What’s happening in Chiefs Kingdom?
A veteran free agent teases joining the Chiefs, Marquez Valdes-Scantling continues to try to recruit his former Packers teammates to Kansas City and the Chiefs lose another assistant coach.
Let’s look at the most recent and relevant Chiefs stories for the morning of March 9.
Latest in Chiefs news
Top Chiefs stories
- Free agent left tackle Taylor Lewan tweeted at the Chiefs official Twitter account on Wednesday with an eyeball emoji. Is there something in the works or is Lewan just messing around? We’ll find out soon, but with Lewan at 31 years old and coming off a knee injury, it doesn’t seem likely. However, Lewan is a three-time Pro Bowler and has 100 career starts under his belt and could be a stop-gap option should the Chiefs choose to go that route.
- Another Chiefs assistant coach has found a gig elsewhere, as former running backs coach Greg Lewis joined the Baltimore Ravens to be their wide receivers coach. A few weeks ago, it appeared that Lewis would follow former Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to the Washington Commanders, but that fell through. The Chiefs will surely look to fill their running backs coach vacancy sooner rather than later.
- Chiefs’ receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling made a pitch on Twitter to his former teammate Robert Tonyan to join him in K.C. for the upcoming season. The sixth-year tight end has 17 career touchdown receptions; last season, he set a career-high in receptions with 53. Just last month MVS was recruiting his old Packers teammate and fellow receiver Allen Lazard to also come to K.C.
- Our Charles Goldman took a look at the possibility of receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster returning to the Chiefs. Names like ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and NFL Network’s James Palmer have expressed that the Chiefs are interested in bringing Smith-Schuster back, but Greg Lewis could help a team like the Ravens recruit Smith-Schuster away. Price will likely be the biggest determining factor, but it helps that both K.C. and Smith-Schuster seem to want to make it happen.
- Charles Goldman also identified three possible free agent left tackle options whom the Chiefs could target. Orlando Brown Jr. is expected to hit the free agent market, making left tackle perhaps the most important position of need for K.C. this offseason.
In case you missed it
- The Chiefs made defensive end Frank Clark’s release official Tuesday. Clark amassed 10.5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss and 32 total tackles in 12 postseason games with the Chiefs.
- In the wake of Clark’s release, we looked at the Chiefs’ current depth at defensive end. K.C. currently has four DEs under contract for the 2023 season.
- NFL Network’s James Palmer suggested that the core of the Chiefs’ receiver group will remain the same in 2023. We just mentioned above the Chiefs’ interest in bringing Smith-Schuster back and they expect Kadarius Toney and Skyy Morre to take big steps forward in 2023.
Draft notes
- The Chiefs are set to host Western Kentucky’s defensive tackle Brodric Martin on a top-30 visit. At 6-foot-4 and 334 pounds, Martin is a force against the run and can fill a lot of space in the trenches.
Around the AFC West
Denver Broncos news
- Broncos’ general manager George Paton said that he is willing to make more trades this offseason, including during the draft, to acquire more picks. The Broncos have just five picks in this year’s draft.
Las Vegas Raiders news
- In more JuJu Smith-Schuster news, he was named a “perfect fit” for the Raiders by Aaron Schatz of ESPN and Football Outsiders. Smith-Schuster would make a nice compliment to Devante Adams.
Los Angeles Chargers news
- Our friends at the Chargers Wire named a wide receiver option for each round of the draft that the Chargers could take. Receiver is one of the Chargers’ top needs this offseason.
Around the NFL
- Arizona Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins joined The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and discussed the trade rumors that have been swirling around about him. The Chiefs have been among the teams connected to Hopkins.
- The Jacksonville Jaguars released cornerback Shaquil Griffin, saving the team $13.1 million in cap space.
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NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans and Las Vegas Raiders are teams likely to be interested in San Fransisco 49ers’ quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
