Team news: Kansas City Chiefs | Page 9

The Jets ran the ball less than any team last season. The biggest reason for that (Aaron Rodgers) is gone. It would not shock me if the Jets went from last to first in terms of rushing attempts — the product of a run-first scheme led by offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, and the dynamic, dual-threat quarterbacking of Justin Fields in the fray. The Jets are modeling their offense after the one Engstrand and Aaron Glenn came from in Detroit, where, in theory at least, Breece Hall would play the Jahmyr Gibbs role while Braelon Allen would step in as the David Montgomery, power-running type. — Zack Rosenblatt

Those are pretty big expectations, but the thought of it is exciting. Rosenblatt went on to say Allen was a training camp breakout last year who never got a chance to get going in a bad offense, but he’ll have plenty of opportunities in 2025 to make his mark and prove he can be the long-term starter with Hall in the last year of his contract.

He saw just four games his sophomore season before tearing up his knee chasing down a defender after a Patrick Mahomes interception. But the good news amid the bad news: Rashee Rice did not tear his ACL but his LCL, which meant a shorter recovery time. Thus, the wideout was back on the field this spring for the Chiefs, and coach Andy Reid said he expects him to be full-go for the start of training camp. Rice’s return will be crucial for an offense looking to rediscover its explosiveness. — Zak Keefer

Keefer went on to say Rice had 938 receiving yards as a rookie in 2023 and was building off that early in Year 2. Kansas City has been waiting for a WR1 to step into the role vacated by Tyreek Hill in 2022. He’s not Hill, but Rice might be this team’s best bet. He has future Pro Bowler written all over him, according to Keefer. Rice was good his first four games and seemed on his way to a bust-out year last season. Rice seems to be a late third round target in 12-team leagues so far this summer.

Good news from Chiefs coach Andy Reid with minicamp set to wrap up: He expects both first-round OT Josh Simmons (knee) and WR Rashee Rice (knee) to be full participants at the start of training camp.

Related Players: Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Jalen Royals, Travis Kelce

Great start to the ramp up to the regular season, as Rice should be in WR2 territory if he's fully healthy by Week 1. We saw how much a healthy Rice severely impacted Kelce's ceiling, as they both operate in similar areas of the field, so he should be closer to TE10 than his historical top-3 consideration.

JuJu Smith-Schuster is officially back with KC after catching 18 passes for 231 yards and two TDs in 2024.

He’ll have an entire offseason with the Chiefs this go-around after signing with KC just days before the opener last year.

Related Players: Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice, Skyy Moore

It looks like the Chiefs will be running it back with their WR room from 2024, after also re-signing Hollywood Brown to a one-year deal during this free agency cycle. The pass-catching group was nothing to write home about last season, but to be fair, there were plenty of injuries that prevented us from seeing exactly how it would work out. We could see a bit of a Patrick Mahomes revenge tour this season, which makes Smith-Schuster a little more interesting as a bye-week plug-in.

The Jets are signing QB Justin Fields, as Gang Green gets a new starter. Fields says goodbye to Pittsburgh after 1 year.

He gets a 2-year deal worth $40M with $30M guaranteed in deal.

Related Players: Russell Wilson, Tyrod Taylor

We'll see if this pushes Pittsburgh to bring Wilson back, but for now, New York will move forward with a 26-year-old in a new home. The Jets will likely look to move the ball on the ground as much as possible, but it's not as if that's not what the Steelers were doing in '24. A full year as a starter puts Fields in legitimate QB1 conversation, with Garrett Wilson contributing to his floor.

Seahawks ruled out RB Kenneth Walker III for Thursday night’s game at Chicago.

Related Players: Zach Charbonnet, Kenny McIntosh

No mention of Charbonnet here, so we can assume he's in a good place to take a massive workload against a Bears defense that ranks 27th in RB aFPA. Fire up Charbs as an RB2.

Seahawks listed RB Kenneth Walker III as a Did Not Practice today while RB Zach Charbonnet was upgraded to full practice ahead of Thursday night’s game at Chicago.

Walker is dealing with an ankle injury and as we get closer to Thursday his status really seems to be in doubt. Charbonnet would be the team's lead back and looks to be good to go despite dealing with an elbow injury. He'd once again be a great option if Walker is unable to go.

“I think I’ll be in a better place ankle-wise,” Patrick Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “Obviously the body’s going to be sore just with a short week and everything like that, but I think the ankle should be in a better place. We’ll see in practice, but as far as how I felt after this game compared to the one before, I’m definitely in a lot better place.”

The short week could be a factor but it's hard to doubt Mahomes as this point. He bounced back rather nicely in Week 17, throwing for a TD and then running for another. The Chiefs play on Christmas Day against the Steelers.

Seahawks with about as clean of an injury report as there could be with only three players declared out, no one else given a game designation. That means Geno Smith, Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet are all good to go.

Looks like we're back to the typical RB rotation in Seattle, but we would bet that Charbonnet gets more run than the early season. Consider Walker and Charbs respective RB2 and RB3s.

Sources: The Chiefs are activating WR Marquise "Hollywood" Brown and he will officially make his season-debut on Saturday vs the Texans.

Related Players: DeAndre Hopkins, Xavier Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Justin Watson

It feels exceedingly likely that Hollywood Brown will be limited in his first in-game action of the season, but even light usage could lower the floor of his teammates. Hopkins and Worthy project as a fringe WR3/4 while Brown should stay on benches for now, but could end up being viable in Week 17.