ESPN: ‘No Way I Was Going There!’ Juju Smith Rejects Chiefs Comeback…

This offseason has been about getting Patrick Mahomes more weapons for the Kansas City Chiefs front office. The offense struggled last year despite winning the Super Bowl, so the Chiefs added Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy to the offense-but the front office didn’t stop there. As Brown is dealing with an injury, Kansas City then signed Juju Smith-Schuster, who was with the team in 2022 before going to the New England Patriots last season. But after Juju was released, the Chiefs became a great option for the receiver, and head coach Andy Reid is glad Smith-Schuster is back. “We welcomed Juju back with open arms,” Reid said. “He’s healthy and ready to go. He had the knee [issue] before, but we’ll continue to manage it. He looks great right now, he jumped back in and had some good practices for us. So it’s just a matter of him getting banged around a little bit, having not been in camp, so he’ll get all that as the season goes [on]. It’s good to have him back in the mix there, for sure.”

 

It is unknown exactly where Smith-Schuster fits into a receiver room that houses Brown, Worthy Justin Watson, Rashee Rice, Skyy Moore, and Mecole Hardman. But Juju stated earlier in the week that he knows there’s only one football, and for him, it’s all about finding his role in Reid’s offense.

Coming off of a second-straight Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs were hoping to get even more dangerous on the offensive side of the ball. Former Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs revealed that the Chiefs were very aggressive in trying to acquire him in the offseason. Despite the aggression and the opportunity to play with one of the most talented teams in the NFL, Jacobs did not even consider joining Kansas City before instead signing with the Green Bay Packers. “[Chiefs] were trying to get me hard,” Jacobs said. “But there was no way I was going there. I feel like once you are rivals with somebody, you have a genuine hate for them. I couldn’t see myself in that color. And besides, I never wanted to be the guy that joined the dominant team. I want to be the guy that beats the dominant team.” Jacobs spent the first five years of his career with the Raiders, one of the Chiefs’ biggest rivals, where he was a two-time Pro Bowler and a first-team All-Pro in 2022. Jacobs ended up signing a four-year, $48 million contract with the Packers, as will instead team up with Jordan Love and a Packers team that was just two wins away from a Super Bowl appearance in 2023.