making what would have been a game-tying reception in the back of the end zone.

Chiefs' Eric Berry ‘a bit surprised' on lack of extension progress from The Kansas City Star

If the Chiefs can't reach a new deal with Berry before the July 15 deadline, Berry would have to play the 2016 season under the $10.8 million franchise tender. However, he could also hold off on signing the tender, which would allow him to skip training camp and the preseason and return shortly before the regular season and still collect his full $10.8 million salary.

Still, an extension is sensible for both sides.

Chiefs safety Eric Berry remains hopeful for long-term contract from Chiefs Digest

Bright smiles and the sound of laughter filled the North Kansas City High School football stadium Friday evening as Chiefs safety Eric Berry hosted 350 local youth attending his annual football camp.

Berry's smile and enthusiasm matched the participants and it was clear he looked forward to interacting with the children attending the event.

The camp, however, isn't the only thing that has the All-Pro safety's attention when considering he has yet to sign a one-year, $10.8 million franchise tender.

Chiefs Fantasy Preview from Yahoo! Sports

Albeit utterly devoid of upside, Alex Smith has been a model of consistency since the Chiefs acquired him from San Francisco three years ago. His season-long fantasy finishes are QB13, QB19, and QB16 during that span with near-identical passing yards-per-game averages (220.9; 217.7; 217.9), TD-to-INT ratios (23:7; 18:6; 20:7), and touchdown rates (4.5%; 3.9%; 4.3%). The NFL's most risk-averse passer, Smith has finished the last three seasons 29th, 37th, and 23rd in attempts of 20-plus yards. Although Smith is one of fantasy's least-sexy quarterbacks, there is sneaky value in his stable weekly floor and cheap price tag. Smith finished as a top-20 fantasy quarterback in 13-of-16 weeks last season and was a top-15 finisher nine times. I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I won an MFL10 league with Smith and Peyton Manning as my quarterbacks last year.

The best fantasy football running backs, No. 7: Jamaal Charles from Sports Illustrated

Charles is one of the trickiest players to rank this season. He's 29 and coming off the second ACL tear of his career, but has been one of the most productive per-game players since entering the league in 2008, and ripped off three of the best seasons of his career between ACL injuries. Both Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware showed something to the Kansas City coaching staff last season, meaning Charles might share a sizeable portion of his workload for the first time in his career.  But might the company serve to protect him and keep him on the field for 16 games? With Charles, the good still comfortably outweighs the bad.

Franchise tag or long-term deal? Deadline predictions from NFL.com

Another reason why theChiefs might get the deal done? The team is getting a little tight against the salary cap. A current copy (July 8) of the league's salary-cap report has the team at $226,818 in cap space (Top 51), with just a few obvious cuts to give them breathing room. Berry is a face-of-the-franchise type of player who made a Pro Bowl after his heroic return from Hodgkin's lymphoma and deserves a long-term deal that will place him among the league's highest-paid safeties. It is difficult for Bob Sutton's defense to function properly without an ace like Berry calling the shots.