Kansas City Chiefs

Mason Pline

TE

Pline was sidelined for all of the 2025 season due to an upper body injury, but his signing with the Chiefs on Wednesday suggests he's moved past the issue. The Furman product has yet to appear in an NFL game after catching 32 passes for 287 yards and four touchdowns across 11 games during his final collegiate season in 2023.

Rashee Rice

WR

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said last Thursday that he expects Rice to be ready for the start of training camp in July. The fourth-year wide receiver is recovering from a minor clean-up surgery undergone in May on his right knee, and while in jail he was able to both rehab and maintain communication with the team. He was unable to attend mandatory minicamp, however. It's possible that Rice could still face league discipline as a result of his probation violation, but he appears on track to be fully healthy in advance of the regular season.

Mansoor Delane

CB

questionable

Josh Simmons

OT

The 2025 first-round pick missed multiple games during his rookie season due to personal issues and then suffered a season-ending wrist injury in Week 13 against the Cowboys. Simmons is now back on the field for minicamp and appears ready to protect Patrick Mahomes in the 2026 season.

Xavier Worthy

WR

While Worthy (who is in the final stages of his recovery from a shoulder procedure he underwent in January to repair his labrum) sported a no-contact jersey during the minicamp which concluded Thursday, his efforts nonetheless caught the eye of Reid. "Xavier really had a nice camp," Reid said of the 2024 first-rounder. "Stronger -- that's the part that you like. You really see it. We put him in a lot of the primary positions, and I thought he did a nice job with all of it." Next up for Worthy and the Chiefs will be training camp next month, at which point he may be able to shed his non-contact jersey. He's coming off a 2025 regular season in which he recorded a modest 42-532-1 line on 73 targets through 14 contests, but Worthy acknowledges that the shoulder injury he sustained on the first drive of the campaign hampered his effectiveness. Assuming no setbacks ahead of Week 1, Worthy could be poised for a bounce-back season in 2026 while working as a key option in Kansas City WR corps that is also in line to feature fellow returnee Rashee Rice (knee), with the likes of Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Royals and Cyrus Allen in the mix as well.

Patrick Mahomes

QB

Reid also said Mahomes is "on course to get ready for camp", though "the healing process has to keep taking place." It's mostly coach-speak, but overwhelmingly positive, which meshes with previous favorable reports on Mahomes' rehab from mid-December surgery to repair ACL and LCL tears. He's been limited to individual drills and 7-on-7s at OTAs, allowing Justin Fields to take first-team reps.

L'Jarius Sneed

CB

Sneed was dealt from the Chiefs to the Titans in March 2024, but after two seasons in Tennessee, he'll now return to Kansas City. The 29-year-old struggled with injuries during his time with the Titans, appearing in just 12 of a possible 34 regular-season games. Most recently, Sneed missed Tennessee's final 10 contests in 2025 due to a quadriceps injury. However, his intention to sign with the Chiefs suggests he's moved past that issue. With Jaylen Watson and Trent McDuffie both joining the Rams this offseason, Sneed will likely step in and operate as one of Kansas City's top boundary corners during the 2026 season.

George Karlaftis

DE

Despite the serious injury he apparently sustained prior to Week 11 at Denver, Karlaftis missed only one game last season, sitting out in Week 18 when the Chiefs were already eliminated from playoff contention. Now fully healthy, he projects to again play a huge role on the edge for Kansas City in 2026.

Kenneth Walker III

RB

On the heels of being named the most valuable player of Super Bowl LX, Walker inked a lucrative three-year deal to lead Kansas City's backfield this coming season. Edholm notes that Walker earned a reputation as a run-first back during his four-year stint with Seattle, but the 2022 second-rounder -- who logged 31 catches in 17 regular-season games in 2025 -- has reportedly been spending time with QB Patrick Mahomes (who is bouncing back from a December ACL/LCL injury) this offseason in anticipation of a potentially expanded role as a pass catcher. "We've been working on getting connected in the passing game and everything, so that's good," Walker said. "I feel like I'll be used more in the pass game." Either way, as the clear-cut RB1 for his new team, Walker figures to be busy out of the gate this coming season while Mahomes works his way back to form. Competing for complementary work behind Walker will be a pair of newcomers in rookie Emmett Johnson and free agent addition Emari Demercado, as well as 2025 seventh-rounder Brashard Smith.

Xavier Loyd

WR

Loyd (6-foot-2, 196 pounds) inks with the Chiefs following a successful tryout at the team's rookie minicamp in late April. He appeared in 13 games with Missouri in 2025 and totaled two catches for 21 yards while handling a depth role. Loyd previously spent time at Illinois State in 2024 and at Kansas State from 2021-23.

Emmett Johnson

RB

The Chiefs almost completely remade their backfield compared to last season, letting Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco walk while retaining the 2025 seventh-round pick Smith, and signing Walker and Demercado before drafting Johnson in the fifth round. Kansas City also signed undrafted free agents Jaydn Ott and EJ Smith. Demercado and Brashard Smith both seem best suited for change-of-pace roles on passing downs, so Johnson could have a clear lane to getting the second-most carries behind Walker. Head coach Andy Reid compared Johnson's skill set to that of former NFL running back LeSean McCoy, who exceeded 1,000 regular-season rushing yards on six occasions.

EJ Smith

RB

Smith played four years at Stanford before transferring to Texas A&M for his final two seasons. The running back participated in 24 games for the Aggies, collecting 98 rush attempts for 412 yards and four touchdowns over the span. The Chiefs' offseason signing of Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker means they're set atop the depth chart, and Smith will therefore have to fight with multiple other options in training camp to try and garner a roster spot come final cuts.

Jaydn Ott

RB

Ott played three years at California before transferring to Oklahoma for his senior season. The running back suffered a shoulder issue entering the 2025 season that led to him seeing meaningful snaps in only two games. The Chiefs are likely taking a flyer on Ott due to his 2023 season at California, where he rushed 245 times for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns and added 26 receptions for 321 yards and three touchdowns. Ott's standout sophomore campaign suggests he has a shot to be a meaningful producer at the NFL level if he can avoid the injury bug.

Omari Evans

WR

Evans played at Penn State for three years before ending his collegiate career as a Washington Husky in 2025. The wide receiver had a down year in 2025, playing in 11 games and collecting 17 receptions for 254 yards and one touchdown. His best college season was in 2024, producing 415 yards and five touchdown grabs on just 21 receptions. Evans will have to compete with many other options in training camp as the Chiefs look to refortify their wide-receiver room ahead of the 2026 season.

Jacob De Jesus

WR

De Jesus played two years at UNLV before transferring to California for the 2025 season. The wide receiver produced 108 receptions for 1,030 yards and six touchdowns over 13 games in 2025. De Jesus demonstrated the ability to handle high volume during his final college season, earning a look from a Chiefs team always looking to expand its wide-receiver options for Patrick Mahomes (knee).

Justin Fields

QB

Garrett Nussmeier

QB

There was a fair amount of mainstream media hype for Nussmeier to go on Day 2 of the draft, so for him to fall into the late seventh makes him a harmless, all-upside pick for the Chiefs. The Chiefs of course hope Nussmeier won't need to see the field right away, but all it might take is a good start or two to make Nussmeier a fought-over trade target a few years from now. In the meantime, the Chiefs will likely be happy if Nussmeier can merely stick on the roster as a backup -- an outcome that was taken as a foregone conclusion by most draft observers as recently as the morning before the Chiefs picked him. Nussmeier (6-foot-2, 203 pounds) is smallish and struggled a concerning amount during his LSU career, including in his most recent season. Nussmeier's completion percentage was poor in his first four years -- 64.2 as a fourth-year player was his career high to that point -- and then in 2025 Nussmeier's YPA dropped to 6.7 yards. This is probably another Quinn Ewers sort of scenario.

Cyrus Allen

WR

Allen (5-foot-11, 180 pounds) led Cincinnati with 674 receiving yards while totaling a career-high 13 touchdowns across as many games in 2025, and he also logged stints at Louisiana Tech and Texas A&M during his collegiate career. He assisted his draft profile courtesy of a strong showing at the Senior Bowl and a solid showing at the NFL Combine (4.49-second 40-yard dash), but given that Nikko Remigio, Jalen Royals, Jason Brownlee, Jimmy Holiday and Andrew Armstrong are all also competing for depth opportunities behind starting wideouts Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Tyquan Thornton, Allen may have to show competence on special teams this offseason in order to earn a spot on the 53-man roster.

Jadon Canady

CB

Canady (5-foot-10, 181 pounds) might primarily play slot corner for the Chiefs, but he might be more than that, too. Most recently a standout at Oregon, Canady spent the prior two years at Mississippi, redshirting the first after arriving from Tulane, where he was a true freshman starter but suffered a torn ACL and meniscus late into his sophomore year. Canady's knee has seemingly cooperated since then, and his pro day testing was just good enough (4.49 40, 37.5-inch vertical, 127-inch broad jump) to confirm that Canady's playmaking ability should withstand the jump to the NFL.

R Mason Thomas

DE

Thomas (6-foot-2, 241 pounds) is undersized in terms of both height and frame, but that didn't prevent him from tallying a combined 15.5 sacks across 23 appearances with Oklahoma over the last two seasons, earning first- and second-team All-SEC honors those years. George Karlaftis is established as a starter for Kansas City's pass rush, which veteran DT Chris Jones remains the anchor of, leaving Thomas in position to compete with 2025 third-rounder Ashton Gillotte and 2023 first-rounder Felix Anudike-Uzomah (hamstring) for snaps.

Peter Woods

DT

Woods (6-foot-3, 298 pounds) was a huge recruit for Clemson and provided quality play as a three-year starter, but it's difficult to find evidence of production and his ostensible utility as a two-gap run stuffer might not translate easily to the NFL given his light build, short arms and poor athletic testing. If Woods makes a positive impact with Kansas City it evidently might not show up in the box score, so he'll need to eat blocks.

Nikko Remigio

WR

Remigio missed the last two games of the 2025 regular season due to a knee injury. Now healthy, the kick and punt returner is set to run it back with the Chiefs for the 2026 regular season. Remigio played in 14 regular-season games in 2025, totaling 741 kick-return yards and 191 punt-return yards.

Matt Araiza

P

Araiza is positioned to remain the Chiefs' punter for the 2026 campaign. He averaged 47.6 yards per punt in 2025 while suiting up for all 17 regular-season games.

Kaiir Elam

CB

Elam, who played in 10 regular-season games with Dallas and four with Tennessee in 2025, brings depth and experience to a Kansas City cornerback corps that has seen Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson depart this offseason. The 24-year-old has 19 starts (including seven with the Cowboys last year) to his credit since being drafted by the Bills, 23rd overall, in the 2022 NFL Draft, and in his new locale, Elam figures to compete with Nohl Williams and Kristian Fulton for outside CB reps.

Travis Kelce

TE

Kelce agreed to terms on a new contract with the Chiefs in early March and now officially re-ups with Kansas City, where he has spent his entire career since being selected by the team in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. The 36-year-old tight end has seen his production dip in recent years but nonetheless remains productive, having surpassed 800 receiving yards in both 2024 and 2025. His contract had previously been reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN as a one-year, $12 million deal worth up to $15 million, but Kelce and the Chiefs have instead negotiated a multi-year pact. As such, as long as Kelce opts to continue his playing career, he will be positioned to operate as a key cog on offense for QB Patrick Mahomes (knee).