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Chiefs headlines for Monday, August 10
The latest
Mahomes has lots of time to figure out his post-career endeavors. In the meantime, there’s plenty left to do, plenty left to accomplish. Great quarterbacks are playing into their 40s now, so he has a decade-plus to build the type of football legacy he has had on his mind, even before the recent airing of ESPN’s smash documentary “The Last Dance” — on Jordan’s epic career with the Bulls — potentially provided a blueprint.
“I think it happened even before that,” Mahomes said a few months ago, when asked how much the documentary influenced the importance of legacy to him. “I think watching ‘The Last Dance’ and watching Michael and all of the stuff that he did and that he’s done and all of the success that he has is just affirmation.”
Frank Clark is Making Sure the Chiefs Get More than One Championship | Arrowhead Report
“We have that short-term memory,” Clark said. “Yeah, we won the Super Bowl last year but that was last year. Some guys get cocky, they love that feeling and that emotion of winning and they carry that into the next year and it doesn’t really do [anything] for them on the field.”
Clark explained he is ready to move on from Super Bowl LIV and focus on getting to Tampa for Super Bowl LV.
“This year, after us being champions last year, nobody really cares about that,” Clark said. “I know our coach doesn’t care about that. It’s nice and cute and all, but we have stuff to do this year and a whole new set of goals. We’ve got to win the AFC Championship and that’s where it starts.”
Safeties
Best - AFC West: Tyrann Mathieu, Derwin James, Justin Simmons, Johnathan Abram, Juan Thornhill, Rayshawn Jenkins, Damarious Randall
NFC West: Jamal Adams, John Johnson, Budda Baker, Jimmie Ward, Taylor Rapp, Quandre Diggs, Jaquiski Tartt, Terrell Burgess, Jalen Thompson, Isaiah Simmons?
It seems like either West may be the best. With Bradley McDougald swapped out for Adams, the safeties in the NFC West make a good argument as the best in the league. Additionally, Arizona drafted Simmons — who could end up as a safety or something close to it in the modern NFL — eighth overall and the Rams took Burgess in the third and Jordan Fuller in the sixth. The Seahawks are also looking to get Marquise Blair, a second rounder in 2019, on the field with Adams and Diggs at the same time.
John Johnson and Budda Baker are both entering their fourth seasons and have shown promise, so long as Johnson stays healthy and Baker finds his first career interception; Baker has been targeted 126 times in the last two seasons according to Pro-Football-Reference, but has yet to turn any of those into a pick.
But Mathieu was a first team all-pro for the second time in his career and Simmons was on the second team. James is potentially better than both of them. Abram could be the best player on the Raiders defense. Thornhill’s gotten some good marks already in his career.
Colin Cowherd Says Only 3 NFL Teams Have ‘Great’ Rosters | The Spun
The FOX Sports 1 radio host said this week that while several teams have “good” rosters, only three teams have truly elite ones. Cowherd’s three most-loaded rosters: the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
Cowherd added that he believes Baltimore will actually go undefeated and make the Super Bowl.
“Baltimore is going to go 16-0, fly through the playoffs and win the Super Bowl,” Cowherd said earlier this week. “The Ravens are the two scariest things in football — stacked and pissed.”
Around the NFL
Broncos currently have fourth most salary cap in NFL | Mile High Report
The two Broncos players to opt out were Ja’Wuan James and earlier Kyle Peko. Both players salaries will be deferred to next season and will receive their opt out salary of either $150k or, in Peko’s case, the high-risk $350k. Those decisions opened up the available salary cap for Denver significantly with $675k from Peko and a whopping $13M from James. The team also released veteran tight end Jeff Heuerman and defensive end Joel Heath freeing up another $5M+ in salary cap there.
With James opting out, a huge hole in depth opened up at the tackle position. The team immediately sought to fill that gap by bringing in veteran right tackle Demar Dotson for a visit. Latest reports suggest the team could sign him as early as later this week, but COVID-19 has slowed this process of meeting and vetting a potential new player down some. If they do sign Dotson, the Broncos won’t remain in the Top 5 in cap space for long.
Vikings LB Cameron Smith needs heart surgery, will miss season | NFL.com
“I found out I need open heart surgery to fix a bicuspid aortic valve that I was born with,” Smith posted. “Although this will unfortunately end my 2020 season, it is really a blessing that we found this as my heart is severely enlarged and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I found this out after I tested positive for COVID and had to have further testing done as protocol. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I could really feel him on this one!”
The first, and most obvious one, is that the plan doesn’t really work in practice.
“What are you going to do? Have your starter quarantined and not take any first-team snaps all week?” one GM told me. “Or are you quarantining your third-string quarterback? I mean…”
The implication here is clear. If there’s a roster catastrophe where your starter at the most important position in American sport is sidelined for a game, and then his backup is too, and then you have to roll with a third-stringer (or elevate someone from the practice squad since some teams don’t carry three QBs on the 53-man roster), you’re not likely to win that week’s game. You basically went through a lot of trouble for nothing.
The quarantined quarterback, which I’ll refer to as the QQB, would participate in all the virtual meetings. He’d probably be sequestered at a nearby hotel, since staying at home with a family would possibly introduce him to COVID-19 and make the entire exercise pointless. And maybe the QQB would train and take reps at an off-site location. Think that’s worth it? I don’t.
Lions trade CB Michael Jackson to Patriots for 2022 draft pick | ESPN
In return, the Lions receive a conditional 2022 seventh-round pick in the NFL draft, a source told ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
Jackson played in one game for Detroit last season, a 19-16 loss at Washington, where he played two special teams snaps. Detroit had claimed him off waivers in September 2019, after he was cut by Dallas. Trading Jackson clears up part of one of the deepest positions the Lions have on the roster with a handful of cornerbacks still competing for backup jobs behind likely starters Desmond Trufant, Jeff Okudah and Justin Coleman.
In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride
Sammy Watkins makes it clear that winning is his priority
“I think I’ve made enough money,” Watkins acknowledged. “I’d love to make more money, but as far as being smart and being educated on this team, knowing that you got to pay Pat [Mahomes], you got to pay Chris [Jones], you got a lot of guys you got to pay.”
His salary wasn’t the only aspect of his career about which he has now appeared to reverse his stance. After brief daydreams of “building a Super Bowl winner as The Guy somewhere else,” Watkins clarified that he wants to win in Kansas City.
“[It was] very important to stay here. For what we did with winning the Super Bowl — and the type of team, coaches, and organization we have — why wouldn’t I stay?” he asked reporters.
A tweet to make you think
— Tyrann Mathieu (@Mathieu_Era) August 9, 2020
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