Contract details for Chiefs QB Chad Henne

The Kansas City Chiefs can get out of Henne’s two-year contract after the 2020 NFL season.

The Kansas City Chiefs locked in their backup quarterback for at least the next season, re-signing Chad Henne to a two-year deal.

Henne suffered an ankle injury during the 2019 preseason that knocked him out for a chunk of the year. He returned healthy from injured reserve late in the season ahead of the Week 9 game against the Minnesota Vikings. He was active during that game, backing up Matt Moore. He also was active for the game against the Tennessee Titans game during the postseason.

The structure of this contract essentially gives Henne a one-year deal with the Chiefs, as they’ll be able to cut him in 2021 prior to the third day of the new league year without a big dead cap number.

Here’s a look at the base salary, signing bonus and cap numbers courtesy of OverTheCap:

Year Base Salary Signing Bonus Cap Hit Dead Cap
2020 $1,250,000 $375,000 $1,600,000 $2,000,000
2021 $1,200,000 $375,000 $1,600,000 $375,000

By my calculations, Henne’s contract leaves the Chiefs with about $1.5 million in salary-cap space. We still don’t know the details for Mike Remmers’ free-agent deal with Kansas City, but you can expect it won’t exceed a $1.5 million cap hit in 2020.

Brett Veach and his staff have some work to do if they’re to sign more players. At the very least, they’ll need to add more cap space in order to sign their five draft picks and undrafted free agents.

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Chiefs officially announce signing of backup QB Chad Henne

Henne’s contract with the Kansas City Chiefs is official. They’ve got a backup QB for the 2020 season and beyond.

The Kansas City Chiefs have made their signing of backup QB Chad Henne official.

They’re allowed to do this now, without a physical being done, as the NFL sent out a notice to teams. Players must have reached an agreement on a contract and have it in front of them before teams are allowed to announce.

The Chiefs opted to re-sign Henne on a two-year contract, over Matt Moore, who currently has a very active free-agent market. Kansas City already had chosen Henne over Moore once before, ahead of the 2018 season, when Henne first signed with the team. Now, they’ll opt for Henne to backup Patrick Mahomes for a third season.

 

Henne has appeared in just one game in his two seasons with the Chiefs, throwing three passes with two completions for 29 yards. He’s never started a game in Kansas City and hasn’t started a game since 2014. At the very, least he’s as fresh as a backup quarterback could possibly be.

Henne was hurt for the majority of 2019 season after suffering an ankle injury during the preseason. He spent the majority of 2019 on injured reserve before eventually returning as one of two players designated to return from IR. Henne was active for just one game during the 2019 playoff run, while Moore was sick.

With any luck, the Chiefs won’t need Henne’s services in 2020, but it’s good to know that they at least have someone who is familiar with the system if something were to happen.

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Former Wolverines QB re-signs 2-year NFL contract

The former Wolverine gets to continue his backup role with the contending Super Bowl champions.

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All eyes might be on one former Michigan quarterback, as Tom Brady posted a goodbye to the New England Patriots on social media on Tuesday morning. But another one just cemented himself with the franchise he just won a Super Bowl with.

It’s now been awhile since Chad Henne — who played in Ann Arbor from 2004-2007 — has been a starting quarterback in the NFL, but he continues to be a capable backup to Patrick Mahomes with the Kansas City Chiefs, the team that won Super Bowl LIV in Miami earlier this year. But the Chiefs certainly feel lucky to have Henne — who is entering his 11th year in the league. Though Henne didn’t play in 2019, he’s completed 59.3% of his passes in his NFL career for 12,960 yards, 58 touchdowns and 63 interceptions.

Kansas City has thusly re-signed the former Michigan football star to a two-year contract.

From ChiefsWire:

“We’ve been blessed and fortunate to have two veteran guys that just did a tremendous job,” Veach told Chiefs Wire. “Chad (Henne) got hurt. And Matt (Moore) came out of retirement and played really good football for us in that Minnesota game that we won in the middle of the season. It was a big deal. We actually have two meetings scheduled with both their representatives this week as well. We’ll see how that goes, but I anticipate one of those guys being back and we’ll have to work through the dialogue with both their agents and see what makes sense for them and us.”

Now, we’ll be waiting for the other domino to fall as far as former Michigan quarterbacks are concerned, with Tom Brady mulling his options to switch teams for the first time in his NFL career.

Report: Chiefs to re-sign backup QB Chad Henne

The Kansas City Chiefs have their backup quarterback signed through 2021.

The Kansas City Chiefs have solved their backup quarterback dilemma.

Both Matt Moore and Chad Henne were scheduled to become free agents in 2020, leaving Kansas City with limited options behind star QB Patrick Mahomes. At the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, I asked Chiefs general manager Brett Veach about his plans at the backup QB position.

“We’ve been blessed and fortunate to have two veteran guys that just did a tremendous job,” Veach told Chiefs Wire. “Chad (Henne) got hurt. And Matt (Moore) came out of retirement and played really good football for us in that Minnesota game that we won in the middle of the season. It was a big deal. We actually have two meetings scheduled with both their representatives this week as well. We’ll see how that goes, but I anticipate one of those guys being back and we’ll have to work through the dialogue with both their agents and see what makes sense for them and us.”

Veach has made a decision on which of the two will be back with the Chiefs for the 2020 season and beyond. According to a new report from Yahoo Sports’ Terez Paylor, Henne will remain the backup for Kansas City with a new two-year deal.

Henne has played in just one game in his two seasons with the Chiefs, throwing three passes with two completions for 29 yards. Henne spent the majority of the 2019 season on injured reserve, which precipitated the need for signing Moore out of retirement. Henne eventually was designated as one of two players returning from injury. He was active for one game during the 2019 playoff run that resulted in Super Bowl LIV.

Now that the Chiefs have the backup QB situation solved, you can scratch quarterback off their list of needs in the 2020 NFL draft. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see them bring in an undrafted free agent or two to compete with Henne and second-year QB Kyle Shurmur.

Since Henne was under contract with Kansas City last season, he’s free to sign with the team immediately. Expect the official announcement to come from the Chiefs sometime tomorrow.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach expects either Matt Moore or Chad Henne to return in 2020

General manager Brett Veach expects that one of the backup QBs will be back with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020.

Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach expects that at least one of two backup quarterbacks will be retained in 2020.

Both Matt Moore and Chad Henne are pending free agents, leaving the Chiefs in a predicament at the backup quarterback position. It was a position that was very important for Kansas City this season. They called upon Moore when Mahomes suffered a kneecap dislocation. Moore went 1-1 in two starts and closed out the game during which Mahomes was injured.

On Tuesday, Chiefs GM Brett Veach confirmed that he expects one of the two veteran backups to return for the 2020 season. They’ll hash out some of those details as they meet with representatives for both players at the combine.

“We’ve been blessed and fortunate to have two veteran guys that just did a tremendous job,” Veach said. “Chad (Henne) got hurt. And Matt (Moore) came out of retirement and played really good football for us in that Minnesota game that we won in the middle of the season. It was a big deal. We actually have two meetings scheduled with both their representatives this week as well. We’ll see how that goes, but I anticipate one of those guys being back and we’ll have to work through the dialogue with both their agents and see what makes sense for them and us.”

Henne might seem like a logical candidate to return. He’s been primary backup to Mahomes since he took over as the Chiefs’ starter, but Moore showed a lot of audacity coming out of retirement to play for this season. His risk of returning was worthwhile for both parties.

One thing is for certain, Veach and Reid still feel best having a veteran player in the quarterback room. They still have Kyle Shurmur under contract in 2020 and he should be in the mix if they decide to keep three quarterbacks. Don’t expect them to add a young and cheap quarterback to learn behind Mahomes via the draft.

5 players in the Super Bowl the Jets should avoid in free agency

Chris Jones and Matt Moore are among players the Jets should avoid that will be playing in Super Bowl LIV down in Miami, Fla.

The Jets haven’t exactly been the wisest of spenders in free agency over the past couple of years.

That’s why Mike Maccagnan is no longer in charge and Joe Douglas will shortly begin his first offseason of calling the shots. With team officials most likely tuning in to Sunday’s big game, they need to also make a list of players that just don’t make sense for Gang Green. It’s not necessarily that they’re bad players, but more so that the Jets don’t have the cap or roster flexibility to add them in free agency.

Yesterday, the Jets Wire made a list of six players the Jets should target in free agency. This time around, we will take a look at five players the Jets should avoid come March.

Chiefs: DL Chris Jones

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

While Chris Jones could be an intriguing option to supplement the Jets 3-4 scheme, they don’t have the luxury to add a player of Chris Jones’ caliber on the defensive line.

Jones is a versatile three-down lineman, who played at defensive end before Kansas City’s switch to a 4-3 base scheme this past offseason. In 2018, Jones recorded 15.5 sacks. Only 26, Jones seems like a likely candidate for a big payday on the open market, especially if he is able to help Kansas City raise the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.

The former second-rounder has been tremendous at stopping the run and also has a knack for getting after opposing quarterbacks. In 13 games played this season, Jones totaled nine sacks to go along with 36 tackles and 20 quarterback hits.

It’s not to say that Jones wouldn’t be an excellent addition to their defensive front, but the Jets have too many other glaring needs at the moment. The additions of Henry Anderson and Quinnen Williams make Jones a luxury that New York simply can’t afford until they address the outside linebacker and cornerback positions first.