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The latest
Perceived reason for Marcus Peters trade varies | The Kansas City Star
"I'm told it was above Andy Reid," La Canfora said. "I'm told it was more mandated from ownership saying, 'I don't like where this is going. I don't like what I'm seeing out of this kid. Here's the deal guys, I'm never giving you a budget that includes this guy making 13 to 15 million a year.' Everything I heard was the owner said, I'm not paying him. I'm not sure if I'm paying him the fifth-year option, so you better get rid of him now."
"You knew this is the guy he was. You knew he was hyper competitive. You knew he had a temper that could flare at coaching staff, but his players loved him. His head coach liked him. And you move on from him for a second round pick? And I'm supposed to be OK with that?"
Kansas City Chiefs should focus on defense at NFL scouting combine | ESPN
Defense should be the focus for the Chiefs, who don’t have a first-round pick after sending it to Buffalo in last year’s trade for quarterback Patrick Mahomes II.
Was Alex Smith the product of Tyreek Hill, or vice versa? | Pro Football Focus
The answer is the egg. Evolutionarily speaking, some sort of pre-chicken birds laid an egg that hatched a chicken, ergo the egg came first. It’s not a satisfying answer, tautologically speaking, but it’s the right one.
Four-round mock draft: Allen goes No. 1; Bills, Cardinals trade up | NFL.com
54. Chiefs: Tarvarus McFadden, CB, Florida State
78. Chiefs: Quenton Meeks, CB, Stanford
86. Chiefs: Auden Tate, WR, Florida State
122. Chiefs: Jeff Holland, EDGE, Auburn
124. Chiefs: Nathan Shepherd, DT, Fort Hays State
Worst bad beats of the 2017 NFL season | ESPN
Washington Redskins at Kansas City Chiefs
After a Harrison Butker field goal put the Chiefs up 23-20 with four seconds to go, Washington would have one play to try to pull out a miracle win. No way those who had Redskins +6.5 could lose, right? Well, they did. Kansas City's Justin Houston returned a fumble off an attempted lateral for a touchdown on the last play to cover the spread for the Chiefs and push the total over by one point.
Final score: Chiefs 29, Redskins 20 (Chiefs cover and game goes over)
Washington Redskins should focus on front seven, RBs at combine | ESPN
The Redskins would like to find Smith their own version of Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt -- a difficult combination to discover. But they need to add more playmakers to their offense, which would pair well with holdovers such as tight end Jordan Reed and third-down back Chris Thompson.
Donnie Jones: Eagles punter retires after 14 years in the NFL | SB Nation (Eagles)
If the Eagles want to sign a veteran punter in free agency, some options include: Pat O’Donnell, Dustin Colquitt (overlapped with Doug Pederson in Kansas City), Kevin Huber, and Shane Lechler.
Then there’s Parker, a player the Falcons the Falcons are considerably less likely to sign. The chief reason to mention him is that the Falcons are not four deep at safety at the moment, and they were linked to the speedy and talented safety way back in 2015 free agency. Parker’s still likely to look for starting safety money, so he can’t be particularly likely to wind up in Atlanta. If his market doesn’t develop, though, you can expect Atlanta to be watching him.
Ranking the Seahawks’ top draft needs by position ahead of NFL Combine | The Seattle Times
7. Linebacker — Seattle hasn’t drafted a linebacker since Kevin Pierre-Louis in the fourth round in 2014. But that drought could end this year as Seattle may want to add some young depth behind Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright (Wright is also entering the final year of his contract).
Around the league
Papa John’s, NFL end sponsorship agreement after anthem protest controversy | The Washington Post
After the better part of a decade, the league and Papa John’s have mutually agreed to end their sponsorship agreement; the company, however, will continue local partnerships with 22 NFL teams, according to a joint statement.
The NFL’s competition committee, acting on instructions from Commissioner Roger Goodell to rewrite the league’s cumbersome and often-confounding catch rule, is considering scrapping the going-to-the-ground portion of the rule that led to controversial non-catches over the years by Calvin Johnson, Dez Bryant and Jesse James.
NFL admits it screwed over the Cowboys 3 years later | New York Post
The NFL opened the door to that possibility in hindsight after the competition committee ruled Tuesday that Bryant’s controversial catch in the Cowboys’ 2015 divisional game against the Packers should never have been called back as incomplete. What would have been a completion at the one-yard line with Dallas down 26-21 and four minutes left was snatched away and the climb proved insurmountable.
Report: NFL expected to pass a rule that prevents another Josh McDaniels situation | CBS Sports
Josh McDaniels became the story of the offseason when he reneged on his verbal agreement with the Colts at the last minute in order to stay with the Patriots as their offensive coordinator. He'll likely be the last assistant coach who gets the opportunity to treat another team in that same way.
The top players to watch at the NFL scouting combine | LA Times
It's the spectacular in spandex, the battle of the bench (press), the Wide World of Wonderlic, the clash of the 40-yard dash — or, if you want to be lazy, the NFL Scouting Combine.
This is the event that will be the epicenter for the official push to the NFL draft in April, with team executives, coaching staffs, scouts and doctors getting a close look at the top prospects in college football.
Detroit Lions place franchise tag on Ezekiel Ansah | NFL.com
Ansah proved to be one of the NFL's best edge rushers in 2017, finishing with 12.0 sacks, 44 total tackles (39 solo), one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. No player had more sacks than Ansah in the second half of 2017 (he tied Chandler Jones with eight), and he finished the year with back-to-back three-sack games.
In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride
This is (probably) the Chiefs’ side of the Marcus Peters trade - Arrowhead Pride
More and more continues to come out about the Kansas City Chiefs decision to trade cornerback Marcus Peters to the Los Angeles Rams. Yesterday we finally found out the compensation — the Chiefs sent Peters and a sixth-rounder to LA for a fourth-round pick this year a second-round pick next year — and today we find out more details via The MMQB’s Peter King.
How do the KC Chiefs replace Marcus Peters through the NFL Draft?
And then we got the compensation. A fourth-round pick in 2018 and a second-round pick in 2019 for Peters and a 2018 sixth-round pick. Less than what I hoped for.
I’m tired of speculating about what went down to push the Chiefs to move on from an incredible talent. It’s over. It happened. What does this mean for the 2018 draft?
For the Chiefs, defense is the name of the game this offseason
The Kansas City Chiefs have started clearing out the defense. They cut long-time middle LB Derrick Johnson, traded CB Marcus Peters, plan to cut S Ron Parker and it appears they will let NT Bennie Logan hit free agency.