Free agency is never just about the players scheduled to hit the open market. The start of a new league year also brings changes for those players who are still technically under contract. The NFL stands for "not for long" for a good reason, because a player can never feel truly secure in his role no matter if he's signed for a certain amount of time or not.
The Kansas City Chiefs came into the offseason with plenty of players hitting free agency—including the heralded class of 2022—but a few other names were obviously placed on the potential chopping block as well. General manager Brett Veach was even asked about guys like offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor at the Scouting Combine ahead of free agency, and he served up other potential names on the fence, like linebacker Drue Tranquill or tight end Noah Gray. It was a public acknowledgement of what every fan in Chiefs Kingdom has been debating.
The other two have already been taken care of. Taylor was released to create $20 million in new cap space. Tranquill accepted a restructured deal to stay with the team and reduce his cap hit. That leaves Gray as the player living with the most uncertainty in Kansas City these days.
The Chiefs'' decision on Noah Gray should follow the Drue Tranquill blueprint.
The details of Travis Kelce's new contract were recently made known, and the creative structure of what, on the surface, looks like a one-year, $12M deal comes with a cap hit under $5M in 2026. The idea that Gray, the team's second tight end, would be okay with a cap hit at $2M more than the legend in front of him is ridiculous. That's why Gray's $7M cap hit for the coming year feels disproportional.
That's not to say that Gray doesn't hold value for the Chiefs. He does. The Chiefs rewarded him with a three-year extension because he provided real value as another pass catcher as well as a safety net and torch-bearer in case Kelce ever hit the aging wall or decided to walk away from the game. Going from Kelce to the likes of Jared Wiley without external imports is a steep fall, and smart teams have at least some internal options at the ready.
But Gray's impact took a massive dive in 2025. He caught only 21 passes for 178 yards as one of several neutered targets in the offensive picture. Suddenly, his looming $7M cap hit looked like a clear place to start when clearing cap space for a new year.
The fact that Gray is still on the roster is a bit of a shock, but it's also a good sign for Gray. The Chiefs cut Mike Danna and Taylor to kick off the offseason, and no one would have batted an eye had they done the same to Gray. Keeping him around either means they're trying to go about their business while folding in his numbers for another year or they're actively working on Gray's contract in the same way that Tranquill's reps did.
What would make the most sense at this point is for Gray and the Chiefs to come to an agreement on a reworked number for the upcoming season. A $7M TE2 is just not congruent with everything else the Chiefs are doing. That said, Gray's down year coincided with a lot of other plummeting stocks, and all the reasons they extended him are still true. No one should be surprised if Gray joins Tranquill as a veteran who found a way to hang on with a team with a finessed contract.