Free agency is just around the corner.
While the legal tampering period doesn’t begin until Monday, March 13, the Kansas City Chiefs and 31 other NFL teams are already well into executing their plans for the offseason. They’ve already attended the NFL Scouting Combine, which is when the feeling-out process for teams ahead of the beginning of free agency every year.
With that in mind, our friend Doug Farrar at Touchdown Wire has put together an expansive list of the 151 best free agents in this year’s crop (76-151 and 1-75). The Kansas City Chiefs have 20 pending unrestricted free agents this offseason and seven of those players made the list, with four players on offense and three on defense being recognized.
Below you’ll find a look at where those seven players ranked on the list and some musings about each player:
8. LT Orlando Brown Jr.
Brown Jr. is the team’s top-ranked player, which leaves me feeling that it’s a foregone conclusion he leaves in free agency. Watch the New England Patriots as a potential destination.
34. EDGE Frank Clark
Clark was just released by the team and immediately ranks within the top third of this list. While the option remains for him to return to Kansas City, the open market might make that more difficult than fans would have hoped.
35. S Juan Thornhill
Thornhill being ranked this highly is a bit of a surprise, but I think it speaks to the market and draft class at the safety position. He’s due to earn a big deal in free agency.
52. WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
Smith-Schuster ranking just outside the top-third of this list shouldn’t surprise. He was on the cusp of a 1,000-yard season, but his play fell off in the second half of the year as injuries caught up.
88. WR Mecole Hardman
This is perhaps the biggest surprise to me. Reports indicate that Hardman is expected to be priced out of Kansas City, which would suggest the NFL views Hardman much more valuable than this ranking.
96. EDGE Carlos Dunlap
Will Dunlap retire or will he continue to play? I have to think if he kept going, he’d want to do so in Kansas City.
130. OT Andrew Wylie
There’s been a lot of chatter about some free agent right tackles like Jawaan Taylor and Kaleb McGary, but very little about the right tackle who shut down Haason Reddick in Super Bowl LVII.
