The Kansas City Chiefs are among the winners of free agency two weeks after the new league year began, but it isn’t quite time for the team to turn the entirety of its attention to April’s NFL draft.
Kansas City finished 24th in the overall league standings after going 6-11 last season, which is reflected in the fact that they own the No. 9 overall pick. However, Mason Cameron of Pro Football Focus ranked the Chiefs as the 13th-rated team in his power rankings last week based on the work they have done in March.
“Heading into free agency, the Chiefs were staring down numerous roster holes, including a backfield absent their two leading rushers from 2025,” Cameron wrote. “They not only addressed the issue but also added serious juice to the position with Kenneth Walker III. The Super Bowl MVP was the highest-graded running back in the NFL in 2025 and now joins a franchise with a championship pedigree. While the Chiefs still have needs to address, they now have ample draft capital to do so.”
Kansas City has nine picks in the draft, including three in the top 40. The team is hunting an edge-rusher, cornerback, offensive tackle and wide receiver, and should be able to address two or three of those needs with top players.
Futures on the website Polymarket suggest that the one position the Chiefs are most likely to address in free agency rather than the draft is receiver, as Kansas City has the second-best odds (33 percent) to sign eight-time Pro Bowler Tyreek Hill as of Sunday, March 22. The only team with a better chance to acquire Hill is the San Francisco 49ers at 34.1 percent.
Dolphins Cut Tyreek Hill After Serious Knee Injury
GettyFormer Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
Hill spent the first six seasons of his career with Kansas City where he started as an elite return man on special teams and ended up developing into one of the top wideouts in the league.
He won a Super Bowl alongside Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes before making some waves and ultimately getting a trade out of Kansas City to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for five draft picks.
Miami cut Hill this offseason in the interest of saving more than $50 million against the 2026 salary cap following a knee dislocation and ACL tear early in the 2025 campaign.
Spotrac projects Hill’s market value at approximately $30 million on a new two-year deal. He will play next season at the age of 32.
Chiefs Could Reunite Tyreek Hill With Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce
GettyKansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
At this point in his career, Hill is not the No. 1 receiver that Kansas City is missing. However, he can still fill a meaningful role assuming he can return healthy from his injury by Week 1.
Hill has tallied nearly 11,400 receiving yards and 83 touchdowns on 819 receptions across his 10-year career to this point.
Kansas City brought back tight end Travis Kelce on a one-year deal, which affords Mahomes a sure-handed target in short and intermediate areas of the field. If Hill can regain a reasonable amount of his explosiveness following the injury, it could be worth it for the Chiefs to bring the original band back together on offense for a year or two and take another Super Bowl shot.
