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The latest
The Chiefs will have a new touchdown song at Arrowhead Stadium for 2020 season | Kansas City Star
Kelce actually dropped the nugget about the Beastie Boys song being the new anthem during that Super Bowl rally speech at Union Station.
It came after Kelce mentioned he had spilled alcohol on his clothes, gave a shout-out to everyone in the United States who fought in World War I and talked about the postseason playoff comebacks.
“I talked to El Presidente, Mark Donovan, he made sure it was OK with the Clark (Hunt) family, everybody involved,” Kelce said. “Because of this season, because of y’all, every single touchdown, every single point we score at Arrowhead is going to end with the anthem. And you all have got to help me say it right here, one last time for the 2019-2020 world champions. You gotta fight, for your right, to party!”
Chris Simms to the Chicago Bears: ‘You don’t have Patrick Mahomes’ | Yahoo Sports
NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms joined Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk on Monday and had a clear and direct message to Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears offense: stop trying to be the Kansas City Chiefs.
“You don’t have Patrick Mahomes and some of the weapons,” Simms said. ”It’s not going to happen. But what you do have is a borderline Super Bowl-caliber defense. So play through that and I think that’s where they really messed up last year.”
Tier 1: Lombardi contenders (8 teams)
Kansas City Chiefs – Super Bowl winners kept the band together and have the best player on the planet.
San Francisco 49ers – Love their roster and love their offseason. Could be back in the big game. Don’t foresee a hangover here.
NFL’s most underappreciated players: One for each AFC team | NFL.com
Kansas City Chiefs
Tyrann Mathieu
I called Mathieu the best value signing of the entire offseason last summer, and I had to write this here because I annoy my producer about this constantly, so why stop now? PFF counts his 51 receptions allowed as the fewest in the NFL among qualified safeties last season, and his run-stopping ability ranks seventh-best, per my computer vision. The latter was even better in previous seasons with Arizona and Houston, which merely reflects a different strategy in K.C., not an erosion in Mathieu’s capability.
Round 1 - Pick 32
Wyatt Davis OL
Ohio State • Soph • 6’4” / 313 lbs
How boring will it be if the Chiefs draft a guard? Davis would be tremendous value for the Chiefs here. And I’m sure Andy Reid can figure out a way to use him as a receiver too. Just for fun.
Proposed NFL rule change could give Chiefs some draft compensation | Arrowhead Addict
Per Trotter, a team would specifically move up six picks in the third round for hiring a head coach and 10 spots for a general manager—all in the draft before the leader’s second season with the team. If a team hired a tandem of minority candidates, they would be rewarded even further.
For a team losing a coach to such a hire, they are also entitled to some draft assets. For example, if Eric Bieniemy is hired away next winter to take over a team after being such a sought-after candidate in each of the last two years, the Chiefs would receive a third-round compensatory pick in the following draft. If an assistant left to become a coordinator, the team would receive a fifth round compensator pick.
3 biggest questions for the Kansas City Chiefs entering the 2020 NFL season | Clutch Points
2. Will Chris Jones’ contract situation cast a dark cloud over the team?
The Chiefs slapped a franchise tag on defensive lineman Chris Jones back in March, and he was none too pleased. The two sides have until July to reach a long-term deal, but if they don’t, Jones will be playing out 2020 on a one-year deal.
Jones is probably the best player on Kansas City’s defense and just made his first Pro Bowl this past season, and given how shaky the Chiefs’ defense was up until very recently, the club can ill afford to lose him.
The thing is, Kansas City also needs to lock up Mahomes, so general manager Brett Veach is likely more focused on his quarterback than Jones at the moment.
Hopefully for the Chiefs, Jones will make it through next season with no issues, but by now, we know how these situations can work. It’s possible that things go south, which would be very bad news for Kansas City’s defensive front.
Around the NFL
Behind-the-Scenes Moments from Peyton Manning’s 2012 Free Agency | SI
JS: Manning also went to Denver during the lockout the previous spring to work out after his surgery because he couldn’t practice at the Colts facility and he also wanted this kind of heir of secrecy about how strong he actually was at the time. Was that just a coincidence or did that have any role in him choosing Denver the next season?
PK: I don’t think it had a big role in him choosing Denver, but I do think that Elway helped. And remember, Manning was really pretty friendly with John Lynch, and Lynch was very, very bullish on Denver. And he was bullish on just the simple fact that—this is going to sound strange. But he wanted to go to a place—and this sounds funny saying it—but he wanted to go to a place where football mattered and where they were gonna take it really seriously and they were gonna do everything possible to win a Super Bowl while he was there. And at the time, this is really because Pat Bowlen, the owner of the Broncos, was basically in the early stages of being afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. But he was there at the press conference announcing Manning and Bowlen was a big reason why Manning wanted to go because Manning knew he just looked at Denver’s history and they were never bad. They were they were always a contending team. And I think that was really important to him, that they would spend the money and do what they had to do to try to be a contender.
The NFL’s Search for the Next Taysom Hill Is Fundamentally Flawed | The Ringer
Since entering the NFL, Hill is 6-of-13 passing for 119 yards, with no touchdowns and an interception. He’s nearly 30 and has a career passing stat line reminiscent of an actual starting QB’s first half—a first half that would have fans calling for him to be benched. Patriots receiver Mohamed Sanu has more passing yards, completions, and touchdowns than Hill does, and nobody considers Sanu to be a starting-caliber NFL quarterback. (Heading into his ninth season, Sanu is only a year older than Hill.) The biggest pass of Hill’s career—a 50-yard bomb in last season’s playoffs—isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of his throwing ability. He had Deonte Harris wide open and streaking toward the end zone, but the play didn’t result in a touchdown because Hill’s throw was an off-target floater.
NFL instituting changes to Rooney Rule | NFL.com
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Monday that the league will require clubs to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coaching openings and at least one minority candidate for any coordinator job, per sources informed of the decision.
In addition, teams must interview one external minority candidate for senior football operations and general manager jobs. Teams and the NFL league office must also include minorities and/or female applicants for senior-level positions, including club president jobs.
Denver Broncos over 7.5 wins
The Broncos went 7-9 last season and their new quarterback, Drew Lock, played in just five games! Denver’s offense could be downright scary in 2020. Phillip Lindsay, Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, K.J. Hamler, Noah Fant and also Melvin Gordon? Wow. I even love that the Broncos went out and drafted Lock’s former college tight end, Albert Okwuegbunam. There’s no doubt that this team got better in the offseason, and while it might take them some time to put it all together, I’m thinking the Broncos go 9-7.
Ranking NFL teams with the worst offseasons: Barnwell on the Texans, Patriots, Packers, more | ESPN
30. New England Patriots
What went wrong: The Patriots had Brady at quarterback, and now they have Jarrett Stidham. Even a diminished Brady would still project to be a playoff-caliber quarterback with the sort of defense this team had in 2019; the same thing isn’t clear with Stidham, who appears to be the Week 1 starter. Losing Brady is one thing, but the Pats neglecting to make a meaningful move for someone like Andy Dalton seems shortsighted and stubborn.
Franchising Thuney means New England has a league-high $28.6 million of its cap committed to guards in 2020, nearly $7 million more than any other team. The Thuney tag cost the Patriots valuable cap space and eliminated their leverage in dealing with Rob Gronkowski when he wanted to return, forcing them to trade their legendary tight end to the Bucs for a midround pick. The Pats also lost three members of their starting front seven with Collins, Van Noy and defensive tackle Danny Shelton leaving town. While I have faith Belichick will replace those guys in the long term, the defense should take a step backward in 2020.
Michael Thomas, Tyler Lockett among 10 best pass-catchers of ‘19 | NFL.com
San Francisco 49ers · TE
Catch rate: 79.4%. Expected catch rate: 71.8%. Difference: 7.6%.
There are a few interesting details in the advanced metrics line of America’s tight end (or is that Travis Kelce?). We highlighted how little distance was covered by the football on average when Michael Thomas was targeted, but no one comes close to Kittle’s minuscule mark of 5.7 air yards per target. Kittle made his money by catching passes early and getting a move on, racking up 641 (60.9 percent) of his 1,053 total receiving yards after the catch. Yes, that’s correct: Kittle caught the ball just feet from the line of scrimmage on average, then raced upfield to post an average yards per reception mark of 12.4, better than Henry and Thomas. This is a product of the 49ers wisely getting the ball in Kittle’s hands quickly and letting him do the work from there. Add in his positive catch rate above expectation and you have a fantastic weapon at tight end.
In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride
Which current Chiefs player is considered a “sleeper” for 2020?
Step-back candidate: CB Charvarius Ward
A player I could see take a step back is in the same position group. Charvarius Ward played only a handful of games his rookie year and just finished his first full season as a starter. His sample size more closely resembles a second-year player with a little over 20 games and only one full season. If you go back and watch the playoffs, he struggled mightily in all three games. Teams are going to attack the undrafted free agent out of Middle Tennessee State similarly to the way the playoffs teams he faced did, and if he isn’t ready for it, we could see more production against him.
This wouldn’t be uncommon if we were to consider 2020 more of his second campaign — it’s called a “sophomore slump.” The NFL is about adjustments and improvements, and it will be up to Ward to fix the mistakes that ailed him in the playoffs so that teams can’t challenge him similarly.
We talked about these two players in detail and answered more questions on the mailbag edition of the AP Laboratory.
A tweet to make you think
Airing now on @ESPN, @PatrickMahomes rallies the @Chiefs to a remarkable road comeback win over the @Broncos in 2018.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 19, 2020
Mahomes has been terrific when trailing in a game. Since 2018, Mahomes has the highest QBR, yards per dropback and TD pct when trailing of any QB in that span. pic.twitter.com/UhLMisDYAM
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