The Kansas City Chiefs have plenty of offseason decisions to make, they involve several different positional groups. Most fans and media experts would pick out the offensive line as the biggest need, but Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus sees this a little differently.
He chose the Chiefs receiving group as the team’s biggest roster decision entering 2026, and the specific question was “What to do in the receiving corps? It’s certainly a valid question, so let’s take a closer look at his logic.
Start with the Travis Kelce situation, and the tight end’s future is definitely a good place to start. The fact that the Chiefs offense has revolved around the quarterback and the tight end for years more than justifies his argument given the level of change that will inevitably have to occur.
To put it in terms of PFF stats, Kelce’s receiving grade has dipped below 75.0 in each of the last two seasons, which is uncharted territory for the future Hall of Fame. His 1.48 yards per route still sat in the 62nd percentile, according to Locker, and that number of more than enough to keep Kelce around if he decides to give it another go this season.
But there are other issues. Receivers Tyquan Thornton, Marquise Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster are all free agents, and while they’re not important pieces, they represent needed depth given the on-and-off status of fellow receivers Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy.
As Locker notes, Rice and Worthy aren’t sure bets. Rice has struggled with both drops and off-field issues, and Worthy has had some of the injury struggles that were expected given his relatively slight frame. They haven’t developed into consistent game breakers yet, and as a result this group as a whole produced the 21st-ranked receiving grade for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who clearly needs better, more consistent targets.
The fun part of this argument, if you want to call it that, is that you can pick your own positional group as representing the Chiefs’ biggest offensive need this offseason. There’s the aforementioned offensive line, plus the defensive line, which struggled to generate a pass rush in the second half of the season. Half the secondary is entering free agency, and right now the Chiefs don’t have nearly enough cap space to sign the players they need to stick around. It’s all a muddle right now, and coach Andy Reid and GM Brett Veach are going to have their hands full figuring things out and making the right decisions going forward.