Patrick Mahomes Visits Chiefs
- Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes has visited with the Chiefs, according to Miller. Kansas City is set to pick 27th overall, when Mahomes still might be available. The second-round-graded Mahomes has drawn plenty of interest from around the league.
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Chiefs To Sign Gavin Escobar
The Chiefs have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent tight end Gavin Escobar, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN (Twitter link).
Escobar, who visited the Chiefs on Friday, will now join his second team since going in the second round of the 2013 draft. The 25-year-old spent the first four seasons of his career in Dallas, where he never developed into a serious receiving threat behind all-time great tight end Jason Witten.
Escobar averaged just 12 targets per year as a member of the Cowboys, with whom he totaled 30 catches and eight touchdowns in 62 regular-season games. Escobar hauled in a career-low four passes last year, and it’s worth mentioning that Pro Football Focus wasn’t enamored of his work as a blocker, either.
In Kansas City, Escobar will once again serve as depth behind a top-tier tight end, Travis Kelce. He’ll be the fifth TE in the organization, joining fellow reserves Demetrius Harris, James O’Shaughnessy, and Ross Travis.
Chiefs Host Gavin Escobar On Visit
Cowboys free agent tight end Gavin Escobar is visiting the Chiefs today, according to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (on Twitter). We have Escobar ranked as the fourth-best TE still available in free agency.
[RELATED: Chiefs Host Rey Maualuga On Visit]
The Cowboys took Escobar in the second round of the 2013 draft with the hope that he would become a major receiving threat. Unfortunately, that never came to fruition. The San Diego State product had just 30 catches over four years with the Cowboys and they didn’t make much of an attempt to re-sign him this offseason. His best year came in 2014 when he had four touchdowns, but that came off of just nine catches.
The Chiefs currently have four tight ends under contract: Travis Kelce, Demetrius Harris, James O’Shaughnessy, and Ross Travis. Whether he signs with KC or another club, he’ll likely have to settle for a non-guaranteed deal.
Chiefs Declined Nick Foles Option Due To Cap
- The Chiefs‘ decision to decline their option on backup quarterback Nick Foles was purely cap-related, head coach Andy Reid tells Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star. Foles’ 2017 option was worth $6.75MM, an untenable figure for the Chiefs given that even now they only have $3MM in cap space. While Foles has since signed a two-year, $11MM with the Eagles, Kansas City currently has Tyler Bray behind starting quarterback Alex Smith.
Chiefs To Host Rey Maualuga On Visit
Former Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga will be visiting the Chiefs on Thursday, a source tells Terez A. Paylor of The Kansas City Star (on Twitter). Cincinnati released the linebacker late last week, ending his eight-year run with the team. 
[RELATED: Click Here For The Latest Chiefs Rumors]
Maualuga was a longtime starter for the Bengals but he was demoted in 2016. He saw just 326 snaps on the year and Pro Football Focus rated him as the third-worst linebacker out of the 100+ players who qualified for a ranking. The Chiefs could sign Maualuga with the hope that a change of scenery will rejuvenate him.
Most of the Chiefs’ linebackers – including Justin Houston, Derrick Johnson, and Tamba Hali – are homegrown. Victor Ochi, who was previously with the Jets’ taxi squad, is the only LB to join the group since the end of the 2016 season. If signed, Maualuga would be the second free agent LB of the year for Kansas City, and he would potentially displace Ochi.
Davis Webb A Potential First-Round Pick?
California quarterback Davis Webb is a candidate to be selected in the first round of next month’s draft, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link), who cites a “growing sense” Webb may be chosen on Day 1.
The Jets, Chiefs, and Chargers have all set up interviews with Webb, per Cole, while the Ravens and Buccaneers have also expressed interest in the 6’5″ signal-caller. A club could trade back into the first round with an eye towards drafting Webb, reports Cole, and such a move would enable a team to hold a fifth-year option on Webb. That option — for the 2021 campaign — would allow a club to retain Webb for a fifth season at a cheap rate.
While Webb has generally been considered a Day 2 pick to this point, the overall demand for quarterbacks could conceivably force him into the back end of Round 1. At present, Todd McShay of ESPN.com ranks Webb as the draft’s No. 7 QB, behind Deshaun Watson, Mitch Trubisky, DeShone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes, Nathan Peterman, and Joshua Dobbs.
Webb, 22, transferred to Cal from Texas Tech after losing out on the Red Raiders’ starting job to Mahomes. In his only season with the Bears, Webb completed 61.6% of his passes for 4,295 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
Chiefs Re-Sign Jarvis Jenkins
The Chiefs have re-signed defensive lineman Jarvis Jenkins, according to his agents at SportsTrust (Twitter link). It’s a one-year deal, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
[RELATED: Derrick Johnson Accepts Paycut]
Jenkins, 28, signed a two-year, $6MM deal that contained $3MM guaranteed with the Jets last spring, but he was waived in early November after appearing in only nine games with the club. Because he was cut before Week 10, Jenkins didn’t factor into the compensatory pick formula, and therefore allowed Gang Green to land a third-round comp pick to account for the loss of defensive tackle Damon Harrison.
After working out for the Patriots, Jenkins quickly landed a deal with the Chiefs, with whom he spent the rest of the 2016 campaign. On 132 defensive snaps, Jenkins posted five tackles and put up a half-sack in Kansas City’s postseason game against the Steelers. On the season, Jenkins graded as the league’s No. 67 interior defender, per Pro Football Focus, which handed better marks for his run defense than his play against the pass.
Now back with the Chiefs for another season, Jenkins will continue to serve as a reserve on a defensive line that also includes Jaye Howard, Chris Jones, Bennie Logan, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, and Allen Bailey.
Chiefs To Work Out Mitch Trubisky
- UNC quarterback Mitch Trubisky will work out for the Browns, Jets, 49ers, and Chiefs, among others, per Andrew Carter of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). Trubisky, considered one of the top-three signal-callers in this year’s class, is a surefire first-round pick and may be selected within the top five. Cleveland, for one, was said to be “strongly considering” Trubisky with the first overall pick, although that talk has died down recently.
Chiefs Hosting G Andrew Tiller On Visit
49ers free agent guard Andrew Tiller is visiting the Chiefs today, a league source tells Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee (on Twitter). Tiller has started 14 games over the last two seasons for San Francisco. 
The Chiefs presently have three true guards on the roster in Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Zach Fulton, and Parker Ehinger. After that, they have a pair of guard/tackles in Jah Reid and Mike Person. If Tiller signs with KC, he’ll likely get a partial guarantee on his deal and that could displace one of the team’s reserve offensive linemen.
We haven’t heard Tiller’s name come up much this month and this is his first reported free agent visit. At this stage of free agency, we have Tiller ranked as one of the five best free agent interior offensive linemen remaining on the board. Only Jahri Evans, Nick Mangold, Tim Lelito, and John Sullivan are ahead of him on the list.
The Niners’ level of interest in keeping Tiller isn’t immediately clear. The team currently has nine offensive linemen under contract, including newly-acquired center Jeremy Zuttah.
Chiefs LB Derrick Johnson Accepts Paycut
The Chiefs have worked out contract restructures with linebacker Derrick Johnson and fullback Anthony Sherman, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com.
Johnson, 34, was previously scheduled to earn $4.75MM in 2017 base salary and could have made an additional $1MM in per-game roster bonuses. Instead, he’s agreed to reduce his base salary to a fully guaranteed $1MM, and will also earn a $1MM signing bonus. In sum, the cap-strapped Chiefs were able to use leverage against Johnson — who tore his Achilles last season — in order to create roughly $4.25MM in cap space.
Sherman, meanwhile, will see his base salary drop from $1.55MM to a fully guaranteed $1MM, per Yates. Additionally, his previous per-game roster bonuses of $12,500 have been slashed in half, and are now worth only $6,250 per contest. In total, the move creates about $550K in cap space for the Chiefs.