Kansas City Chiefs News: Tyler Bray, Ryan Lilja

The Kansas City Chiefs did well to snag former Tennessee Volunteers star signal-caller Tyler Bray as an undrafted free agent, because he has an exceptionally strong arm and enough talent to make his character concerns more than worth it as a UDFA. Bray has plenty of upside, but he also has plenty to learn and prove during, likely, his first few years in the NFL. The Chiefs have Alex Smith locked in as the starter with the intriguing Chase Daniel being the new backup in Kansas City.

According to top beat guy Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star, Bray “has already displayed enough skills to earn more work.” That’s a telling statement on Bray, and I believe that Bray is pretty much guaranteed to overtake Ricky Stanzi as the third-string QB. The Chiefs, as Teicher notes, are still using Stanzi as the QB behind Daniel, but Bray offers more upside and has truly interesting live arm talent that is pretty hard to find coming out of the draft. I doubt the Chiefs are going to keep four quarterbacks on the roster, and I doubt the Chiefs are going to risk putting Bray on the practice squad. In my opinion, it looks like the writing is on the wall for Stanzi in K.C.

31-year-old interior offensive lineman and Kansas State product Ryan Lilja made the surprising call to retire in late December, but reports emerged last month that Lilja would be making a comeback. Lilja is still rehabbing from a couple of injuries, and Teicher tells us that Lilja’s comeback is “on hold” due to the toe and knee surgeries. The Chiefs look a lot better on the offensive line than they did before the offseason, and the addition of Geoff Schwartz may mean that Lilja’s comeback would have to come with another team. That’s an issue, though, that likely won’t be answered until later on in the offseason, but it’s one that the Chiefs- and Lilja- will have to mull over from their perspectives.