Chiefs Offered Marcus Smith Contract
Despite failing to live up to his first-round status with the Eagles, Marcus Smith said he generated considerable interest during his brief stay in free agency. Prior to signing with the Seahawks in late July, Smith said he had offers from the Packers, Chiefs and Colts, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. However, this Seahawks regime being interested in the then-Louisville product during the 2014 draft — with Condotta noting the team traded out of the first round after he went off the board to Philly at pick No. 26 — and former college assistant Clint Hurtt now Seattle’s defensive line coach made it a better fit than those other teams would have, Smith said.
- The Chiefs have added interesting wrinkles to their unorthodox offense this season, and while this misidirection-based scheme resulted in some zany college-style plays and has helped the team to 4-0, it’s also probably led Alex Smith being on the injury report with an ankle issue. While Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes the fifth-year Chiefs starting quarterback is expected to start Sunday against the Texans, past experience — i.e. playing well prior to a 2012 injury costing him his job once Colin Kaepernick emerged — should accelerate Smith’s drive to stay on the field. That said, the polish gap between Smith and Mahomes is likely considerable at this point. A permanent switch in 2017 — one Kansas City’s brass ruled out before the season — would be considerably different than Tom Savage losing his job to Deshaun Watson, especially considering how well Smith is playing thus far.
Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill Hires Drew Rosenhaus
Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hill has hired Drew Rosenhaus as his new representation, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
NFL draft picks can’t negotiate extensions until the completion of their third season in the league, so Hill isn’t eligible for a new deal until the end of the 2018 campaign. Hill, who was selected in the fifth round of the 2016 draft, is scheduled to carry cap charges between $550K and $800K from 2016-18 before becoming an unrestricted free agent. Because he wasn’t a first-round choice, Hill can’t be kept in Kansas City in 2019 via a fifth-year option.
Instead of working on a new deal immediately, Hills hopes to “further his brand via involvement in community activities and to parlay his on-field performance into marketing deals,” reports Florio. Hill, notably, pleaded guilty to domestic violence against his pregnant girlfriend in advance of last year’s draft, and while he’s stayed out of trouble since that time, his off-field image is still somewhat tarnished.
On the field, Hill has picked up where he left off last season. Through four games as the undefeated Chiefs’ new No. 1 wide receiver, Hill has posted 21 receptions for 288 yards and two touchdowns. He’s also rushed the ball six times and handled six punts.
West Rumors: Chiefs, 49ers, Hoyer
Chiefs starting guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif exited Monday night’s game in the first quarter with an apparent knee injury. Tests on Tuesday morning will determine the extent of the injury and the team is hopeful that it is an MCL injury and not an ACL tear, Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star tweets.
The Chiefs and Duvernay-Tardif agreed to a five-year, $41.25MM extension in the offseason, making him one of the league’s highest-paid interior linemen. Losing him for a lengthy period of time would be a setback for KC.
Here’s more from the West divisions:
- 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan says he not given any consideration to a quarterback change, as Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee writes. For now, the Niners are sticking with Brian Hoyer, but it sounds like Shanahan will not hesitate to yank him if he feels it would benefit the team. “I think he needs to play better,” Shanahan said of Hoyer. “And I think we can play better around him. … When you have the time and you have guys open, you need to hit them. I thought he struggled with that at times (Sunday). I know he can do better. But I also know when he did make throws, guys weren’t great at catching them for him, either.” If Hoyer gets the hook, rookie C.J. Beathard will get a chance to show what he can do.
- The Rams will add Mike Thomas to the roster and go to seven wide receivers when he returns from suspension this week, coach Sean McVay said (Twitter link via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com). Thomas was hit with the ban in July for PED use.
- Cardinals tackle D.J. Humphries is still out with an MCL injury and coach Bruce Arians doesn’t expect to see him back until two weeks from now, Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com tweets.
Kareem Hunt Advised To Return To NCAA After 2015
- Rookie running back Kareem Hunt was advised to return to college following the 2015 season before entering the draft and being selected by the Chiefs in the third round in 2017, as Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com writes. Hunt, of course, leads the NFL in rushing yards through three games and would arguably be the favorite for MVP if the season ended today. As La Canfora details, Hunt re-tooled his body prior to his senior season at Toledo and posted more than 1,800 yards from scrimmage in his final collegiate campaign.
Dee Ford Out Against Redskins
- The Chiefs, though, will be without a key front-seven piece in their Week 4 game. Dee Ford will miss Kansas City’s Monday-night home game against Washington. With Tamba Hali already being conserved for the stretch run via the PUP list, this will leave the AFC West leaders thin at outside linebacker. Ford’s dealing with a back injury.
Chiefs Waive Cairo Santos
Cairo Santos sustained a groin injury during his last warmup kick against the Chargers this weekend. It may well end up being his final kick as a Chief.
The Chiefs waived Santos with an injury designation on Saturday, the team announced. He is expected to be healthy later this season, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter), so the fourth-year kicker will now be able to land with another team. The Chiefs placed Santos on IR earlier this week, clearing the way for their claim of rookie Harrison Butker off the Panthers’ practice squad.
Santos served as Kansas City’s kicker since the start of the 2014 season, when he beat out Ryan Succop in training camp. A Brazil native, Santos made a career-best 88 percent of his kicks last season (31 of 35) and has kicked in every game since the start of the ’14 campaign.
Butker did not beat out Graham Gano for Carolina’s kicking job out of camp, but the Panthers used a seventh-round pick on the Georgia Tech product. It looks like the Chiefs will be turning to Butker for the time being.
NFL Workout Updates: 9/29/17
Today’s workout updates, with all links going to Twitter unless otherwise noted:
Carolina Panthers
- QB Marcus McDade; WRs C.J. Board and Germone Hopper (link via Howard Balzer)
Cleveland Browns
- P Brock Miller (link via Howard Balzer)
Dallas Cowboys
- LBs Richie Brown and Kenneth Olugbode (story via Todd Archer of ESPN.com)
Kansas City Chiefs
- WR Marcus Lucas (link via Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star)
New England Patriots
- C Anthony Fabiano; OTs Jake Rodgers and Victor Salako; LBs Austin Calitro and Cam Johnson (link via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com)
New York Giants
- RBs William Stanback and James Summers (link via Art Stapleton of the Record)
New York Jets
- LB Jayrone Elliott (link via Howard Balzer)
Seattle Seahawks
- LB Bryan Braman (original story) (link via Balzer)
Washington Redskins
- WR Rashard Davis (link via Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post)
Cairo Santos Could Be IR-Return Player
- The Chiefs will consider making Cairo Santos one of their IR-boomerang players, Andy Reid said, via Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star (on Twitter). Santos ventured to IR earlier this week after injuring his right groin during warmups Sunday in Los Angeles. Kansas City signed rookie Harrison Butker off the Panthers’ practice squad. A Santos re-emergence could get tricky, however. The Chiefs are likely planning to bring slot corner Steven Nelson off IR by Week 9, and teams can only pull two players off the injury list in a season. So it’s not certain Santos will get to continue kicking until next season.
Chiefs Place K Cairo Santos On IR
The Chiefs announced that they have placed kicker Cairo Santos on IR. To take his place, the team has signed kicker Harrison Butker off of the Panthers’ practice squad.
The reason for Santos’ placement on IR is not immediately clear. He struggled with a groin pull in the summer, so it’s possible that he reaggravated that injury.
“The ball gets heavier (when it rains) and I just felt sore,” Santos said in early September (via Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star). “The next time I kicked, it just got worse and worse until I felt a pop on one of practice kicks. That’s when I knew something was wrong with it.”
Santos, 26 in November, was perfect through three games. He nailed all three of his field goal tries and made 100% of his extra point attempts.
Earlier this year, the Panthers were receiving calls of trade interest in kicker Graham Gano, leading to speculation that they could move him for a draft pick and stick with Butker. That wasn’t the case as the Panthers cut Butker on Sept. 13, though they did re-sign him to the taxi squad. He’ll now get his opportunity to shine in KC.
NFL Waiver Priority Now Based On 2017 Record
We’re coming up on Week 4 of the NFL season and that means that waiver claim priority will be based on the current league standings instead of last year’s. Of course, waiver priority is based on the inverted NFL standings, which have built in tiebreakers to sort out the many logjams that naturally occur.
Throughout the offseason and the first three weeks of the regular season, the Browns enjoyed top priority thanks to their 1-15 finish last year. Now, we have a brand new pecking order. Here is a full rundown of the current waiver claim priority, which will change from week to week (Twitter links via Field Yates of ESPN.com):
T-1. Bengals
T-1. Browns
T-1. 49ers
4. Giants
5. Chargers
6. Colts
T-7. Texans
T-7. Seahawks
9. Cardinals
10. Jets
11. Saints
12. Bears
13. Dolphins
14. Buccaneers
15. Ravens
T-16. Panthers
T-16. Cowboys
T-16. Rams
T-16. Steelers
T-20. Broncos
T-20. Lions
T-20. Packers
23. Vikings
T-24. Bills
T-24. Jaguars
T-24. Patriots
T-24. Raiders
T-24. Eagles
T-24. Titans
30. Redskins
31. Chiefs
32. Falcons