Chiefs Studios Blog

On Friday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs made two roster moves before their "Monday Night Football" matchup against the New Orleans Saints. The team is activating practice squad tight end Jody Fortson to the 53-man roster — and to take his place on the taxi squad, the team is re-signing cornerback Darius Rush. In 2021 and 2022, Fortson appeared in 19 Chiefs games, recording 14 receptions for 155 yards and four touchdowns — and then missed the 2023 season on Reserve/Injured with a training camp shoulder injury. This suggests that the team could be planning to run more multiple tight end sets while it is without top wide receivers Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice. Rush — a fifth-round pick for the Indianapolis Colts in 2023 — was on Kansas City's roster and practice squad early last season. The Pittsburgh Steelers poached him from the practice squad a year ago. He appeared in a total of five Steelers games in 2023 and 2024 before he was released three days ago. Th

When the Kansas City Chiefs host the New Orleans Saints in Week 5's edition of ESPN's "Monday Night Football," a very popular player will be returning to town. Safety Tyrann Mathieu joined the Chiefs in 2019 — and played a major role in breaking a 50-year championship drought when the team won Super Bowl LIV in Miami. Although Mathieu was not a part of the Chiefs' two most recent championships after departing for New Orleans in 2022, there is no doubt his legacy remains strong at Arrowhead Stadium. "I think," Patrick Mahomes recalled before Thursday's practice, "just me being a young player — especially when he got here — just seeing that type of leader was something that I'll forever remember. The way he inspired guys — [and] the energy that he played with? Obviously he's a great football player; everybody can see that. But [he was] truly a great leader — one of the best leaders I've ever been around. "He pushed to get

(Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs may be one of the two undefeated teams left in the league after four games of this 2024 NFL season, but Patrick Mahomes and company feel anything but secure as arguably the best team in the AFC. Even though the Chiefs have a perfect record and have proven resilient in some of these four wins, Kansas City is incredibly banged up on the offensive side of the football, especially at the wide receiver position, after losing rising star Rashee Rise to a knee injury. Along with Rice potentially out of the season, the Chiefs are dealing with losing veteran wide receiver Marquise Brown before the season even got underway and suffering the loss of running back Isiah Pacheco, who will miss a considerable amount of time after having surgery on his fibula. The Chiefs are also dealing with injuries to running back Kareem Hunt (shoulder), who recently returned to the team after Pacheco's injury, a

Following a two-game road trip, the Kansas City Chiefs will bring their 4-0 record back into GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to take on the (2-2) New Orleans Saints in the Week 5 edition of "Monday Night Football." Kickoff is set for 7:15 p.m. on ESPN, KMBC/9 in Kansas City and KGNO/26 in New Orleans. Two weeks into the season, both teams were undefeated. And since New Orleans had opened 2024 by defeating the Carolina Panthers 47-10 and the Dallas Cowboys 44-19, it looked like this Chiefs-Saints matchup could be an offensive barn-burner featuring Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes and New Orleans signal-caller Derek Carr. Since then, however, the Saints collected a 15-12 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and a 26-24 defeat by the Atlanta Falcons — while the Chiefs recorded two more single-score wins. Kansas City has now won 10 straight games since losing to the Las Vegas Raiders last Christmas. Nine of them have been by a single score. Since Week 2, the

Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones has been named the AFC's defensive player of the week for his Week 4 outing against the Los Angeles Chargers. With wide receiver Rashee Rice going down early in the game, the Chiefs knew that they would have to rely on their defense to pull out a win. Jones spearheaded that effort, compiling six tackles and four quarterback pressures, including two sacks in the 17-10 victory. We mentioned the importance of Jones' efforts in our rapid reaction: Jones' two sacks (and key pressures) couldn't have been more timely; his first sack took the Chargers out of field goal range in the middle of the second quarter. His critical pressure on fourth-and-1 came while LA had the ball at the Kansas City 3 early in the fourth quarter. His final sack ended the Chargers' last-ditch effort late in the game. Jones last won the AFC's defensive player of the week award in Week 11 of 2021, and he also did so in Week 2 of 201

(Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) The Kansas City Chiefs may appear to be cruising as one of only two undefeated teams left in the NFL, with the Minnesota Vikings the other, but the two-time defending Super Bowl champions are incredibly banged up right now, especially on the offensive side of the football. Although the Chiefs are arguably the most resilient team in the league and have shown that by pulling out some gritty performances during the first month of the 2024 NFL season, Kansas City will now have to play without wide receivers Marquise Brown and Rashee Rice for perhaps the rest of the season while also dealing with the extended absence of injured running back Isiah Pacheco. Fortunately for Kansas City, its brass acted quickly after learning that Pacheco would be on the mend for quite some time, as they were able to bring back veteran running back Kareem Hunt to help fill the void in the backfield. However, Hunt might not be ready to go for the Week 5 matchup agai

When the Kansas City Chiefs assembled this team this offseason, the thought was that the offense would be more explosive. By adding players like Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy alongside the developments of Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice, there was optimism that the added speed of Brown and Worthy would open more space downfield for vertical shots. It would also stretch the field to allow Rice and Pacheco to win with their physical running style. The results have not been there for four weeks. I looked at the play-by-play data since 2023 to find how many explosive plays—a 15-plus yard run or 20-plus yard pass—the Chiefs have generated. Here is the percentage of explosive offensive plays by run or pass: Explosive plays by play type and season Year Play Type Plays Pct Rank 2023 >15 Yard Run 23 4.54% 7 2024 >15 Yard Run 1 0.96% 30 2023 >20 Yard Pass 64 7.85% 11 2024 >20 Yard Pass 10 7.75% 9 (All NFL play-by-play data comes from NFLRVers

(Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) The Davante Adams era of the Las Vegas Raiders looks like its about to come to an end, with the wide receiver letting it be known that he would prefer to be traded rather than stay with the franchise any longer. Adams addressed trade rumors throughout the entire NFL offseason, with chatter swirling constantly about the Raiders and the possibility of them parting with the All-Pro, who denied he had any desire to leave the team. That stance has clearly changed, and now the Raiders reportedly have let the rest of the NFL know that Adams is available via trade, and there is expected to be no shortage of interest. One Super Bowl contender that desperately needs some help at wide receiver is the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. FOX Sports host Nick Wright said he doesn't think the Chiefs, despite their injuries at the position, are interested in Adams right now, or that the Raiders would trade him to an AFC West rival. &quo

On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a 17-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, pushing their record to 4-0 — and 1-0 in the AFC West. How did the team use its players during its Week 4 victory? Starters (offensive): TE Travis Kelce, WR Rashee Rice, LT Wanya Morris, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, WR Xavier Worthy, WR Justin Watson, QB Patrick Mahomes and FB Carson Steele. Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Chris Jones, DT Mike Pennel, DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, LB Nick Bolton, LB Drue Tranquill, LB Leo Chenal, CB Trent McDuffie, CB Jaylen Watson, S Justin Reid and S Bryan Cook. Did not play: QB Carson Wentz. Inactive: DE Michael Danna, OL C.J. Hanson, OT Ethan Driskell and DT Marlon Tuipulotu. Offensive takeaways Offensive line Wanya Morris got his second start at left tackle. Morris, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Jawaan Taylor (and of course, Patrick Mahomes) played every offensive snap. Mike

(Photo by Courtney Culbreath/Getty Images) The Kansas City Chiefs have gotten off to a strong start to the season. They haven't blown teams off the field, and their offense still seems to be a work in progress, but all that matters is that they're 3-0 after three weeks. Nonetheless, people can't help but notice that Travis Kelce has virtually been a non-factor thus far, at least on the stat sheet. So far, he's been held to just eight receptions for 69 yards, with his longest catch going for 23 yards. Unsurprisingly, that has led to plenty of speculation and narratives about the future Hall of Famer, with some claiming his play is declining because of his age, and others — most of them — thinking he's distracted with everything that's going on in his life. That's why HC Andy Reid went out of his way to claim that defenses are still giving him the same treatment, so they clearly don't feel that way about Kelce: "I know people are saying

The latest Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy Excite NFL Fans as Mahomes, Chiefs Top Harbaugh, Chargers | Bleacher Report However, the Chiefs managed to survive and pull out a 17-10 win on the road to improve to 4-0. Samaje Perine scored the go-ahead touchdown with 6:04 left in the fourth quarter. Kansas City star tight end Travis Kelce returned to form with season-highs of seven catches for 89 yards to lead the team. He became the franchise's all-time leader for career receptions in Sunday's win, passing Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez. NFL takeaways Week 4: Vikings separating from the NFC pack? | USA Today 24. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes continues doing things we've never seen, including the longest completion – by air yards traveled, per Next Gen Stats – of his eight-year career in Sunday's victory. 25. Mahomes is now 13-12 in games in which Kansas City trailed by double digits, the only quarterback in the Super Bowl era above .500 given such circumsta