Arrowheadlines: Tyreek Hill ranked as sixth-best receiver in the NFL

Chiefs headlines for Monday, March 14

The latest

Ranking the NFL’s Top 7 Wide Receivers Heading into 2022 Offseason | Bleacher Report

6. Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs

Even if he’s not the single-fastest player in the league, Tyreek Hill is immensely difficult to contain because of his speed (sub-4.3 40-yard dash).

Through six seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, he’s totaled 479 catches for 6,630 yards and 56 scores. Last year, he tallied a personal-best 111 receptions while providing 1,239 yards and and nine touchdowns. It was his fourth campaign of at least 1,183 yards.

Along with six Pro Bowl trips, Hill is a three-time first-team AP All-Pro, including as a returner in his rookie year.

The 28-year-old Hill’s presence is a key reason for Kansas City’s ability to stress defenses both vertically and horizontally.

Douglas welcomes back NFL star Tyreek Hill | KCTV5

Tyreek Hill Day is an event to celebrate his accomplishments and to motivate youth in the community to dream as big as he did. At the event, his high school jersey was retired and he personally met hundreds of his fans, young and old. Fans that now root for the Chiefs as well as the Falcons.

“I’ve got four kids. For them to see somebody from the small town of Pearson make it to where he is now and be so humble,” says Barrett Tucker, a youth sports coach in Coffee county.

He uses Hill as an example for his players because he was a multi-sport athlete who came from their city.

“He chose to come back here to talk to his community and see how much we support him and love him,” Tucker says.

Hill embraces the role he has taken.

“I want to see these kids succeed. I wanna see these kids get as much other life as possible. I’m going to get some people in the community and bring them right along with me so we can build this thing up together,” says Hill.

Patrick Mahomes Is A Married Man: NFL World Reacts | The Spun

The Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl-winning quarterback now has a second ring, as he’s officially a married man.

Mahomes, who has been dating Brittany Matthews since entering the National Football League, officially tied the knot this weekend.

Patrick and Brittany got married over the weekend. The Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback shared a photo of the happy couple on social media.

“Mr. & Mrs. Mahomes,” he wrote.

Congrats to Patrick and Brittany.

“Love is in the air! Congrats to the newlyweds!” one fan tweeted.

“Congrats from KC!” Kansas City’s mayor tweeted.

Free agency and trade buzz: Latest on Baker Mayfield and other QBs, teams ready to spend, the receiver market and more | ESPN

Pass-rushers on the way?

A crowded free-agency pool will welcome a few more big names in the coming days. Sources said Kansas City’s Frank Clark is expected to be released, traded or have his contract restructured in the coming days. His $26.3 million cap hit is untenable for the Chiefs. Watch for San Francisco as a potential option here. The 49ers will be looking for a speed rusher to help Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead.

Saints Free Agency: Tyrann Mathieu is ‘realistic dream signing’ | FanSided

Saints Free Agency: Tyrann Mathieu makes sense in NOLA

Mathieu played at LSU and as Sobleski mentioned, playing in front of his loved ones could be enticing for him. It doesn’t look promising that he’ll return to Kansas City after some of the social media posts he’s made in recent weeks and this past season saw some drama arise between the two sides when he called out the Chiefs fan base.

Mathieu won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs so he might not be ring-chasing at this point, which could also make the Saints a good spot for him. They have one of the best defenses in the league and while they’d lose Williams, replacing him with Mathieu would still give them one of the NFL’s top defenses.

The only real reason New Orleans might not be a realistic spot for Mathieu is money. The Honey Badger is projected to earn a three-year deal worth $44 million with an annual salary of $14.8 million. That’s probably a little steep for NOLA, especially when you take into account that he’s entering his age-30 season.

NFL Players Make Big Bets on Crypto, Bitcoin | The Street

“Rolling back the years to 2020, it’s astonishing to see just how much football players on mega salaries could’ve cashed in on the then-impending Bitcoin boom,” the Action Network said in a report. “In fact, anyone investing their salary each week in 2020 could’ve increased their pay 2.5x over by January 2021.”

Football and crypto are no strangers. Last month’s Super Bowl was dubbed “The Crypto Bowl” due to the number of cryptocurrency exchanges buying airing ads during the Game Bowl.

The Action Network said each star’s annual income was divided by 52 to reveal their weekly salary.

Mahomes Goes Long on Crypto

The weekly figure was then dollar-cost averaged to reveal return on investment if converted to bitcoin or ethereum weekly through the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the big winner, the report said.

Fresh off a Super Bowl LIV victory and an accompanying MVP performance, Mahomes was earning $863,013 weekly.

If he had invested in bitcoin, Mahomes could have earned an additional $113.86 million between January 2020 and January 2021.

Around the NFL

Buccaneers QB Tom Brady announces ‘I’m coming back’ for 23rd season ‘in Tampa’ | NFL.com

Days after Brady’s retirement plans were reported, the longtime Patriots and Bucs QB announced his retirement via social media on Feb. 1. But doubt over how long Brady would actually stay away from the field began almost immediately.

Brady’s retirement ended up lasting all of 40 days — though it was never official as it never came across the league transaction wire. He remains under contract with Tampa Bay, “but it’s a placeholder year worth about $10.4 million,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported. Pelissero added it makes sense for the Bucs to repeat what they did ahead of the 2021 season and add a year to Brady’s contract in which he would be paid among the NFL’s top quarterbacks.

The Buccaneers left the door open for a Brady return and now return to their post as NFC South favorites and Super Bowl contenders after they won a Super Bowl in 2020 and won the division in 2021 with Brady at the helm.

Source: Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins agrees to one-year extension worth $35 million | ESPN

Cousins will earn $40 million in 2022 and $30 million in 2023. All of it is fully guaranteed, and Cousins will receive $50 million of the $70 million by mid-March 2023. Cousins’ immediate future had been in some doubt given the Vikings’ salary cap trouble. They entered the weekend needing to clear $17 million in cap space by Wednesday in order to comply with the NFL’s $208.2 million cap for 2022.

Browns agree to trade for Cowboys WR Amari Cooper; Jarvis Landry granted permission to seek deal | NFL.com

The Cleveland Browns have agreed to acquire Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper in exchange for a 2022 fifth-round draft pick and a swap of 2022 sixth-rounders, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Saturday. The trade cannot be finalized until the new league year begins at 4 p.m. ET on Wed., March 16.

The Browns might not be done in the receiver market. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported later Saturday that the team has granted veteran Jarvis Landry permission to seek a trade — though Landry and his camp are open to remaining in Cleveland. Garafolo added that if Landry return it likely would involve a paycut as Landry is set to earn $14.3 million this season.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

How the Chiefs can fix their defensive line

The 2022 offseason

This brings us to the 2022 offseason. Once again, the Chiefs had a fatal flaw emerge last season — and now is the time to fix it.

It’s time to throw more assets at the defensive line.

The Chiefs finished last season with just 31 total sacks. That was fewer than the likes of the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. Only the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons had fewer.

Stats like that bring futures into question. As of now, it’s unclear if Frank Clark will be back. Jarran Reed, Derrick Nnadi, Alex Okafor and Melvin Ingram are free agents. The defensive line room is ready for another overhaul. But from where will those additions come?

This is where things get dicey. The last time Kansas City upgraded the defense, Clark was a prominent trade candidate. He priced himself out of Seattle with his play — and the Chiefs made him a priority as he entered what they believed would be his prime at just 26 years old.

Good luck finding such a player on this year’s free-agent or trade market.

The top pass rushers available in this year’s market are all older. The group includes Von Miller (33), Chandler Jones (32), Jadeveon Clowney (29), Randy Gregory (29), Emmanuel Ogbah (28), Melvin Ingram (33), Jerry Hughes (34) — and if he’s cut, Za’Darius Smith (30). The top trade candidate is probably Robert Quinn (32).

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