Chiefs Free Agents and Who Could Land in the Kingdom

Chiefs Free Agents and Who Could Land in the Kingdom – with the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs about to lose more than 25 of their own players to Free Agency, it will be equally important to know which new Free Agents could be choosing K.C. as a landing spot to revamp and enhance their roster building towards a dynasty. Before we look at who might be coming to K.C., I want to first address the Chiefs own Free Agents individually. and give you my take on each. Let’s take them one-by-one and in order of preference (mostly):

• ST  Cameron Erving – backup swing tackle has been released, saves $3.25M.
• WR  Sammy Watkins – not a Free Agent, yet. Cutting saves, $14M.
• DT  Chris Jones – a 2016 2nd rounder, Chiefs have no choice but to Franchise tag him. All are still hoping he can be re-signed.
• RB  Damien Williams – KC must renew their option of $2.8M by Feb. 18th.
• CB  Bashaud Breeland – cost KC $2M on a prove it deal in 2019. He proved it, and will now get a bigger offer from someone, probably not the Chiefs.
• DT  Mike Pennel – would be wise to tie him up for a couple of years. He made the Chiefs run D much better.
• OG  Stefen Wisniewski – if he’s willing to return, needs to be re-signed.
• CB  Kendall Fuller – has been rumored to be going to Chicago where he could play with his brother, Kyle.
• ST  Andrew Wylie – swing tackle who should be re-signed to fill Erving’s role.
• DE  Emmanuel Ogbah – the best DE the Chiefs had early in 2019.
• LB  Reggie Ragland – the Chiefs best run stopping LB in 2019. Ranked as PFF’s 13th best run stopper.
• LB  Damien Wilson – perhaps the Chiefs best overall LB last year.
• WR  Marcus Kemp – should recover fully from Aug. torn ACL/MCL.
• DE  Terrell Suggs – if he wants to win another SB ring, no better place.
• QB  Matt Moore – performed admirably in PMII’s absence. 
• QB  Chad Henne – could be the choice over Moore as he was in 2018.
• LB  Darron Lee – speedy LB traded for, who played most snaps on STs. 
• DT  Xavier Williams – odd man out now with a very full DL room.
• S   Jordan Lucas – traded for a 2020 7th round pick. A good STs player but for $2M per, he’s likely gone.
• CB  Morris Claiborne – KC never got much value from 17.7% of D snaps. 
• FB  Anthony Sherman – a mainstay of the offense but, could be replaced but he’s not a costly player at $735,000 per.
• TE  Blake Bell – unimpressive but is familiar with Reid’s system.
• CB  Keith Reaser – Achilles tears are hard to return from. Love this kid and hope he makes it back but not counting on it.
• WR  Demarcus Robinson – one less snap than Watkins as Chiefs most-used WR in 2019. Average 2 receptions per game (32) and 449 yards. Will get a bigger offer elsewhere. He’s gone.
• TE  Deon Yelder – unimpressive but is familiar with Reid’s system.
• TE  David Wells – unimpressive but is familiar with Reid’s system.
• RB  Spencer Ware – now a backup RB went to IR with a torn rotator cuff. 
• RB  LeSean McCoy – great OG RB who will turn 32 this summer. Likely to take a lesser role elsewhere or retire.

Preamble to the FA Listing 

Before getting into my list of players who could possibly end up in red and gold in 2020, it should be noted in bright lights that this class of Free Agents has never had a higher volume of QBs at the top of the list as it has this season. The reason for bringing that up is my somewhat modified version of the Bump Method. You may recall that in January I published a piece here called, “A First Look at the Chiefs 2020 Draft: The Bump Method” in which I suggested that the more QBs are taken higher in this draft, the more high quality prospects will eb bumped down to the Chiefs, because the Chiefs have the best QB in the business right now. Meaning, that K.C. doesn’t need to draft a QB. Well, the same holds true for the Free Agent market and even more so, because their are going to only be so many FA cap dollars to go around. Consequently, there are likely to be some very good Free Agents who get bumped down to K.C. (if they can afford them) who normally would not be available. I won’t make a listing of those QBs at the top of the current FA market but I will say that 9 of the top 19 Free Agents listed by PFF are QBs. Nine. Sure, some of them will be heading back to the teams they came from, but in any case, it helps K.C..

Free Agents Landing in Chiefs Kingdom?

Cornerback: Eli Apple

This is not my pick, but he sure was Steve Spagnuolo’s pick in the 2016 draft so, he makes some sense. Spags was the New York Giants Defensive coordinator back then and he had to have something to do with making Apple the 10th overall pick in that draft class. The only corner taken ahead of him was Jalen Ramsey. PFF has Apple listed as their 67th best FA. So, why Apple? Once a coach has the chance to work with a player and establish a relationship with him, they often go back to the well. 

Eli Apple hasn’t had a very distinguished career so far. Neither had CB Morris Claiborne before Veach signed him last year. Now, I realize Claiborne did nothing to make us think any differently, but he was signed on a 1 year $2M deal and I think Apple could come at a similar price and more importantly, do much better. Not just because he knows Spags but, because he knows his system and he’ll be 25 this summer, while Claiborne is now 30.

Eli Apple had a solid season for New Orleans with 58 tackles and even though he only had 4 passes defensed, he was PFF’s 6th best run defender and could still have some upside as a younger player to be coached up by Spags crew. Over his 4-year career: Apple’s had 233 combined tackles, 4 tackles for a loss, 4 fumble recoveries, 3 INTs and 3 forced fumbles.

Running Back: Kenyan Drake

Drake could end up in Kansas City if he wants to win a ring. However, Jason LaCanfora has reported that Drake wants in the neighborhood of $8M-to-$10M per but since the Chargers just re-signed Austin Ekeler to a 4-year $24.5 M deal, he may want to rethink that. While some believe that the Chiefs don’t have a need at RB, they are just an injury to Damien Williams away from being without a starting quality RB. Drake stands 6-foot-1 and goes 212 pounds, ran a 4.45 – 40 yard dash at the combine which is exactly the same 40 time for the Chiefs current RB, Damien Williams.

Drake is also a good receiver and his 345 receiving yards in 2019 will attest to that. He did that in ten games with two different teams. By comparison, DWill had 213 receiving yards in 11 games this year. Drake may have played for 2 different teams but the reason for that likely has more to do with Miami wanting to clear as much cap space at possible (and Drake’s rookie deal was coming to a close and they likely knew they wouldn’t be re-signing him), plus, they wanted to move onto a new generation of players as they were cleaning out the cupboard last season like they were going out of business.

Any concerns Chiefs fans might have about a conflict between Kenyan Drake and his old teammate Damien Williams should have been put to bed when DWill won a ring. A ring seems to sooth old wounds… if there were any. While I am a big fan of RB Jonathan Taylor, a 1st round talent, and AJ Dillon, probably a 3rd rounder, I’m 99.9% for sure… whether or not the Chiefs draft one of them is unimportant… but I am positive that K.C. will be acquiring a new starting quality RB this offseason. It might as well be Kenyan Drake. You may recall he was the RB who had the ball pitched to him on the last play of a December game of 2018 vs the Patriots, and then he zig-zagged into the end zone for a 34-33 victory.

Free Agent Chris Jones

While looking for Free Agents that may be predicted to sign with K.C., the player whose name kept coming up repeatedly was Mr. Jones. The only way that can happen of course is for Brett Veach to cut several players including: Erving (already done), Watkins (which has to be done anyway), Sorensen (a $3.75M cap savings), Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (a cap savings of $5M in 2020, $7.25M in 2021, and $8.5M in 2022), and possibly even Punter Dustin Colquitt (a cap savings of $2M).

Some fans want to see the Chiefs move on from DE Alex Okafor (he could provide a cap break of $3.2M), but I believe he could be a dynamic DE opposite Frank Clark.

Is there anyone you’re hoping will come to K.C. as a Free Agent this offseason?

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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