These 4 Chiefs could make news in 2026 & are worth watching down the stretch
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Coaches will evaluate rookie Bassa in final three games for 2026 linebacker role.
- Royals needs snaps now as WR depth faces multiple 2026 unrestricted free agents.
- Smith could reshape backfield role after end-of-season snaps and kickoff returns.
The Kansas City Chiefs find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they close out 2025 with three regular-season games that won’t affect their postseason chances.
The Chiefs won’t take part in this year’s playoffs, having been eliminated with last weekend’s home loss to the L.A. Chargers.
With that in mind, The Star’s Chiefs team has gathered to highlight players on the current roster who could play a role next season:
LB Jeffrey Bassa
After the Chiefs took Jeffrey Bassa in the fifth round of this year’s draft, the team’s personnel staff said they were surprised he was still on the board, citing his football IQ and versatility.
Bassa played college football at Oregon, arriving as a defensive back-receiver hybrid before the Ducks quickly moved him to linebacker during his freshman season. The switch has backed up the thought that he has upside as a WILL linebacker.
As a rookie for the Chiefs, Bassa has predominantly contributed on special teams, logging snaps on kick and punt coverage and both return units. He has played just 13 defensive snaps, nine of which came late in the Chiefs’ Week 7 blowout of the Raiders.
There is no better opportunity than the final three games for KC defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to evaluate what the Chiefs have in Bassa — and what that could mean for the rotation in 2026, especially with Leo Chenal’s contract set to expire after this season.
— Pete Sweeney
WR Jalen Royals
Some draft reports called Jalen Royals a “steal” if he fell to the third day. He did, and the Chiefs believed they got a good one in the fourth round.
Royals missed the second half of his final season at Utah State with a foot injury, and knee tendinitis kept him out of the first three games this season.
He made his debut against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 4 and returned a kickoff 30 yards. That’s the only time he’s touched the ball this season. Royals has played in four games — none since Week 7 — logging 35 offensive snaps and 36 on special teams.
Against the Chargers last week, he was the only Chiefs player who suited up and didn’t play.
There’s uncertainty in the Chiefs’ wide receiver ranks for 2026 — Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton are unrestricted free agents after this season. It’s time for the player who drew praise during camp (as Royals did, from his coaches and teammates) to find his way to the field.
— Blair Kerkhoff
S Jaden Hicks
It was a promising rookie year.
It’s been an up-and-down encore.
Jaden Hicks was among the most obvious candidates to earn a bigger role this season, but it’s gone in the complete opposite direction. He’s played more than 15 defensive snaps just once in the last six weeks, and that was because KC lost two safeties during the game in Dallas.
A week ago, Spagnuolo said Hicks has provided “flashes of good football,” but “he’s made some mistakes that I wouldn’t have thought he would’ve made in his second season.”
Well, there you go. That explains the dip in playing time this season.
But what about next season?
Bryan Cook is set to be a free agent, and a team with limited cap space could turn over a starting safety spot to a player already on its roster. That’s how it would ideally work, but whether it could work?
The Chiefs could use the next three weeks to help produce that answer.
- Sam McDowell
RB Brashard Smith
The Chiefs were so enticed by versatile SMU running back Brashard Smith that they traded two seventh-round draft picks to move up to No. 228 overall in order to acquire him.
And why not: Smith was a second-team All-ACC receiver with Miami in 2023 before converting to the backfield for the Mustangs and rushing for 1,332 yards, 14 touchdowns and 5.7 yards per carry in 2024.
Back then, it seemed he’d make a fine change-of-pace option in a backfield led by Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt and free-agent signee Elijah Mitchell.
“This guy gets the ball in his hands (and) he makes big plays happen,” Chiefs’ Southwest area scout Jason Lamb said then. “He’s a lot of fun to watch.”
Now it’s time to see more of what that could be. Especially in a season marked by a sluggish run game, as Pacheco has averaged 3.9 yards a carry, Hunt 3.8 (although vital in short-yardage) and with Mitchell a non-factor.
We’ve seen some intriguing glimpses of Smith, occasionally early in a game but most of all late in a 31-0 romp over the Raiders, when he had 14 carries for a mere 39 yards.
Overall, he has 19 catches for 161 yards, 32 carries for 95 yards and 15 kickoff returns for 405 yards.
If there’s any benefit to the Chiefs already being eliminated from the playoffs, it’s the chance to now see more of how the skill-set of Smith — among others — can be part of the future.
— Vahe Gregorian
This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "These 4 Chiefs could make news in 2026 & are worth watching down the stretch."
