The Kansas City Chiefs have a lot of decisons to make this offseason. Nearly two dozen players on the active roster will be free agents, and unfortunately there isn’t a way they can retain them all. That said, some strategic thinking from the front office is going to have to occur.
One of those decisions will be Chiefs’ safety Justin Reid. Coming to Kansas City two years ago, Reid has been a leader for their defense, and one of the main reasons why the Chiefs are a top-10 defense today. This past 2024 season was Reid’s last year of his 3-year, $31.5 million contract and is now beeing sought-out by numerous teams.
Tuesday, The Athletic’s Nate Taylor announced that the Chiefs were not expected to re-sign Reid to another deal. While this was already a significant offseason development for Kansas City, it seemingly caught Reid off guard as well. Taylor shared the news during an episode of theKCSN podcast “Only Weird Games,” prompting Reid to react to the report on social media.
Reid responded to the post with a comment saying: “Well that’s news…,” implying he didn’t know about the Chiefs’ offseason plans himself. He found out just like any other Chiefs fan browsing social media.
The Chiefs have shown in the past that they’re not afraid of letting players walk in exchange for acquiring cheaper talent. In 2020, Kansas City let their star safety Tyrann Mathieu leave after signing a 3-year deal. Ironically, it was Reid who ended up replacing him.
That being said, Reid is still a very young player who’s shown he can lead a group. As of now, he’s only 28 years old and he’s already come up with 10 interceptions and 580 total tackles. With linebacker Nick Bolton also possibly leaving, the Chiefs need someone who can defend the pass and tackle in open space. A player like Justin Reid is hard to replace.
While definite strategies might still be up in the air, it’s interesting to see how NFL players might not always be as informed as we thought, and even they sometimes iend up hearing the news just like all of us: through a push notification on our cellphone.
