Chiefs News 7/1: Path to 3rd straight Super Bowl title may be too easy

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Kansas City Chiefs path to third straight Super Bowl may be too easy | NFL Spin Zone

Three rosters in the Chiefs’ division considered to be among the 10 worst in the league going into this season. Everybody’s perception of these teams will be different going into this season, but it’s not hard to see how PFF could possibly be right.

The Raiders have consistently been one of our sleeper picks to be picking 1st overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Chargers obviously have a new head coach in Jim Harbaugh, and might be in a “get worse before you get better” kind of rebuilding mode after the last handful of seasons under Brandon Staley. The Broncos were 8-9 last year but now have a rookie quarterback at the helm for Sean Payton, and they had to make some big cuts after taking a huge dead money hit by releasing Russell Wilson.

The negative perception of the rest of the AFC West is understandable, and if PFF is right, the path for the Chiefs to get their third straight Super Bowl victory is simply far too easy.

Pre-Camp Breakdown: Sorting Through the Chiefs Running Backs | The Mothership

The Kansas City Chiefs are set to kick off training camp in less than a month, and with the annual trek to St. Joseph nearly here, we’re going to spend the next few weeks examining every position group on the roster heading into camp.

We began with the quarterbacks, and we’ll continue at running back, where the Chiefs currently employ seven players.

Let’s take a look at each, beginning with last year’s primary contributors in Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. After those two, the rest of the guys are listed alphabetically.

Isiah Pacheco

Pacheco was the Chiefs’ leading rusher last season with 935 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground in 14 games. He also hauled in 44 receptions for 144 yards, finding the end zone twice through the air. Pacheco posted three 100-yard rushing games on the season, including a 130-yard performance against the Bengals in Week 17 that helped lock up the AFC West title.

The 25-year-old Pacheco was then a major factor in the Chiefs’ run to another Super Bowl championship, rushing for at least 65 yards in each of Kansas City’s four postseason games.

A former seventh-round pick, Pacheco has emerged from those humble beginnings to rack up a grand total of 1,765 rushing yards in 31 games over the last two seasons. He enters 2024 as the Chiefs’ lead tailback as the Rutgers’ playmaker takes aim at his first-career 1,000-yard season.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire

The Chiefs re-signed Edwards-Helaire on April 8 following a campaign in which the former first-round pick appeared in a career-most 15 games. Edwards-Helaire logged 87 total touches for 411 yards and two touchdowns last season, including a performance against the Patriots in Week 15 that included 101 yards from scrimmage (37 rushing, 64 receiving) and a touchdown.

Now entering his fifth year with the Chiefs, Edwards-Helaire has recorded 1,845 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in 48 games (32 starts) during his time as a professional. He also has 89 receptions for 765 yards and seven scores during that time.

Travis Kelce Shared ‘the Only’ Scenario He’d Leave Chiefs, Immediately Backtracked | Sports Illustrated

Perhaps all this time Travis Kelce has spent in London, where he has joined girlfriend and pop star Taylor Swift on her Eras tour, has got the Kansas City Chiefs tight end thinking.

Kelce, during a recent episode of the New Heights podcast he co-hosts alongside his brother Jason, explored the possibility of leaving the Chiefs when a fan, via a question on social media, asked him if he would ever play for a hypothetical NFL team located in London.

Kelce, without hesitation and with some profanity, said yes.

“I’m waiting for that team to play for another team other than the Chiefs,” Kelce said. “Like that’s the only situation. If I get to play abroad.”

Minutes later, perhaps realizing the optics of the answer to fans of the Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions in the NFL, Kelce backtracked.

“Let’s be honest, I’d never leave the Chiefs… but playing in London sounds fun,” Kelce wrote in a post onto his account on X, formerly Twitter.

4 Kansas City Chiefs veterans who could lose their jobs to rookies | Arrowhead Addict

Jaylen Watson/Joshua Williams, Defensive Backs

I’m cheating here because I couldn’t pick just one. That’s not a bad thing. I actually love both of these corners. They were both part of the epic 2022 draft class where Brett Veach went scorched earth on defense and pretty much nailed it.

Still, both players have been mostly backups. That may sound like a slight, but it’s not. The Chiefs have been stacked at defenisve back for a couple of years now. The departure of L’Jarius Sneed finally opens up a spot for a new competition, and I expect these two guys to fight for it.

However, they’ll have some younger competition. From second-year DB Chamarri Conner to Jaden Hicks, one of the Chiefs fourth-round picks this year, there’s an impressive amount of emerging talent to like. Heck, you could add in sixth-round pick Kamal Hadden, too.

At any rate, if these players manage to steal snaps from these two veterans, I don’t think it will be an indictment on them. It will just tell us that Brett Veach has once again nailed his defensive back picks. I’m here for it.

Mitch Holthus named ‘Kansan of the Year’ | Hastings Tribune

A son of Smith County whose name and voice have become synonymous with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs will be honored July 9 as Kansan of the Year by the Kansas Society of Washington, D.C.

In a news release, the organization referred to Mitch Holthus as the “longest-tenured and most decorated play-by-play ‘voice’ ” in Chiefs franchise history.

Holthus has been on the radio for the Chiefs since 1994 and had the call for the team’s victories in Super Bowls LIV, LVII and LVIII. His work also extends to television and internet platforms as he hosts the “Chiefs Insider” program, the Defending the Kingdom podcast and Chiefs Rewind and hosts the “Minute With Mitch” television and radio series.

He also spent 13 years as the “Voice of the Wildcats” for Kansas State University football and worked for 28 seasons as a television announcer for college basketball games. Meanwhile, he accepts engagements as a motivational speaker.

Holthus is a five-time Emmy Award winner for his television and online work and has been inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and Kansas State University Athletics Hall of Fame. He was named six times as Kansas Sportscaster of the Year.

Around the NFL

Predicting which NFL teams will exceed and which will fail to meet expectations in 2024 | CBS Sports

Teams that will exceed expectations

McCarriston — Chargers: Maybe I haven’t learned my lesson from the past, but I am once again counting on the Chargers to do something with their talented, well-paid quarterback. They finally have a competent head coach in Jim Harbaugh and while he may not have made as many big splashes as expected this offseason, I can see him leading the Chargers to a winning record and dare I say, possibly a playoff bid.

They fired Brandon Staley late in the 2023 season and replaced him with a proven winner. The Chargers have had high expectations in the past and failed to meet them, but I believe this will be the year they are a team that gives their opponents a bigger challenge and certainly will rack up more wins than last year.

Their offensive losses will take some time to adjust to, but saving money to lose aging players can help them in the end. Keeping defensive end Joey Bosa and linebacker Khalil Mack in L.A. at a cheaper price was huge for a team that needs that veteran presence and experience on defense.

They won’t win the division, since the AFC West includes the defending champion Chiefs, but they have the easiest strength of schedule in the AFC, which will help them heaps.

Back from Egypt, Aaron Rodgers takes in UFC event | Pro Football Talk

Aaron Rodgers is back, baby.

After an apparent trip to Egypt that caused him to miss the Jets’ mandatory minicamp, Rodgers showed up last night for the UFC event in Las Vegas.

Via Tom Holmlund of the New York Post, Rodgers sat with former Packers teammate Marcedes Lewis for the fights.

The Egypt story had been making the rounds of last. It apparently was blurted out last week, when former Packers teammate Marquez Valdes-Scantling appeared on FS1 a day after catching passes from Rodgers.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Rodgers says about his mandatory minicamp no-show and the team’s decision to call it an unexcused absence and fine him, when he nexts talks to reporters. Along the way, he’ll possibly find a way to complain about media members who dared to comment on his decision not to attend, while also suggesting that anyone who would scrutinize him is on the payroll of Big Pharma.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Remembering Joe Delaney on the anniversary of his death

The Kansas City Chiefs selected running back Joe Delaney out of Louisiana’s Northwestern State in the second round (41st overall) in the 1981 NFL Draft.

During a time when the team wasn’t very good, Delaney was a shining star in Kansas City. During his rookie season, he ran for 1,121 yards (and three touchdowns) on 234 attempts, averaging 4.8 yards per carry. He also collected 246 yards on 22 catches.

Following the strike-shortened 1982 season, Delaney was back home in Louisiana. While visiting an amusement park with some friends in Monroe on June 29, Delaney drowned while trying to save three children in a nearby pond.

Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford told the story in a 1983 article:

There was a huge hole there, carved out of the earth some time ago. The hole had filled with water, and three boys waded in. They didn’t know it, but a short way out the bottom dropped off precipitously, and suddenly the boys were in over their heads and thrashing and screaming. There were all sorts of people around, but only Joe dashed to the pond. There was a little boy there. “Can you swim?” he asked Joe.

”I can’t swim good,” Joe said, “but I’ve got to save those kids. If I don’t come up, get somebody.” And he rushed into the water.

One boy fought his way back to the shallow part. The other two didn’t. Neither did Joe Delaney, 24. He was hauled out a few minutes later, dead. He gave his own life trying to save three others.

Today, Delaney is remembered in the Chiefs Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor. While his number (37) has never been officially retired, no other Kansas City player has ever worn it.

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