Fresh off becoming back-to-back champions with a win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, the Kansas City Chiefs largely planned their offseason around keeping the band together for a bid at a three-peat.

The team got a head start on free agency shortly before the league year began, re-signing star defensive tackle Chris Jones to a monster 5-year contract. Including $95 million in guaranteed money, it was — by far — the richest defensive contract of that offseason.

Not surprisingly, giving market-topping money to Jones left the Chiefs on the sidelines when unrestricted free agents started signing with new teams. In fact, Kansas City’s first signing of note — veteran tight end Irv Smith Jr. — had been among the players released after the previous training camp.

The Chiefs’ trendiest free agent signing was getting wide receiver Hollywood Brown on a one-year deal built around major incentives. Unfortunately, the veteran speedster suffered a shoulder injury on his first preseason snap. It ultimately required major surgery.

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Although Brown was able to return late in the regular season (and contributed during the playoffs), the team’s vision of pairing him with quarterback Patrick Mahomes never materialized. Brown and the Chiefs will try to get it right in 2025, as he has returned to the club on an almost identical “prove-it” one-year contract.

Jones was not the only defensive free agent who returned to the Chiefs. Kansas City rewarded the 2023 contributions of linebacker Drue Tranquill and defensive end Mike Danna with lucrative three-year contracts.

In 2023, both had been signed to bargain salaries before turning in career seasons and contributing to a Super Bowl-winning defense. Sometimes, though, perceptions for NFL role players like these can change quickly after a bigger contract puts a brighter spotlight on them.

Danna and Tranquill were certainly not bad players in 2024. Their contracts — worth a combined $14 million annually — were hardly back-breaking to Kansas City’s salary cap. But whether they were better options than hypothetical replacement players is open to debate. In 2024, Danna’s sack production was cut in half, while Tranquill’s missed tackle rate surged to a career-high 13%.

Now that the Chiefs have acquired potential replacements by drafting defensive end Ashton Gillotte and linebacker Jeff Bassa, Tranquill and Danna might not remain in Kansas City for their final contract seasons in 2026. The Chiefs will have to decide if they have better uses for up to $15 million in salary cap space they could clear by moving on from the two veterans.

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One re-signing that paid off handsomely for the Chiefs (and the player) was bringing back defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton. Kansas City gave Wharton its entire four-year qualifying allotment to pay him $2.74 million. Since it was a Veteran Salary Benefit contract, only about half of it counted against the cap.

Wharton then turned in a career-best 6.5 sacks in 2024. The former undrafted free agent from Missouri S&T parlayed that performance into a three-year contract worth $54 million with the Carolina Panthers.

Ultimately, the Chiefs’ inability to win a third consecutive Super Bowl will likely cause most to judge the preceding offseason as a failure. There were signs that the team did not learn enough from its failed “run it back” approach following its Super Bowl LIV victory, which led to a crushing defeat a year later.

In 2024, Kansas City prioritized keeping a front seven that led the team to 57 sacks in 2023. But a year later, a largely similar unit registered only 39.

The Chiefs also neglected to add talent to the secondary. While the 2023 version was paramount in securing a third Super Bowl in five seasons, the depth of the unit did not stand up to injuries down the stretch — although all of its key contributors were available for the postseason.

We now know that 2023’s starting left tackle Donovan Smith remained unsigned throughout 2024 as he recovered from an injury. While it is fair to criticize the team for failing to find a comparable replacement for Smith, no NFL tackles who changed teams last offseason would likely have fared any better against the vicious Philadelphia Eagles front than converted guard Joe Thuney did.

The Chiefs’ three successful Super Bowl seasons with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid have begun with innovative offseason plans. In 2019, the team bid farewell to a host of defensive favorites, completely revamping the unit for incoming coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. In 2022, the Chiefs made a major trade, giving up one of the league’s premier wide receivers in exchange for draft capital and salary cap space to attack the season with unprecedented depth.

A year later, the Chiefs’ most significant offseason change was replacing left tackle Orlando Brown’s deal with a large contract for right tackle Jawaan Taylor. While that decision has proven controversial, Kansas City punctuated that offseason with shrewd free-agency moves, bringing in players like Tranquill, safety Mike Edwards and defensive end Charles Omenihu.

In the 2025 offseason, Kansas City has made selective moves in free agency. Time will tell if these players will augment the team as similar moves did in 2023 — or if the Chiefs will prove themselves too sentimental by relying on past performances from familiar faces.