![\"Chiefs](\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Malik-Herring-e1741827962992.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780\")
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As the NFL calendar finally turned to 2025 on March 12, the Kansas City Chiefs were forced to make decisions on several restricted free agents.<\/p>\n
Chiefs Digest insider Matt Derrick relayed those decisions on X, reporting: \u201cChiefs offered right of first refusal tenders on CB Nazeeh Johnson and LB Jack Cochrane. Those are contract offers of $3.263 million for the 2025 season. Restricted free agents not offered tenders: TE Peyton Hendershot, CB Keith Taylor and K Spencer Shrader.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those that are unfamiliar with how the restricted free agent process works, Derrick explained what this all means in a follow-up post.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnson and Cochrane can sign offer sheets from other clubs but Chiefs retain right to match,\u201d the KC beat reporter noted. Adding: \u201cHendershot, Shrader and Taylor can sign with any club, including Chiefs, but no right to match or [guaranteed] compensation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Finally, in a third post,\u00a0Derrick reported\u00a0that \u201cDE\u00a0Malik Herring has re-signed with the Chiefs on a one-year deal, per source.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to clarify that Herring was the sixth restricted free agent that Kansas City had to decide on going into this offseason, but that the veteran defensive end was held off the RFA list after receiving a new contract.<\/p>\n Earlier this offseason,\u00a0Derrick and fellow beat member Nick Jacobs (KSHB 41) debated\u00a0which restricted free agents would get tendered by the Chiefs, and which wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n In the end,\u00a0Jacobs concluded that he would non-tender the entire group, including Herring, Johnson and Cochrane.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, all those [contracts] would have to be vet minimum,\u201d Jacobs stated at the time. Acknowledging: \u201cThat may not be what they want to hear\u2026 they may think they can get better [offers] on the open market and if they do, they do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Keep in mind, Jacobs was considering this RFA situation before the Chiefs\u00a0traded All-Pro guard Joe Thuney\u00a0and freed up a whole bunch of cap space\u00a0restructuring the contracts of Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones, so he was trying to be fiscally responsible.<\/p>\n Derrick was a little more optimistic that Kansas City would find the room in their budget for a few of these players, suggesting Johnson, Hendershot and Cochrane as his three top candidates to return.<\/p>\n Obviously, Derrick\u2019s prediction was closer to the eventual outcome, as the Chiefs did indeed make a move to re-sign three of these players. Herring is returning for the 2025 campaign, per Derrick, and Johnson and Cochrane should be back barring heavy $3.263 million-plus interest from another franchise.<\/p>\n Derrick mentioned it within his posts, but just to be clear, non-tendered RFAs can still re-sign at a later date. And it\u2019s possible that Kansas City will end up welcoming one or two of these players back on the veteran minimum contract that Jacobs mentioned.<\/p>\n Before they agree to that, however, they will test their market in free agency.<\/p>\n So, if anyone offers Taylor, Hendershot or Shrader a salary greater than the vet minimum, they\u2019ll probably walk. But if there\u2019s not much interest elsewhere, it\u2019s still possible that they return in 2025.<\/p>\n The difference is that it\u2019s now entirely up to the player, with the Chiefs relinquishing any power that they had in retaining these three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the NFL calendar finally turned to 2025 on March 12, the Kansas City Chiefs were forced to make decisions on several restricted free agents. Chiefs Digest… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nChiefs RFAs Malik Herring, Nazeeh Johnson & Jack Cochrane Defy the Odds Following Grim Prediction<\/h2>\n
Chiefs\u2019 Non-Tendered RFAs Can Still Re-Sign<\/h2>\n