Arrowheadlines: Jaylen Watson is the Chiefs’ best-kept secret

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Every NFL Roster’s Best-Kept Secret Heading into 2023 OTAs | Bleacher Report

Kansas City Chiefs: CB Jaylen Watson

Don’t look now, but the Kansas City Chiefs may have found another functional starter on defense through the draft.

General manager Brett Veach has managed to build a defense chock full of draft picks that have worked out. Finding guys like Jaylen Watson in the seventh round is a big reason why.

Most seventh-round picks are just fortunate to make the roster as a rookie. Watson didn’t just do that, he recorded two interceptions in the Chiefs’ postseason run to another Lombardi Trophy.

Watson has already been through ups and downs in his career. He played two years of junior college football before transferring to USC in 2019 where he had to redshirt due to academics.

By 2020 he wound up at Washington State where he did enough to get on the Chiefs’ radar and get drafted. For him to contribute as much as he did in his first season points to the high potential he carries in Year 2 with the Chiefs.

Rashee Rice represented the Chiefs at the NFL’s rookie premiere

NFL power rankings after draft: Jets, Eagles soar even higher | USA Today

1. Chiefs (1): Barring extenuating circumstances − and none here − when you’ve got the league’s best player in MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Lombardi Trophy, you’re in the top spot until events warrant otherwise. Make no mistake, this team has been appreciably altered since winning Super Bowl 57 ... but it also seemed to be in concerning transition a year ago but was ultimately better for it.

Ranking top 25 players in NFL history: Jim Brown has prominent place on league’s all-time list | CBS Sports

21. Tony Gonzalez, TE (1997-2013): Gonzalez enjoyed a remarkable run of consistent excellence during his 17-year career. He was selected to his first Pro Bowl at age 23 in 1999 and his last in 2013 at age 37. In between, Gonzalez was selected to 12 other Pro Bowls while becoming the most prolific tight end in NFL history. He is third all time in receptions, sixth in career receiving yards and eighth in career touchdown receptions.

Around the NFL

Eagles WR A.J. Brown nearly struck by car during charity bike ride | NFL.com

Brown was broadcasting the event on his Instagram Live when he came to an intersection and his phone suddenly appeared to flip upside down.

Luckily, the two-time Pro Bowler took to Twitter to clear up any fears shortly after, saying someone ran a stop sign and that he dropped his phone while getting out of the way.

Jadeveon Clowney admits ‘it would be nice’ to return to Texans, has ‘no timetable’ on signing somewhere | NFL.com

“It would be nice,” Clowney told Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. “All my family is here. Friends here. The guys I work out with can help me take care of my body a lot better being right up under them. … You never know. You never know what will happen. You never know what’s in front of you.”

Clowney, the No. 35 overall free agent and one of 11 players remaining in Gregg Rosenthal’s top 101 available, spent his first five years in the NFL as a Texan, amassing 29 sacks and going to three Pro Bowls before Houston traded him to Seattle ahead of the 2019 season.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Chiefs Offseason 2023: Patrick Mahomes helped 49ers’ quarterback Trey Lance make a ‘substantial jump’

His private coach Jeff Christensen credits these sessions with giving Lance a head start on the coming season.

“I said, ‘Watch this. Watch what he does here,’” Christensen told The Athletic’s Matt Burrows. “It was something I was telling him to do that he wasn’t quite doing. And then he saw Patrick apply it perfectly. And I think that visual buy-in, that mental buy-in, helped him past that mental hump.

“And to his credit, he just kept getting better. [Over] the last seven days, every day was a substantial jump.”

Christensen praised his young client, who has impressed the Kansas City quarterback with his work ethic.

“Pat really thinks the world of him,” he observed. “He’s just a really good person, conscientious. He wants to be great. And he’s one of the few kids whose actions match his words. He backs it up. He shows up every day and he wants to learn. And that’s why I teach him.”

But so far, the two of them have not socialized very much.

“I mean, Patrick’s got two babies now,” noted Christensen. “He’s changing diapers and burping babies and chasing dogs and hitting golf balls and trying to keep up with Travis Kelce. So he’s a little busy.”

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