The Kansas City Chiefs have tendered a qualifying offer to versatile offensive lineman Andrew Wylie.
The Kansas City Chiefs have tendered a qualifying offer to offensive lineman Andrew Wylie, according to Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star.
To explain all of this, Wylie is termed as an exclusive rights free agent. This means he has only two seasons of NFL experience accrued so far, giving the Chiefs the sole rights to extend him for a third year if they so choose.
By tendering him a qualifying offer, likely at the veteran minimum, Wylie is guaranteed to be back with the Chiefs for one more season.
Wylie first joined the Chiefs very late in the 2017 season and the team promoted him to the active roster that winter to keep other teams from being able to sign him away (instead of just being on the practice squad). Wylie then earned the starting left guard spot over Bryan Witzmann during the preseason and never looked back. In the process, Wylie was named the team’s rookie of the year (the Mack Lee Hill winner) in 2018 by his teammates after the season.
It will be interesting to see the Chiefs plans with Wylie, since they were also rumored to be interested in bringing back Stefen Wisniewski. Wisniewski took over the starting left guard spot for Wylie and looked great down the stretch. Wylie dealt with injuries in 2019, but is he ready to return? Is he coming back as a versatile backup? Only time will tell.