It’s the last team in the series so, naturally, we reserved this spot for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs! A lot of world champions simply focus on keeping the band together, but Brett Veach and Andy Reid are smarter than that. You always need to be one step ahead and you can always get better. The Chiefs will continue their pursuit of dynasty-level excellence in 2024, no doubt!

What we’ll do here is look at the Chiefs' weapons both from an NFL fandom and a fantasy football standpoint. We’ll look at the roster, depth chart, contracts, and salary cap to predict some realistic moves we expect in free agency. The NFL combine is done and the legal tampering period opens Monday so there’s no time to waste!

*The salary cap numbers referenced in this article come courtesy of our friends over at Spotrac.com*

Fantasy Football Depth Chart: Kansas City Chiefs

Quarterback

Patrick Mahomes

Blaine Gabbert

Ian Book

Chris Oladokun

Running Back

Isiah Pacheco

Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Deneric Prince

Hassan Hall

Running Back

Jerick McKinnon

La'Mical Perine

Keaontay Ingram

 

Wide Receiver

Justin Watson

Mecole Hardman

Justyn Ross

Shi Smith

Wide Receiver

Rashee Rice

Richie James

Montrell Washington

Anthony Miller

Wide Receiver

Skyy Moore

Kadarius Toney

Cornell Powell

Nikko Remigio

Tight End

Travis Kelce

Jody Fortson

Izaiah Gathings

 

Tight End

Noah Gray

Blake Bell

Gerrit Prince

 


White = unrestricted free agent

Green = role is safe

Yellow = role could be in jeopardy

Red = could be traded or released

PROJECTED 2024 SALARIES: ~$249M

ESTIMATED 2024 CAP SPACE: ~$10M

 

Quarterback

Patrick Mahomes: Don’t need much of a write-up here. The Kansas City Chiefs have the best quarterback in the league and he’s under contract until 2032. Congratulations. 

Blaine Gabbert: Gabbert is an unrestricted free agent so the Chiefs will have a decision to make. He technically won his lone start in Week 18 while the starters rested but his final season stat line of 18 of 35 for 185 yards with zero touchdowns and 3 interceptions wasn’t spectacular. That really might not matter though as the evaluation of these guys is done in-house every day, not on a handful of Sunday snaps. If he’s willing to come back on an affordable deal, he might be back.

Ian Book: The former Notre Dame QB and New Orleans Saint served as the emergency third QB most weeks. Even in deeper superflex and multiple QB leagues, I have a hard time having an interest in guys who were in the building for QB-needy teams (like the Saints were) but were never in the discussion. 

Chris Oladokun: He’s more of a practice squad level guy but the Chiefs did give him credit for playing the Lamar Jackson role in practice before the playoff game. He’ll be in the battle for emergency third QB but can’t be trusted as the gameday backup at this stage. 

CHIEFS QB FREE AGENCY TAKE: This team is competing to win now and they can't afford to drop a single game if Mahomes misses time so the backup won’t be Book or Oladokun.  It will either be Gabbert or an outside party. Here are the best options that could come at a reasonable price. We’ll exclude any of the guys who might actually want to compete for a job like the Jacoby Brissetts or Gardner Minshews of the world because there is no competition here.

POSSIBLE FREE AGENT QB OPTIONS: Blaine Gabbert, Joshua Dobbs, Carson Wentz, Drew Lock, Matt Barkley

Running Back

Isiah Pacheco: The Chiefs have to be happy with Isiah Pacheco on the early downs - he runs angry. When you are a team like the Chiefs needing to close out games, it’s incredibly important to have that guy that can get that yard when everyone in the building knows you are running it. Ask the Chargers about that in the year they lost with a big lead to the Jaguars in the playoffs. You have to have someone that can close out games.

The question is whether they want to complement the hard-nose running style of Pacheco with a pass-catcher. In the modern NFL, most teams run some form of split backfield and, in the past, Jerrick McKinnon has handled that work. Unless they bring in a high-end option, it likely wouldn’t hurt Pacheco's fantasy value too badly. But a high-end option might not be off the table given how cheap RB contracts have been lately.

Jerick McKinnon: Jerick McKinnon had one of the best combines an RB has ever had but, along the way, his explosiveness was sapped by serious injuries. He has been a servicable pass down back for the Chiefs but he turns 32 years old this spring. Maybe they run it back but he’s an unrestricted free agent so his time could be done. His injury history makes him hard to rely on.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire: There was a lot of excitement for the first-round pick but being surpassed by the seventh round Pacheco was the nail in the coffin for his fantasy upside. He’ll likely try to catch on with a new team and a fresh start in free agency.

La'Mical Perine/Keaontay Ingram/Deneric Prince/Hassan Hall: The Chiefs have a number of backs floating around at the practice squad/futures contracts level to see if they can hang on for depth. If I were to take a stab on one for a deep fantasy football league, it would be Deneric Prince. At 6’0” 216 with a 4.41 forty yard dash, he actually has a 96th percentile size adjusted speed score per Player Profiler which is kind of intriguing. 

CHIEFS RB FREE AGENCY TAKE: There are two parts to the RB depth question. The first, and most important for fantasy football, is do they upgrade their pass catching back. There are certainly some intriguing options out there and the RB market is depressed so the contracts might not be that expensive. If they really wanted to go all out, pairing Isiah Pacheco with former division rival Austin Ekeler would give them one of the best backfield combinations in the NFL.

The second question is oddly about wide receiver Richie James. He returned virtually every punt and kick for this team in 2023. And he’s an unrestricted free agent. If he’s not back, the RB depth could be dictated by who can help return kicks. Here are some guys that either catch passes, return kicks, or both (like Antonio Gibson).

POSSIBLE FREE AGENT RB OPTIONS: Austin Ekeler, Antonio Gibson, Jerick McKinnon, Matt Breida, Ty Johnson, DeeJay Dallas

 

Wide Receiver

Rashee Rice: Rice, was a rookie, managed to have the second most targets behind Travis Kelce with 102. And the third most was Justin Watson with 53. Here’s the crazy thing about this season for Rice - he hasn’t fully developed what was arguably his best skill in college. 

In his senior year he led all drafted WRs in contested catches but, this past year as a rookie, he wasn’t called on much for that and had only one contested catch. Just imagine how good he can be once he works out those tricks at this level. We could be talking about the next DeAndre Hopkins or Keenan Allen here. He’s a buy-high in dynasty for me. 

Justin Watson: Watson is valued more for his blocking than being a huge threat in the pass attack but that is a valuable ability. Sammy Watkins and Byron Pringle held down that job before him. We can’t help but imagine though he good this offense could be if they had a big split end that could block well but was more of a weapon as well.

Skyy Moore: The Chiefs have tried out a number of guys in this slot-type role and none of them really popped. But I guess it doesn’t matter as they won the Super Bowl anyway right? We like to give guys the benefit of the doubt but Rashee Rice showing up and drastically outperforming all these guys year one puts a damper on that.

Kadarius Toney: The explosive playmaker was clearly not happy about being benched down the stretch. And he disagreed with his injury designation as well. The thing is, there is no cap savings for releasing Kadarius Toney as his $2.5 million contract is fully guaranteed. They can only get out from it if they trade him. So I imagine they would even consider taking a symbolic seventh round pick for him, if someone wanted to give him a shot.

Richie James: We already mentioned the importance of Richie James on special teams. If he is back in 2024, it will largely be based on his ability to return both punts and kicks. 

Mecole Hardman: With MVS gone, there is room for a speedy field stretcher here with the Chiefs. Hardman could be back again in 2024 but he’s an unrestricted free agent.

Justyn Ross: Ross was always sneakily intriguing for us because of how good he was in college before his injuries. The scary thing here is that he has a degenerative condition with his neck/spine which many NFL teams deemed was too dangerous for them to clear to play at any point. The Chiefs medical staff cleared him though so we’ll have to see if he can develop.

Reserve/Future: The Chiefs loaded up on reserve deals with guys like Anthony Miller, Shi Smith, Nikko Remigio etc. but they don’t really appeal to us much at this stage for fantasy football. Izaiah Gathings is listed as a WR but he’s more of a tight end prospect. Montrell Washington is the most interesting because, if Richie James is gone, he can return kicks like he did in Denver. But they all have a fairly uphill path to fantasy relevance. 

CHIEFS WR FREE AGENCY TAKE: We mentioned the big split end need. But, with Tee Higgins and Michael Pittman tagged Mike Evans back in Tampa Bay, the top of the market was pretty much crushed for that. Some folks want to see Calvin Ridley with the Chiefs but he he’s more of a flanker like Rashee Rice. These names might not be sexy but they are affordable bigger options to try on the outside.

POSSIBLE FREE AGENT WR OPTIONS: DJ Chark, Gabe Davis, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Chase Claypool

 

Tight End

Travis Kelce: Like the Patrick Mahomes write up, not much has to be said here. Travis Kelce is a stud and he’ll remain a staple in your fantasy lineups until he decides to hang them up. His brother Jason Kelce just retired so we’ll have to cross that bridge with Travis at some point too.

Noah Gray: Noah Gray is quite a useful player. He can not only play the blocking tight end role for jumbo sets, but he actually looked okay Week One in the Travis Kelce role. He might not have huge upside for the future, but his role is safe with the organization. 

Jody Fortson: Fortson flashed at times, but injuries have been a big problem here. He’s a restricted free agent but they are unlikely to pick up the $2.8 million tender there, so he’ll likely become an unrestricted free agent. He could be back but not at $3 million. 

Blake Bell: Blake Bell is the pure blocking tight end but he’s an unrestricted free agent. If he’s not back, there are a lot of names available in free agency. 

Izaiah Gathings: Gathings is quietly the most interesting deep league stash at tight end here. We’re always interested in converted WRs. Unfortunately, he’s not only on the smaller side at 6’3” 222 but he’s fairly slow with a 4.72 forty. 

CHIEFS TE FREE AGENCY TAKE: At some point this team will need to thing about the future beyond Kelce. But that should probably come via the draft. For the short term, they just need a blocking tight end if Blake Bell is gone. Here are the best options.

CHIEFS FREE AGENT BLOCKING TE OPTIONS: Marcedes Lewis, Geoff Swaim, Drew Sample, Adam Trautman, MyCole Pruitt, Tyler Kroft

NFL Free Agency Previews

Discover our other breakdowns for the rest of the league ahead of 2024 NFL free agency: