Getty Byron Pringle #13 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates scoring a touchdown with teammate Patrick Mahomes #15 in the second quarter of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium on January 16, 2022.
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hiefs Kingdom lost a member to free agency on March 17 when wide receiver Byron Pringle signed a one-year, $6 million deal with the Chicago Bears, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Pringle, a Kansas State product, entered the NFL undrafted in 2018. He joined the Kansas City Chiefs that year and would land on injured reserve following the 2018 preseason. After being cut, he landed on Kansas City’s practice squad but was not active for any games during the 2018 regular season, per Pro Football Reference. From thereon he ascended from the bottom of the depth chart to a key piece of the Chiefs’ passing attack during the 2021 season.
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Last season, Pringle had career-highs in targets (60), catches (42), receiving yards (568), and receiving touchdowns (5). The best game of his career came in Kansas City’s Week 15 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in which he caught six passes on seven targets for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
The Steelers are getting embarrassed by the Chiefs and this Byron Pringle touchdown was the cherry on top
Now, Pringle will play for the Bears, who have former Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles as their general manager, and 2021 first-round pick Justin Fields as their quarterback. Pringle should qualify as a compensatory pick for the Chiefs in 2023.
Pringle Thanks Chiefs in Twitter Post
With his tenure in Kansas City now coming to an end, Pringle took to Twitter to thank the Chiefs.
“Forever thankful for the opportunity the Chiefs gave me. Blessed to have been apart of great organization for the past 4 years. Thank you to my coaches, teammates, and fans!” he wrote on March 18.
Forever thankful for the opportunity the Chiefs gave me. Blessed to have been apart of great organization for the past 4 years. Thank you to my coaches, teammates, and fans! ❤️#ChiefsKingdom #KState #EMAW
Chiefs players took to Twitter to react to Pringle’s post.
“my boy proud of you,” Tyreek Hill wrote.
“Stayed down! And came up!” Darwin Thompson wrote.
BIG CHIP !!!! Congrats Big Dawg,” Jody Fortson wrote.
“One of the real ones left!! Gonna miss you brother!” Gehrig Dieter wrote.
What’s Next for Chiefs at WR?
With Pringle now signing elsewhere in the NFL, the Chiefs made a splash on March 18 when they signed former Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster to a one-year, $10.75 million deal, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. That gives quarterback Patrick Mahomes another young, talented playmaker to throw to moving forward.
The other wide receivers that are locked up for the 2022 season in Kansas City are Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman, Josh Gordon, Daurice Fountain, Gehrig Dieter, Cornell Powell, Justin Watson, Chris Finke, Gary Jennings, Matthew Sexton, and Omar Bayless. Hill, Hardman, Gordon, and Fountain are the only players that were active for a Chiefs game last season. Demarcus Robinson, another depth piece on Kansas City’s active roster last season, is an unrestricted free agent.
Former Bears wideout Allen Robinson signed with the Los Angeles Rams, and former Arizona Cardinals receiver Christian Kirk signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. So, the Chiefs missed out on potentially signing either one of those talented pass-catchers during free agency.
Among the talented veterans that remain free agents through March 18 are Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr., Julio Jones, and Cole Beasley. However, now that the Chiefs have signed Smith-Schuster, it’s likely that they have spent all the money they can at the wide receiver position.
Heading into free agency, the Chiefs were roughly $10.6 million over the cap, according to Over The Cap. However, the front office restructured defensive end Frank Clark’s contract, which lowered his cap number from $23.2 million to $13.7 million, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. That in turn freed up $12.6 million in cap room for Kansas City, per Yates.
Under terms of his restructured deal with the Chiefs, Frank Clark’s 2022 cap number is now $13.7M.
Kansas City freed up $12.6M in cap space with the move.
Simple math shows that the Chiefs don’t have very much spending money, especially after the Smith-Schuster signing. However, giving Hill a contract extension, which the team is “deep in talks” about, according to NFL Media’s Rapoport, would free up more money, among other potential cap maneuvers.