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“We’d love to play on Christmas,” Donovan said, via ESPN. “We respect that the league wants to spread it around. We get it. Right now, we expect to be in a lot of prime-time games. We’ve made it pretty clear that our preference is to play at home on Christmas.”
This is one request that the Chiefs probably have a good chance of getting, especially with Christmas falling on a Friday
this year. We already know there will be three games on Dec. 25 this year, which means that the NFL will need six teams to fill the Christmas schedule. With the holiday falling on a Friday, some teams might he hesitant to volunteer for a game due to the short week, so this could be a spot where the NFL gives the Chiefs what they want.
Last year, the Chiefs actually asked the league if they could play on Christmas every year, but the NFL shot that idea down. In the short term, though, the Chiefs make sense. This could be Travis Kelce’s final season and featuring him in a Christmas game with his new wife Taylor Swift in attendance — they’re expected to be married this summer — seems like something the NFL would give some serious consideration to.
Uar Bernard participated in the annual HBCU showcase as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. He grew up in a village in Abuja, Nigeria, and up until about 11 weeks ago, he’d never played or participated in any football activities. The reason that he’s catching storm now with NFL clubs is that he put up a historic testing performance at the HBCU showcase.
At 6-foot-4.5 and 306 pounds with nearly 36-inch arms, Bernard ran a 4.63s 40-yard dash, a 39-inch vertical (98th percentile), and a 130-inch broad jump (reports on this vary, but it’d be a record for a defensive tackle), and 31 repetitions of 225 on the bench. The guy also has just 6% body fat, which might as well be nothing. While he didn’t run any agility drills, the performance was head-turning enough for NFL clubs.
2026 NFL mock draft with all trades: Deals for Round 1 picks | ESPN
9. Kansas City Chiefs
Chiefs get: 1-18, 3-97, Edge Jonathan Greenard
Vikings get: 1-9, Edge Felix Anudike-UzomahWe’ve heard that picking ninth gives the Chiefs a rare chance to address critical positions on their roster with a premium pick, and that’s true. What if they do that in a relatively unconventional way? George Karlaftis has settled in as a solid starter, and Chris Jones’ impact hasn’t dipped as much as his statistical production suggests, but the Chiefs would love to come out of this draft with an impact edge rusher. They might be just a tad too low to land that player at No. 9 if the board goes as expected.
One other way to address that need would be to add a star in Greenard, who racked up 12 sacks and 22 knockdowns with the Vikings in 2024 before injuries wrecked his 2025 campaign. Greenard will turn 29 in May, so he should still have a couple of years of impactful pass rushing before the Chiefs would need to worry about moving on. Greenard has two years and $37.9 million remaining on his deal, and though Brett Veach & Co. would have to address that contract with a meaningful raise, Greenard could still be an easily justifiable addition for the Chiefs, given their perennial role as Super Bowl contenders.
How much should the Chiefs be willing to give up for Dexter Lawrence? | Arrowhead Addict
In all reality, the Chiefs could offer up the second of their two first-round picks thanks to the Trent McDuffie trade, which gave Veach pick #29 to do with as he pleases. But that likely wouldn’t satisfy the Giants’ needs, considering they need a large haul of picks at the draft in a couple of weeks.
One of those needs they have is an offensive lineman, of which the Chiefs have been paying and hoarding for a few years now. Somebody as young and full of potential as 23-year-old Kingsley Suamataia or even Wanya Morris, who has now had quite a few games under his belt at multiple positions.
Perhaps the Chiefs’ second first-round pick (#29), paired with an offensive lineman that is not named Creed, Josh, or Trey, could get it? That could do the trick, but if not, it would be in Veach’s best interest to ask which other pick in 2026 the Giants might want that the Chiefs might be able to let go of.
Around the NFL
Giants DT Dexter Lawrence requests trade, sources say | ESPN
Lawrence and the Giants have been through two offseasons attempting to negotiate a contract reflecting his value to the team over the past three years, but there has not been any progress, per sources.
Lawrence has two years remaining on his deal and is scheduled to make $20 million this upcoming season.
Initially there had been optimism that, with changes in the organization, discussions could move forward. But now that they haven’t, new Giants head coach John Harbaugh will open his team’s offseason program this week without one of his best players.
“How important is he? Really important,” Harbaugh said about Lawrence in February. “He’s super, super important. He’s a cornerstone football player — not really a cornerstone, more like the middle stone. He’s right in the middle. He’s a very big stone, and he’s a very active, athletic one.”
Lavonte David blames injuries for Baker Mayfield’s struggles in 2025 | NFL.com
“I’m telling you, Baker was going through a lot,” David said. “Baker had a lot of injuries that you didn’t expect a quarterback to play through. He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury, he had a lot of things — like ankle injury, knee injury — he had a lot of stuff he was going through. The season’s over now, I can talk about it, but he had a lot of stuff that he was going through and he was really trying to push and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be. To be honest, we was doing his thing for the most part.”
Mayfield got off to a sensational start to his 2025 season, with his name being bandied around as an MVP candidate as he led the Bucs to several stirring wins, including tossing 379 yards and two touchdowns on 29-of-33 passing against the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in a Week 5 win. However, after a four-sack loss against Detroit in Week 7, Mayfield never looked right, and injuries began to mount for the Bucs.
The 30-year-old sat out the second half of a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12 after hurting his non-throwing shoulder, but threw every other pass in 2025 for the Bucs, despite battling through injuries.
In NFL Network merger, Scott Hanson wasn’t transferred to ESPN | Pro Football Talk
Via Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, Scott Hanson is staying put.
It makes sense. The NFL has retained control of the RedZone product, which Hanson hosts. If the NFL will continue to produce RedZone, it needs a host.
Indeed, Hanson announced after the last Sunday of the regular season that he’ll remain the host of RedZone. Hanson’s clarification came after he seemed to become verklempt during the 2025 finale.
Another on-air personality who’ll remain with the NFL is PFT alumnus Gregg Rosenthal, who hosts NFL Daily. It remains to be seen whether the NFL will hire others for the NFL digital properties; presumably, NFL.com bylines from the likes of Ian Rapoport are a thing of the past.
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
A tale of two Chiefs cornerbacks: Kaiir Elam was never a fit until now
Now, he is truly a “fit” in Kansas City.
With Spagnuolo, the organization has only used either low-risk, one-year contracts or draft picks to employ cornerbacks capable of starting on the outside.
Since 2019, the only two significant outside cornerbacks that were not originally Chiefs were Bashaud Breeland and Mike Hughes. Both signed one-year contracts worth between $2 million and $3 million.
It’s too early to assume Elam will bring similar impact — or to know the details of his contract, apparently — but Kansas City has a strong reputation of getting the most out of a cornerback’s skillset, with credit to defensive backs coach Dave Merritt.
It’s why Elam was never actually a fit for the Chiefs as a first-round target in the draft, despite looking the part on the field. McDuffie’s all-around ability justified the unique pick for Kansas City, but Elam’s value to the team didn’t match the investment he demanded until now.
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