The Kansas City Chiefs enter the 2026 NFL season with something to prove. After a disappointing 2025 campaign that snapped one of the most dominant dynasty runs in modern NFL history, Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are hungry to reclaim their throne atop the AFC. The offseason brought meaningful changes, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown are gone, the wide receiver coaching staff has been overhauled, and Kenneth Walker joins Brashard Smith to revamp the backfield. Amid all the roster reshuffling, two players are flying completely under the national radar — and both have the tools and the opportunity to explode in 2026.
Here are two underrated Chiefs sleepers who could genuinely break out in the 2026 NFL season.
Tyquan Thornton
Tyquan Thornton has always been the deep-threat specialist teams dream of finding, a burner with the ability to take the top off any defense. What he lacked early in his career in New England was a quarterback capable of unlocking that potential. Patrick Mahomes is a different story entirely.
In his first year in Kansas City in 2025, the numbers began telling that story on their own. Thornton finished with 19 receptions for 438 yards and three touchdowns in just 14 games, averaging a jaw-dropping 23.1 yards per reception, ninth-best among all NFL receivers that season, per SumerSports. Chiefs quarterbacks also posted a 121.2 passer rating when targeting him, one of the strongest marks at the position league-wide.
The door for an expanded role is now wide open. Smith-Schuster and Brown’s departures clear out a significant portion of the target share previously tied up in aging options. Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox named Thornton a legitimate breakout candidate for 2026, writing that he showed “great potential as a deep threat” and that reducing his drop rate could make him a genuinely dangerous weapon. He doesn’t need to be Mahomes’ WR1 to be a goldmine, he just needs 60-plus consistent targets in an offense that punishes defenses for loading the box.
Jalen Royals
Jalen Royals had one of the quietest rookie seasons in recent Chiefs history — and very little of it was actually his fault.
The fourth-round pick out of Utah State in the 2025 NFL Draft suffered a preseason knee injury that kept him out until Week 3. Even after returning, he was buried behind a crowded receiver room and was healthy-scratched multiple times. When the dust settled, Royals finished with just two receptions for four yards across seven games. But watch his preseason tape and the raw tools are obvious — sharp route deception, clean separation off the line, reliable hands, and real vertical speed.
The 2026 offseason has been one green light after another for Royals’ development. With JuJu and Brown gone, and new wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea installed to replace the long-criticized Connor Embree, the organizational environment has shifted entirely in his favor. Andy Reid told reporters in March that the Chiefs are “in a better position than most teams” at wide receiver, a direct nod to the young talent on hand.
Royals received “yet another promising sign” from the franchise heading into Year 2, while he has been identified as a player on pace for a significantly bigger role. At just 23 years old and armed with the athleticism to serve as a leading target alongside Xavier Worthy, Royals has all the traits of a player ready to reward the patient believers who always saw what was there.
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