The new season of The Franchise opens by pulling the curtain back on the Kansas City Chiefs’ summer, and the first episode wastes no time putting Patrick Mahomes front and center.
Titled “Roots,” the episode begins with Mahomes signing his extension, then jumps back to 2020, when he agreed to his first extension with the team just months after delivering the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl win in 50 years. At that point, Mahomes had said he was "excited for the future in Kansas City". Four years later, the picture looks a lot different, with the Chiefs having become the dynasty team of the 2020s and adding Super Bowl titles in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Back in the present, Mahomes reflects on everything he’s experienced in Kansas City and says, "We're not done yet." He also says he wants to finish his career with the Chiefs.
The episode then shifts to Xavier Worthy and a trip through Fresno, California, with his mother. They stop at Worthy’s elementary school, where his mom talks about how he always wanted to play sports with the older kids. The segment digs into his childhood with old clips of him playing football, while his mother says his uncle, Nick, had the biggest influence on him and was always running drills with him.
Worthy’s path to Kansas City gets a little extra color on draft night. His mother says she told him the Chiefs would not be in position to take him, but he still had a feeling.
She also says the Chiefs hat ended up in the middle of the NFL hat layout - every player gets all 32 team hats - which made it seem like that was the destination all along. In the end, she said, "It was just dope," and Worthy added, "It wasn't even a shock to me, not gonna lie," about landing with the Chiefs.
Clark Hunt is next, talking about the World Cup in Kansas City over the summer and revisiting his family’s soccer ties. The episode includes a history lesson on Lamar Hunt’s push to help get a men’s league started in the United States, even after several failed attempts. Clark Hunt says, "Every time I attended a World Cup game this summer at Arrowhead, I couldn't but stop and think about my dad and how excited he would have been to see the games played in the stadium he loved so much."
The final stretch of the episode turns to training camp, which began in mid-July in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Offensive guard Trey Smith is shown choosing clothes for the trip and talking through what matters when packing for camp. Later, as he drives to St.
Joseph, he says, "It's anticipation of, like, a new year. No one cares what you did last year...
What are you about to do now in the present?"
The episode closes with Chiefs coaches laying out why training camp matters and what the team should expect from it. With one week of preseason remaining, the next episode is expected to cover the rest of camp and the first two preseason games.
In Other News...
Chiefs Still Have One Big Question About LJarius Sneeds Return
LJarius Sneed is back in the building and back in a familiar place, which gives the Chiefs a notable addition to a secondary that already knows what he can bring. After spending the last two years with the Titans, the cornerback has returned to Kansas City while working his way back from a knee injury, and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said the progress has been encouraging. The benefit for the Chiefs is obvious: Sneed already knows the system, and his ability to handle different defensive jobs makes him one of the more natural fits on the roster.
The only real question now is how quickly he can get all the way to game-ready form for the regular-season opener. Recovery timelines can be tricky, especially for a player whose value comes not just from coverage but from the flexibility to move around the defense, and Kansas City will want to be careful with that process. For a team that brought him back for a reason, the setup is promising, but the final piece is still getting him to the point where the Chiefs can use him without limits. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Face A Brutal QB Decision As Cutdown Day Nears
As cutdown day approaches, the Chiefs are staring at one of the trickier roster questions on their table: whether to keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. Patrick Mahomes is of course locked in, but the discussion now includes Justin Fields and Garrett Nussmeier, a setup that forces the team to balance quarterback depth against the demands of the rest of the roster.
Nussmeiers camp and preseason work has made that calculus more complicated than it looked a few weeks ago, giving Kansas City a young passer worth protecting. The problem is obvious - carrying him means spending a spot that could otherwise go to another contributor, while trying to sneak him onto the practice squad could leave him exposed to waivers and out of the Chiefs hands. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Just Added Another Young Pass Rusher Fighting For A Roster Spot
The Chiefs added another young body to the edge group this week, signing defensive end Niles King as a developmental depth player after he went undrafted out of San Diego State. Kansas City has made a habit of turning over the bottom of the roster with players who can compete, learn and maybe grow into something more, and King fits that mold as a pass rusher trying to carve out a place in a crowded room.
To make room, the Chiefs waived receiver Jeff Caldwell with an injury designation. Kings path has already included a stop with the Chargers before he was released and eventually landed in Kansas City, which gives him another chance to prove he belongs. For a team always looking for affordable help up front, the signing is the kind of low-risk move that can quietly matter if a young player flashes during camp. [Read more 🡒]