After a bit of waffling from the podium at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has reached the same conclusion that everyone else thought was already a foregone conclusion: that Jawaan Taylor would not be a part of the 2026 roster.
The Chiefs have reportedly made it clear to Taylor that he will be released before the start of a new league year if they are unable to trade him before then. It's a public announcement of sorts to potentially interested NFL teams that they might want to get their bids in or compete with each other in free agency for his services.
To be clear, Taylor is still a plus asset at a premium position. Solid tackle play is one of the rarer items for a franchise to find, and Taylor is one of the league's better pass protectors. But the Chiefs have multiple issues that make it difficult for them to keep Taylor around for another year.
The Chiefs first signed Taylor to a four-year, $80 million deal in free agency back in 2023, but a hefty bill is coming due in his final season under contract. Taylor cost the Chiefs $27M last season, and he's set to make that much again in 2026. That's an amount that's just not palatable for Kansas City, given the list of expenditures elsewhere on the roster.
The Chiefs are ready to follow through on the popular notion that Jawaan Taylor would be released, shortly after Brett Veach seemed to say otherwise.
Perhaps Kansas City would find some financial wiggle room if Taylor's performance with the team didn't come with the history of frustrating penalties year after year. Taylor's reputation in Chiefs Kingdom is largely a negative one, even if it's unfair after Cris Collinsworth picked on him relentlessly in primetime in his first start with the team, but the narrative still holds, even if it's a bit over the top.
For the Chiefs, the release of Taylor would free up $20 million in cap room. Since the Chiefs came into the offseason with the league's worst salary cap position, Veach faced some tough decisions about how to create the spending room needed to shop for improvements. Releasing Taylor was a part of the assumed picture until Veach spoke at the NFL Combine.
Eveyr year, Veach answers reporters questions from Indianapolis before free agency begins, and this year, he intimated that Taylor could return—as he mentioned the Chiefs had contracts they could potentially restructure to create more cap space. Perhaps that was his way of seeing who might be interested in trading for him, if a franchise were fearful that K.C. wouldn't cut him loose after all. Then again, maybe it was a legitimate thought for a hot minute in the Chiefs' front office.
Either way, that notion has been set aside. ESPN reporter Adam Schefter says the Chiefs will look to trade him before releasing him, but either way, Taylor is now on the outs in Kansas City. He's certainly not done in the NFL, but after three confusing seasons of frustrating yet productive play on championship rosters, Taylor's stint as the starting right tackle has come to its end.