Arrowheadlines: The return of deep ball is near

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Andy Reid wants Patrick Mahomes throwing it deep this year | NBC Sports

That was the word from quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the team wrapped up their offseason program on Thursday. The team signed Hollywood Brown and drafted Xavier Worthy with a first-round pick, so it’s not a big surprise that Mahomes said that a staple of the team’s practices this spring has been head coach Andy Reid prodding him to throw the ball deep.

“If I don’t, he throws little jabs at me like, ‘Oh, you want to throw the checkdown here?’’’ Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “I’m like, ‘I got you, Coach; we’re going to push it.’ It has been fun.’’

Mahomes posted the yards per attempt and yards per catch of his starting career as the Chiefs worked to find consistent receivers beyond tight end Travis Kelce. It’s a safe bet that this season will see bigger numbers if all goes according to plan.

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4. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Of course, Mahomes and Travis Kelce get most of the flowers, and anyone who has watched the NFL during the last five years should know how much of a wrecking ball Chris Jones is. The rest of the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster is also quite good, and most of their key talent is back from their repeat Super Bowl victory.

The Chiefs will be right back in the Super Bowl mix this season.

Giving Mahomes two new receivers in Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown will help the passing game, but so will second-round OT Kingsley Suamataia. Neither starting tackle in 2023 was effective, and the team’s struggles to rely on a receiver not named Kelce or Rashee Rice is well-documented. It’s bad news for the league that Mahomes has more explosiveness around him.

The Chiefs’ defense has done more than its share of heavy lifting as they overcame an offense that slogged at times. Every starter is at least solid, but the loss of L’Jarius Sneed does present a challenging hole at cornerback. The young core of George Karlaftis, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Leo Chenal, and several corners vying for playing time will need to emerge as more impactful presences.

Chiefs show motivation for ​​3-peat in competitive minicamp: ‘We’ve got the team to do it’ | The Athletic

Jones agreed: “We’ve got to get three.”

Then Mahomes acknowledged the historical statistic the Chiefs will attempt to change in their 2024 season as the league’s reigning back-to-back champion.

“No (team) has ever got three (championships),” Mahomes said. “I want back-to-back-to-back.”

The Chiefs haven’t been shy about their aspirations to do what many analysts believe is next to impossible: overcoming all challengers while contending with a likely increase in injuries and the constraints of the league’s salary cap for three consecutive seasons.

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3. Edge Yannick Ngakoue

Age: 29

Yannick Ngakoue has racked up frequent flyer miles playing for five teams over the last four years. The edge-rusher has always found a home, but his uneven playing style isn’t for everyone and not something that teams are willing to commit to.

Ngakoue has been a productive pass-rusher throughout his career but a non-factor in the run game. At 6’2”, 246 pounds, he doesn’t set a firm edge, and he’s only had more than 30 tackles in a season once.

Still, the ability to rush the passer is always in demand, and he can do it at a reasonably high level. He had only four sacks while playing 72 percent of the Chicago Bears’ defensive snaps this season, but he had a pressure rate of 11.0 percent, which topped his 10.6 percent rate with the Colts in 2022.

Ngakoue had to wait until August to get signed last year, and he’s hoping to be in a training camp.

“I just hope that I’m somewhere before training camp starts because everyone needs to go through a training camp in order to have the kind of season they want to have. It’s just like a boxer at the end of the day. If you don’t have a proper training camp, you can go into the ring and get knocked out. So it’s all about preparation,” he told SiriusXM NFL Radio in March (h/t Kevin Patra of NFL.com).

There are enough teams that could still use a pass-rush specialist out there that Ngakoue should find a home.

Logical Landing Spots: Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs

The 5 NFL teams with the worst record ever against the Kansas City Chiefs | Arrowhead Addict

2. Arizona Cardinals

Record: 10-3-1

Winning Percentage: .750

Second on the list is the Cardinals, who the Chiefs own a .750 winning percentage over and have won 10 games against while only dropping three (and recording a rare tie, which oddly enough happened in the two franchise’s first-ever meeting against each other). The Chiefs have won two in a row against Arizona with the most recent win coming in the season opener of the 2022 season.

The last time the Chiefs lost to the Cardinals was in the 2014 season and it was a close 17-14 defeat. The Chiefs ended up missing the playoffs by one game that year so a lot of fans circled that game as the reason why KC didn’t make the postseason that year.

Around the NFL

Saints’ Alvin Kamara leaves minicamp due to contract situation, which hasn’t progressed recently, per reports | CBS Sports

“He was here for walkthrough this morning,” head coach Dennis Allen told reporters, “and then he went in, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to him, so I’m not sure why he wasn’t out there for the rest of practice.”

Kamara has two more years remaining on his current deal — a five-year, $75 million extension that was signed in 2020. His upcoming cap hits are $18.5 million in 2024 and $29 million in 2025, according to Spotrac. Per NFL Media, the Saints and Kamara have been discussing a contract restructure for months now, but the two sides haven’t made progress recently.

Kamara has been the No. 2 highest-paid running back in the NFL for years now ($15M AAV) behind Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers. The 2025 “Madden” cover athlete just signed a two-year extension worth $38 million earlier this month.

Falcons penalized in Kirk Cousins tampering case as Eagles skate | USA Today

The league announced Thursday that was not sufficient evidence to penalize the Eagles amid their (ultimately successful) free agent pursuit of running back Saquon Barkley. The Falcons, meanwhile, will forfeit next year’s fifth-round draft pick and pay a $250,000 fine for violating the anti-tampering policy “related to improper contact with prospective unrestricted free agents Kirk Cousins, Darnell Mooney, and Charlie Woerner” prior to this year’s permitted negotiating window ahead of March’s official opening of the free agent market. Atlanta general manager Terry Fontenot will also pay a $50,000 fine.

Regarding the Falcons’ punishment, the league expressed in a statement: “While the policy permits clubs to engage with and negotiate all aspects of an NFL player contract with the certified agent of any prospective unrestricted free agent during the two-day negotiating period, any direct contact between the player and an employee or representative of the club is prohibited. This includes discussion of travel arrangements or other logistical matters, which the club acknowledges took place with regard to these three players.”

Chargers’ Joey Bosa on pay cut: ‘Winning’ more important than making ‘extra money’ | NFL.com

Both players noted on Wednesday that their decision was based on the belief that L.A. was the best place to pursue a winning season.

“You know, I want to win. I want to be on this team,” Bosa said, via the team’s official transcript. “I want another shot with the guys in this room, especially Khalil. Yeah, that’s what it was and winning football games is more important to me right now than making some extra money. I think we have a great opportunity here. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a great year this year and things change down the road. I think if a guy like Khalil is coming off a year with 17 sacks and can take that cut, it shows the kind of guy that he is and the kind of culture we have brewing here. That’s who I want to be with. It was a pretty easy decision.”

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Chiefs News: Andy Reid says Jared Wiley has ‘a nice feel for the game’

His selection — coupled with Kelce having a “down” season in 2023 (his 984 receiving yards ranked second in the league rather than first) — has led to speculation the team would try to reduce the 34-year-old’s workload in 2024.

But on Thursday, head coach Andy Reid pushed back on that idea. Referring to Kelce’s Tuesday remarks — when the tight end declared, “Wear and tear me, baby! I’m ready for it, man! Put the load on me!” — Reid drew laughter from reporters.

“I don’t know how much we’re gonna back off on his time,” he said with a smile. “If he wants to be worn out, we can help him with that.”

Reid also wanted to speak about Wiley’s development under Kelce, reserve tight end Noah Gray and position coach Tom Melvin.

“He’s got a good feel,” noted Reid of Wiley, “but he’s also got two good guys there — between Noah and Trav — that he can bounce things off of. We’re into the offense more than we were when Trav was coming up. So those guys help share it — and Tom does a nice job teaching them and spending extra time with them.”

Like Kelce, Wiley was a high school quarterback who transitioned to tight end in college — but unlike Kelce, he played for two different colleges.

“He comes from a passing offense — a couple of different ones, but good passing offenses,” noted Reid. “He’s got a nice feel for the game — and he’s a big target. He’s a good player.”

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