KC Chiefs Blog

The Kansas City Chiefs will look to continue tweaking their roster on Wednesday and the first player up for the day could be free agent WR Donnie Avery.

The 5-11 Avery is set to visit Kansas City today, according to Jason La Canfora.

A former second-round pick of the St. Louis Rams, Avery has seen time with three teams during his four years in the NFL. After two years with the Rams and a serious knee injury he moved on to the Tennesse Titans and finally the Indianapolis Colts in 2012.

Avery is hoping to cash in on the best season of his career. While playing with standout rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, the receiver played in all 16 games (15 starts) and hauled in 60 passes for 781 yards, including three touchdowns.

He helped the Colts defeat the Chiefs 20-13 in Week 16 with five catches for 38 yards. Avery’s only other games against the Chiefs both came in the preseason. In two games he caught three passes for 33 yards.

The Chiefs already locked up Dwayne Bowe to a long-term contract, but have few options behind him. Jonathan Baldwin has yet to show in games the sort of potential the franchise was betting on when they selected him in the first round in 2011. The only other receiver on the roster with any sort of experience is Dexter McCluster and he’s far from a traditional wide out.

As bad as the mounting losses were for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012, nothing on the field compared to the tragedy involving linebacker Jovan Belcher off of it. Belcher murdered his girlfriend and committed suicide, leaving his daughter an orphan in the process.

While the Chiefs players were hit the hardest by this devastating tragedy, new Kansas City player Mike DeVito felt the pain all the way across the country in New York.

Belcher and DeVito were teammates for three years at the University of Maine. Both players ended up finding a similar path to the NFL as undrafted free agents. Much like the Chiefs players that were around Belcher every day in the NFL, DeVito wondered shortly after the incident how something like this could happen.

“It’s totally shocking and it’s disappointing,” DeVito told New York’s WFAN in December. “I’ve been praying like crazy for both families. I know the type of person that Jovan was in college, and learning from this experience, I wish I would have stayed in better touch with him.

“It makes you realize how important it is to stay involved in your friends’ lives, and always be catching up and checking in, even though they’re at different places. It’s devastating and it really has hit home. “

Those comments echoed those of former Chiefs QB Brady Quinn, who spoke about the importance of working on relationships after Kansas City rallied as a team to down the Carolina Panthers.

“We live in a society of social networks, with Twitter pages and Facebook, and that’s fine, but we have contact with our work associates, our family, our friends, and it seems like half the time we are more preoccupied with our phone and other things going on instead of the actual relationships that we have right in front of us,” Quinn said. “Hopefully, people can learn from this and try to actually help if someone is battling something deeper on the inside than what they are revealing on a day-to-day basis.”

For DeVito, he only wanted to remember the man he played with for three years. Not the man that committed such a heinous act.

“He was a first-class guy,” DeVito told the radio staion. “Just an awesome person, a funny guy to be around, and that’s why when I see his face on TV I’m totally shocked because it’s not something you would ever expect from him. He did so many great things, and now he’s going to be remembered as a murderer. It’s devastating because we know the type of person that Jovan was. Whatever led him to do this, this whole thing is just a disaster.”

The Kansas City Chiefs continued a busy first day of free agency by adding defensive lineman Mike DeVito from the New York Jets. The veteran will get a three-year deal from the Chiefs.

DeVito’s deal is worth $12.6 million with $6.2 million guaranteed, including $5.1 in 2013, according to Jason La Canfora.

With Tyson Jackson restructuring his contract to stay in Kansas City and the addition of DeVito, it’s hard to imagine free agent Glenn Dorsey returning to the Chiefs for a sixth season.

In DeVito the Chiefs are getting a workhorse that can play inside or out in new defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s 3-4 system. The two know each other well from their days with the Jets, where Sutton served as the linebackers coach.

Since entering the league as an undrafted free agent DeVito had spent his entire six-year career in New York. He played in all 16 games for the Jets (15 starts) and recorded 52 tackles and one sack.

Alex Smith won’t be the only new quarterback on the sidelines for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013. But the signal caller joining him is no stranger to Arrowhead, with former Missouri star Chase Daniel agreeing to a three-year deal with the Chiefs.

Daniel went undrafted in 2009, but spent training camp with the Washington Redskins. After being part of the team’s final cuts, he caught on with the New Orleans Saints practice squad.

The former Tiger quickly caught on in New Orleans and worked his way up to Drew Brees’ backup. Playing behind the durable Brees, Daniel has only attempted nine passes during his four years in the league, completing seven of them for 55 yards and no touchdowns.

Daniel looked good in his extended time during the preseason. He was able to complete over 70 percent of his passes, while tossing four touchdowns to two interception in four games. For a fun comparison, Daniel’s 104.8 passer rating in the preseason was more than forty points higher than Matt Cassel’s for the Chiefs.

Going from Cassel and Brady Quinn to Smith and Daniel is an upgrade that no one could have predicted just a month ago. It’s a huge upgrade that also should end any rumbling about the Chiefs spending a draft pick on a quarterback. Even if Reid wants to keep a third quarterback, there’s no reason he can’t go to camp with holdovers Ricky Stanzi and Alex Tanney.

The Kansas City Chiefs struck early in free agency on Tuesday by coming to terms with TE Anthony Fasano on a four-year deal.

With Keven Boss being released, Tony Moeaki’s injury concerns and new head coach Andy Reid’s offense featuring the tight ends, it was a big need for the Chiefs. One they addressed shortly after free agency officially opened around the league.

Fasano caught 41 passes for 332 yards last season for the Miami Dolphins, including five touchdowns. No Chiefs receiver had more than three (Dwayne Bowe) and they only had eight has a team.

Before his five seasons in South Beach, Fasano spent two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys after being selected in the second round of the 2006 draft. His best year as a pro was in 2008 when he hauled in seven touchdowns and racked up 454 yards while starting all 16 games.

The 28-year-old should be able to top those stats in Kansas City in a Reid-led offense that offers many more weapons than anything the Dolphins put on the field in 2012.

In the end, another chance at a Super Bowl ring was too much to keep former Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez from calling it quits. Despite saying at the end of last season he was “probably” done, the future Hall of Famer will return for one more year.

Gonzalez told Jay Glazer of FOX Sports about his intentions after getting medical clearance.

“After discussing it with my family and really, truly struggling with this decision, I informed the Falcons that I would like to return for one more shot,” Gonzalez said. “Considering how this season ended, I wanted to give it another run with Matt (Ryan), Smitty (head coach Mike Smith) and the guys we have in there. It was the first time I had won a playoff game and hopefully coming back once more we can take it one step further.”

All last season, with Gonzalez continuing to play at a high level, there was plenty of skepticism that he would call it a career. But the tight end told Glazer he wasn’t blowing smoke all year.

“I was done, I thought I had my mind made up. This whole year I knew it would be my last but the way our final game ended and talking to all the guys in the locker room, in the end it was too difficult of a way for me to step away from the game.”

As soon as he was traded by the Chiefs to the Falcons, I had held out hope he might come back to Kansas City for a final year with the team ready to make a huge step forward. With a return to the Falcons imminent, we aren’t going to see him in a Kansas City jersey again until he take his spot in the Chiefs Hall of Fame.

Free agency is about to be officially open around the NFL and the upcoming moves over the next month will obviously have a huge impact on which way teams go on draft day. The Kansas City Chiefs are no different, with plenty of holes likely still to be filled on the open market.

Before we see the moves new GM John Dorsey can make in free agency, SB Nation took a shot at a new mock draft and decided to go with the big man out of Texas A&M.

1. Luke Joeckel, OT, Texas A&M
After franchising left tackle Brandon Albert, it looked like the Chiefs may not have a use for an offensive tackle with the first overall pick. But then they released Eric Winston. A right tackle with the first overall pick? For now, yes. Unless Albert signs a long-term deal, there’s nothing to say he won’t be one and out in Kansas City and Joeckel would move to the left side.

Other possibilities: Eric Fisher, Dee Milliner

The Chiefs are going to work out no less than three offensive tackles for the top pick, but it in the end Joeckel is the one that will get the call if that’s the direction they decide to go.

It would still seem the best case scenario for Kansas City would be for a team to fall head over heels for a player and want to grab the No. 1 overall pick. This would allow the Chiefs to recoup their losses from the Alex Smith trade and still add a player in the first round that can come in right away and help turn things around.

If they stay at the top of the draft and don’t select an offensive tackle, Milliner — the CB from Alabama — would make the most sense, despite the addition of Dunta Robinson to the secondary.

Many fans in Kansas City might flip out due to recent history, but DT Sharrif Floyd from Florida is another good fit. Again, keeping Tyson Jackson and/or Glenn Dorsey shouldn’t be seen as a reason to pass on the big man.

Shortly after being released by the Kansas City Chiefs, offensive tackle Eric Winston traveled across the division for a meeting with the San Diego Chargers.

The meeting between the Chargers and Winston went down over the weekend, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The veteran would be able to step right into the starting lineup of a rebuilding offensive line in San Diego that needs to find a way to keep Philip Rivers upright.

San Diego adding Winston would be the second straight offensive tackle taken from the Chiefs. At the end of the 2011 season, the Chargers claimed Jared Gaither off waivers and quickly put him to work.

Gaither ended up signing a four-year, $24.6 million deal in San Diego, but ended up playing in just four games last season. His injury issues — not to mention trouble with the front office and teammates — could send him back onto the market.

If the Chargers and up holding onto Gaither and adding Winston, Chiefs fans will have plenty of motivation to deliver some extra boos during the season.

The Kansas City Chiefs got a jump on free agency Friday night when they came to terms with free agent CB Dunta Robinson.

Teams weren’t able to officially speak with most free agents until 11:00pm CST on Friday, but Robinson was free to sign a new deal at any time because he was released by the Atlanta Falcons. His new contract is said to be for three-years.

Robinson signed a massive six-year, $54 million deal with the Falcons back in 2010, but found himself back on the open market last week as Atlanta looked to free up cap space.

While the 30-year-old isn’t going to be an elite corner in the NFL, he is a much better compliment to Branden Flowers than Stanford Routt was last season. Some have suggested Robinson is destined to shift over to safety next to Eric Berry, but I think he can still line up and start at quarterback at this level

The Kansas City Chiefs have officially parted ways with offensive tackle Eric Winston after just one season. Winston first announced the move on Twitter on Wednesday before the team confirmed it Thursday.

“Just wanted to confirm that I have been released,” he posted to his personal account. “Even though it was an incredibly tough year on and off the field last year, I wouldn’t Trade the relationships I made in KC and the overall experience I had for anything. It was an honor to be a Chief and I wish them nothing but the best in the future…. On to the next adventure!”

Though he didn’t log the best season of his career, Winston was able to start all 16 games. 15 of those contests were at right tackle and the other was at right guard. He was a consistent factor on an offensive line that helped Jamaal Charles pick up 1,509 yards despite the lack of an NFL-caliber quarterback.

Winston will most be remembered for publicly calling out the fans at Arrowhead Stadium for cheering QB Matt Cassel’s concussion.

On his way out the door, Winston didn’t sound like he was bitter towards the Chiefs. He appreciated being released so early in the offseason and even predicted what new GM John Dorsey will do with the first overall pick.

“I’m not putting words in their mouth but I’m just assuming with the way the draft is shaping up and then deciding they wanted to hold onto Branden Albert that it looks like they’ll probably end up taking a tackle,” Winston told 610 Sports in Kansas City. “And you’re not going to pay three guys a bunch of money.”