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Kansas City Chiefs · OG
The Chiefs moved on from Joe Thuney this offseason, shipping out the most trustworthy member of the left side of their line. Caliendo got a chance to start at left guard late last season after Thuney moved to left tackle, but now he has a chance to win the job at left guard outright — although he’s battling against 2024 second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia for the gig. In fact, the whole left side of the line is auditioning, with free-agent addition Jaylon Moore looking to fill the void at left tackle and 2025 first-round pick Josh Simmons set to compete when he’s healthy enough to do so as he returns from a torn patellar tendon. However, Caliendo is facing the pressure of being in a contract year. Oh, and he also must protect Patrick Mahomes, the superstar face of a perennial Super Bowl contender.
3. Travis Kelce (Chiefs, 2013-present)
Career receiving stats: 1,004 receptions, 12,151 yards, 77 touchdowns
Kelce has taken the baton from previous greats at his position and run with it. In addition to his postseason records, Kelce’s seven consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 yards receiving is also a first for the position.
It’s hard to nitpick Kelce’s career, but if we are trying to figure out the greatest tight end in NFL history, we’ve got to look at everything. He’s played his entire career inside the Chiefs’ pass-first offense in an era where defensive backs are more limited than ever when it comes to what they can do against offensive players. Kelce’s disappearing act in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss (4/39/0) to the Eagles also somewhat hurts him from a legacy standpoint.
There’s no shame in being No. 3 on the list of the greatest tight ends in NFL history, though. And Kelce still has (at least) one more year to state his case as the greatest of all time.
Ranking each NFL team’s top QB-WR/TE duo ahead of the 2025 season | PFF
13. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: PATRICK MAHOMES & RASHEE RICE
One might be surprised that it’s not Kelce who is tied to Mahomes. Through the first three games last year, Rice recorded 24 receptions (first in NFL), 288 yards (second) and two touchdowns before he got hurt, while Kelce posted just eight receptions, 69 yards and no touchdowns.
Mahomes owns an elite 90.0 PFF passing grade when targeting Rice over the past two seasons, but he does have four turnover-worthy plays to match four big-time throws and a low average depth of target of just 5.1 yards.
Describing Every NFL Team’s Nightmare 2025 Season in 1 Sentence or Less | Bleacher Report
Kansas City Chiefs: The other shoe drops for an increasingly shallow roster and a struggling quarterback, and the law of averages kicks in for a team that has won 17 consecutive one-score games.
NFL Mailbag: Why the AFC West Will Be the NFL’s Most Competitive Division | SI
From David Kromelow (@dkrom59): Which division do you think will be more competitive this season: the NFC North or the AFC West?
David, that’s a really good question, and I guess I’d have to go with the AFC West. The reason why is in each division, there’s an established powerhouse—the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions. In each division, there are two other solid playoff teams (Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers) with established programs and top-10 GM/head coach infrastructures. Also, the two teams at the bottom (Las Vegas Raiders and Chicago Bears) have promise as they go through regime changes.
So what’s the tiebreaker? It’s that one division has the Chiefs, and the other doesn’t. I love what the Lions have done, and I don’t think any sizable regression is coming. That said, Kansas City’s been to three consecutive Super Bowls and has Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.
Around the NFL
New NFL contenders? Ranking 18 teams’ playoff chances after missing postseason | FOX Sports
Full disclosure: I’m one of those Geno Smith stans. I think he’s a good quarterback who’s worth building around for at least a few more years. He had a winning record all three years he started in Seattle, and now he’s stepping into an offense that already has a few quality pieces in Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty and Jakobi Meyers. I’d have the Raiders much higher on this list if they didn’t play in such a loaded division.
It’s hard to imagine the division title is up for grabs, since the Kansas City Chiefs haven’t let it slip in nearly a literal decade. And we know the wild-card competition should be fierce, since the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos were good enough to snag playoff spots last year. Crazier things have happened, though. This isn’t a team you should be overlooking.
Playoff odds: +330
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
Chiefs News: Tershawn Wharton bringing new culture to Carolina
“When you first meet him, he’s got a presence about him,’’ Evero told ESPN. “He’s got an aura about him. You watch him in the classroom, he’s a notetaker. He’s into it all the time in the weight room, on the field. And we know that he’s coming from a place that has a really great culture and that played a really good defense — especially on the D-line.’’
It hasn’t been easy for Wharton to reach this point. Signed to the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent during the coronavirus pandemic, he had to find a way to make the team in a season without offseason practices and preseason games. But Wharton always found a way to eliminate his own insecurities.
“When you get picked up, you feel like you belong automatically,” he told reporters during November of his rookie season. “You’re playing with champions [and] competing every day, The more and more I made a few plays in training camp, I realized, ‘Oh, I can do this.’”
And for the first time since joining the league, he’ll be back in the role he had in Rolla: being a leader on the defensive line — and the interior player offenses were focused on stopping.
“At S&T, I was the guy they were going to come after,” Wharton recalled in 2020. “Now being on a team with pros, I’m not really the guy they’re going to come after all of the time. That helped [my transition to the NFL].
“At S&T my senior and junior year, I was a leader on he team. Right now [with the Chiefs], it’s just kind of back to square one where you’re coming in as a freshman at any school.”
Now he’s showing the way for young players like the Panthers’ fifth-round defensive tackle Cam Jackson.
“[I’m] just showing these young guys how to transition,” he explained. “Being able to show them the way, on and off the field, on how to do things and establish that culture of winning.’’
Evero has noticed it.
“This guy has a purpose in everything that he does,’’ he said of his new defensive tackle.. “And it’s really, really impressive to watch.”
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