In the wake of the stunning loss for the Kansas City Chiefs to the Cincinnati Bengals at home in the AFC Championship game, it can be hard to come to terms with the end of such a rollercoaster of a season. In some ways, it was a memorable year filled with great highlights and the joys of watching so much talent. On the other hand, Super Bowl or bust is the mantra here and they didn’t make it.
Beyond the end of one season, the loss also began the long NFL offseason for the Chiefs, who enter this year’s time off a couple of weeks earlier than they’re used to the last two seasons. Instead of waiting until after the Super Bowl and a parade and all, the Chiefs will now begin their evaluative processes earlier as they watch others continue to play meaningful football.
The offseason can be long and confusing at times with so many deadlines and key dates to know. While some fans might not care at all, we thought we’d walk you through the offseason’s key dates to know to help as a primer for the road ahead.
Here’s your primer to the Kansas City Chiefs offseason.
Let’s take a glance at the offseason ahead and at least the offseason dates you will want to know.
February 3 – Shrine Bowl / February 5 – Senior Bowl
The offseason begins early for the Chiefs’ college scouts and front office personnel with quick looks following their season-ending loss at some of the best NFL Draft prospects available to them. The Senior Bowl has always been a place where the Chiefs go shopping in the annual first-year player draft and perhaps the Shrine Bowl will give them a place to find prospect as well. Both are taking place almost immediately after the AFC Championship Game
February 6 – Pro Bowl
Chris Jones has already been replaced by Jeffery Simmons of the Titans in the NFL’s version of an All-Star game (due to injury), but Chiefs Kingdom should still see most of the team’s offensive stars and even Tyrann Mathieu representing the AFC.
February 13 – Super Bowl
This one hurts, so we’ll move on.
February 19 – HBCU Legacy Bowl
The Black College Football Hall of Fame is responsible for putting on this new showcase for draft-eligible players, giving the Chiefs and other teams yet another exhibition in which to evaluate NFL hopefuls.
March 1-7 – NFL Scouting Combine
The annual “underwear Olympics” takes place again in Indianapolis where nearly every NFL Draft entrant will be measured and interviewed, analyzed and checked out.
March 8 – Franchise and transition tag deadline
It’s hard to see the Chiefs using a tag on anyone this year, but the deadline is just one week before the new league year.
March 14-16 – FA Tampering
The league decided to create a “legal” tampering period to at least get rid of the charade that teams aren’t talking to players well before the start of a new league year. Somehow the Chiefs were once fined a Day 2 draft pick for tampering with Jeremy Maclin despite the fact that everyone does it.
March 16 – New League Year
With the new league year will come a frenzy of player news, crazy rumors, potential trades and more. This is one of two segments of the offseason that fans love almost as much as the actual game.
March 27-30 – League Meetings
NFL owners will gather at this point and this is where you will hear the first rumors of potential rule changes for the coming year. These meetings are also often when you hear things about the state of franchise sales, new international ventures, and the state of negotiations between the league and the players’s association at key moments.
April 18 – Offseason workouts can begin
Because the Chiefs have a veteran head coach, this is the earliest possible date given that offseason workouts can begin for Kansas City. The Chiefs will eventually release their official dates but nothing can happen before this for returning vets.
April 22 – RFA Tender Deadline
The Chiefs’ only restricted free agent is wide receiver Marcus Kemp, so the Chiefs have until this day to tender him a contract for 2022.
April 28-30 – 2022 NFL Draft
What’s fun is to think about Kansas City hosting this very event next year!