{"id":799187,"date":"2026-03-07T21:52:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799187\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T21:52:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:52:38","slug":"chiefs-retain-another-familiar-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799187\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Retain Another Familiar Piece"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs will experience a lot of roster turnover this offseason, but the team is retaining one of the longest-tenured players on the roster, according to Senior NFL Insider Ian Rapoport.<\/p>\n

“The Chiefs have agreed to terms to bring back long snapper James Winchester, per source, as he gets a one-year, $1.75 million fully-guaranteed deal,” Rapoport reported. “This keeps him as the NFL’s highest-paid long snapper.”Significance of Signing\"<\/p>\n

Oct 12, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker (7) celebrates with long snapper James Winchester (41) after a field goal during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Winchester, who will be 37 years old before the next season, is the oldest player on the roster and the second-longest tenured player, behind only Travis Kelce<\/a>. The Chiefs’ special teams unit will have continuity, as Winchester’s return keeps him alongside kicker Harrison Butker, who is also the highest-paid player at his position.<\/p>\n

The 11-year veteran, who signed with Kansas City in 2015, has been one of the most consistent players on the team, as his operation and attention to detail are always spot on.<\/p>\n

Special teams is an often-overlooked aspect, but Kansas City has won countless games in recent memory due to that unit picking up the slack when the offense and\/or defense is struggling. The margins between winning and losing in the NFL are paper-thin, and sometimes it just takes one play from that unit to completely flip the script.<\/p>\n

Winchester’s Grateful for Career in Kansas City\"<\/p>\n

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs long snapper James Winchester (41) celebrates a play against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Last offseason<\/a>, the veteran long snapper went into depth about his time with the Chiefs’ organization<\/a>, discussing how he has been able to live out his dreams with this team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have called you crazy if you would have said I would be going into Year 11, having had the opportunity to play in five Super Bowls and be a part of three championships,\u201d Winchester said. \u201cThat\u2019s not including all the AFC West championships and [other] things that we\u2019ve got to be a part of\u2026 it\u2019s been a dream come true.\u201d\"<\/p>\n

October 23, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; Kansas City Chiefs long snapper James Winchester (41) after the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer you play, you realize [that in] players, coaches [and] staff, there\u2019s just a big turnover,\u201d Winchester continued. \u201cI feel like in Kansas City, I\u2019ve been fortunate to be with those guys from the top down. Our head coach hasn\u2019t changed, and then you run through one of the best coordinators to ever do it in Dave Toub. Getting to play for that guy? It doesn\u2019t get any better than that.\u201d\u201cI think early in your career, you\u2019re more concerned with getting that big deal and signing for multiple years,\u201d Winchester elaborated. \u201cBut for me, I\u2019m thrilled to just be back on the team one year at a time\u2026 There\u2019s nowhere else that I would rather be. There\u2019s so many who would love to play for an organization like Kansas City. So being able to do that for another year? It was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs will experience a lot of roster turnover this offseason, but the team is retaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-799187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascitychiefs","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116190116741104241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}