KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs added two more pieces to their rapidly evolving defense Friday by agreeing to terms with former Buccaneers safety Mike Edwards III and former Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill on one-year deals, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because their contracts were still pending physicals.
The two moves came after the Chiefs released defensive end Frank Clark to create some salary cap space and signed Charles Omenihu, who had been with the 49ers last season, to replace him on a two-year, $16 million contract.
Edwards should help in the secondary alongside safety Eric Reid in the spot created when Juan Thornhill agreed to a deal with the Browns this offseason. Edwards was a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2019 draft and started a career-high 12 of the 13 games he played last season, making 82 tackles while picking off two passes and returning one for a score.
Tranquill was a fourth-round pick of the AFC West-rival Chargers in the same draft. He’s coming off his best season, too, leading the team with 146 tackles along with five sacks and an interception in the regular season and another in the playoffs.
Earlier in the day, the Chiefs re-signed backup offensive lineman Nick Allegretti to a one-year deal.
The Chiefs also confirmed numerous changes to their coaching staff, Friday including the promotion of Matt Nagy from offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach to replace the departed Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator, and the elevation of Joe Bleymaier from wide receivers coach to the pass game coordinator.
Connor Embree will take over wide receivers after serving as an offensive quality control coach; Todd Pinkston will handle running backs after coaching wide receivers at Austin Peay; Porter Ellett will be the assistant running backs coach after he was an offensive quality control coach; David Girardi went from pass game analyst to replace Nagy as the quarterbacks coach; Kevin Saxton was added as an offensive assistant; and Dan Williams was moved to offensive quality control.
“For the first time in a while, we had some movement on the coaching staff,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I’m excited to see what these coaches can do in their new roles. They are all talented individuals with unique skillsets. All of them have the ability to bring something different to the table to benefit our team and specifically our players.”
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