Welcome back to the Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Throughout the season, keep watching The Feed for an opportunity to submit your questions about the Kansas City Chiefs!
The Chiefs will enjoy some early time off with a Week 5 bye after going to 4-0 with a 30-27 defeat of the Las Vegas Raiders. Let’s see what questions (about wide receivers and other topics) are on our readers’ minds.
Andyreidsmustache_ asks:
Rashee Rice has a hamstring injury, and Tyquan Thornton is out for, at minimum, a significant portion of the year if not
the entirety of it. Who are some possibilities at WR available, and more importantly, who would we realistically be able to get from a salary cap and scheme fit?
The big unknown right now is Rice’s status. There does not seem to be significant concern that his hamstring injury is a long-term problem. By some accounts, Rice could even suit up in Week 6 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
A heavily rumored wideout addition will be covered in the next question, but the initial focus should be on Rice given how much of the offense runs through him. If his hamstring is unlikely to stretch into a month-long absence, the Chiefs would do well to get a serious look at Jalen Royals and Cyrus Allen. Neither looked great in brief moments against the Raiders, but the sample is too small to draw real conclusions. With Rice headed for free agency after the season, Kansas City should want to know more about how the pair perform.
A couple of interesting low-cost options are Cedric Tillman — currently on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad — and current Cleveland Browns afterthought Jerry Jeudy. Both played for Chiefs wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea in Cleveland. Tillman could be signed outright to a minimum salary. Jeudy would come with a very affordable salary in a trade, and the Browns likely would prefer to cut ties with Jeudy sooner rather than later. If Rice is available, however, it’s hard to see a path to either having a major role.
Arizona Cardinals wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. has not lived up to his lofty draft status and seems a good bet to be traded soon. Harrison would come with an affordable 2027 salary. However, the Cardinals will likely drive a hard bargain to recoup the value spent to draft Harrison in 2024. He also has some of the limitations that sometimes leave Chiefs fans frustrated with Rice.
Thornton himself seemed an irredeemable bust after washing out with the New England Patriots. I would be interested in seeking Kansas City look at a similarly profiled player in former third-round selection Jalin Hyatt, currently on the New York Giants’ practice squad.
At any rate, I expect preseason favorite Andrew Armstrong to get called up to help at wide receiver in at least one of the Chiefs’ upcoming games. Kansas City bringing back a player like Justin Watson or Mecole Hardman to the practice squad would also hardly be surprising.
JoBackson asks:
Where will KC find the money to pay Cheetah?
At this point, it would be an upset if former Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hill — apparently in the final stages of recovering from a gruesome knee injury — does not return to Kansas City. I fully expect that to happen within the next few weeks.
Hill forced a trade out of Kansas City to receive a monstrous $120 million extension from the Miami Dolphins in 2022. I don’t think anyone expects him to command even average wide receiver money on an in-season contract after multiple surgeries.
In four games last season, Hill caught only 21 passes for 265 yards and a single touchdown. Whatever contract he signs will likely be built around a guaranteed minimum base salary (prorated for the weeks he signs for) plus incentives. Given his low stats from a year ago, it would be really easy to build easily attainable incentives that would be categorized as Not Likely to be Earned for cap purposes.
My biggest question about Hill’s signing is whether he will be willing to accept a practice squad contract initially to acclimate his body to football activities while waiting to make his actual debut.
KCMagic asks:
Is it time to bring back running back Kareem Hunt and see if he has anything left in the tank. Bye week is perfect time. It’s now a trend (3 straight games) where the Chiefs have failed to run for 1-2 yards on third and fourth downs.
I think the Chiefs need to try to find new things to do with the current room.
Yes, it has been frustrating to see the Chiefs stopped short multiple times, and Hunt was automatic last year. But it is also hard to fit another running back on the team, from the standpoint of both the 53-man roster and the 48 players who dress for game day. It is really hard to have a player designated for one job who rarely will call for more than four or five snaps per game. It is even harder when that hypothetical player would offer no value on special teams.
Third-string running back Brashard Smith hasn’t moved the needle much on either offense or special teams. However, with Thornton out and Hill probably a month away from contributing if he returns, Smith is the only real option on the Chiefs’ roster to add speed on offense.
Papajazz asks:
Did the Raiders show some of the better teams how to beat us?
The blueprint to beat the Chiefs has long been to get pressure with four defensive linemen and stack coverage on the back end. Kenneth Walker has largely made that plan obsolete.
The Raiders exploited some things in the Chiefs’ defense that were concerns entering the game. I do think some of the issues we are seeing will improve as the unit gets more experience playing together. How much it improves will likely determine Kansas City’s ultimate 2026 ceiling.
I hope the Chiefs have learned the dangers of beating themselves, especially on defense (and frustratingly on special teams). The defense missed chances to get off the field on third down before two Raiders field goals, although one likely still would have resulted in a successful try. Both drives were kept alive by penalties on cornerback Nohl Williams. Another Las Vegas field goal came after only a 19-yard drive that started inside Kansas City territory because of a long kickoff return. At least six points for the Raiders probably come off the board without self-inflicted Chiefs blunders.
GoChiefs70 asks:
This is a question pertaining to the questionable call in last night‘s game at the end where it looked like the ball hit the ground on that very last Raider drive. They rushed up and spiked it, so I guess it could not be reviewed at that point. If Andy Reid had thrown a red flag before the ball was spiked, would it have been eligible to review?
Shockingly, the NFL finds new ways for officiating controversy to arise each and every week. The Chiefs were trapped by the NFL’s own rules, as coaches can’t challenge in the last two minutes of a half. Even though the most severe of ophthalmology patients could see that Raiders wideout Tre Tucker did not actually catch the ball, Kirk Cousins spiking the ball counted as a play, and the window to review the pass to Tucker expired.
Obviously, the league avoided an embarrassing scenario since Kansas City won. If the league had gone ahead and contradicted its own rules by reviewing the play after the first-down spike, we would never have heard the end of how they bailed out the Chiefs.
The best solution would be to make a rule that spiking the ball doesn’t count for replay rules and to give the league until an actual play is run to initiate a review. Given how rare this situation seems, I doubt fixing it will be a high offseason priority.
If Reid or any coach faces such a scenario going forward, they should throw the red flag at the nearest official and get onto the field even though they aren’t allowed to. Give the league extra time to start the review process, and if the coach is ultimately fined, that is just part of the job.
Thank you for reading this week’s Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! We will be back after the bye with more of what’s on your mind. Keep watchingThe Feed for an opportunity to ask your questions.
