In nine seasons, Alex Smith has never shown a proclivity to push the ball down the field. The Kansas City Chiefs would like to change that slightly in 2015.

"We've got to sort of retrain, rethink just a little bit," offensive coordinator Doug Pederson said this week at OTAs, via ESPN.com. "But going from that first year to where we are now with (Smith), now he sees that kind of stuff. It's just a matter of cutting loose."

With the addition of Jeremy Maclin, Travis Kelce the clear No. 1 tight end, the improvement of speedy Albert Wilson and the move of DeAnthony Thomas full-time to receiver, the Chiefs hope their pass-catchers will help force Smith to pump the ball down the field.

"I like where Alex is," Pederson said. "But now in the spring, we want to see any quarterback shoot the ball down the field and at least test it. That gives him the comfort level the next time he's in that situation."

Smith is a dirt-cheap quarterback option who could provide high-end QB2 numbers if he becomes a tad more aggressive. He has finished #13 and #18 in the last two seasons, but is the 24th QB off the board. He’s dangerous as a runner, and given the addition of a bona fide receiver in Maclin, the emergence of Kelce, and the always-dangerous Jamaal Charles, Smith is an unexciting yet (usually) functional fantasy quarterback.

Mike Triplett on the Saints' tight end situation:

Veteran tight end Benjamin Watson was arguably the New Orleans Saints’ player of the day during Thursday’s OTA practice – catching both short and long passes alike. Watson caught one deep pass over the middle that likely would have gone for a touchdown even if the Saints were live tackling. He broke open past outside linebacker Anthony Spencer before safety help arrived.

Of course, Watson won’t become the next Jimmy Graham in New Orleans’ offense. But at the same time, don’t sleep on the idea that the 34-year-old could play an expanded role as a pass-catcher after Graham was traded to the Seattle Seahawks.

As I wrote in my recent fantasy breakdown, I don’t think this is a case where young backup tight end Josh Hill will simply leapfrog Watson in the pecking order. Watson will likely even play more snaps than Hill because of his blocking ability.

While Watson could cause Hill owners headaches in certain situations, he's 34-years-old and is going to have a tough time playing starter's snaps ahead of Hill. HC Sean Payton continues to fawn over Hill's skillset, so we believe he's going to breakout this season, a la Travis Kelce or Jordan Cameron in recent years.

The Bengals drafted a pair of tight ends over the weekend, but it doesn’t look like concerns about Tyler Eifert’s recovery from shoulder and elbow surgeries was the impetus to double down on the position.

Eifert said Monday that he’s waiting to get full clearance to return from his shoulder injury, a torn labrum that he had repaired after dislocating his elbow in the first game of last season. He expects to get that clearance before the start of training camp and is working to rebuild his strength until then.

With Jermaine Gresham out of the way, Eifert should be a nice late-round pick provided he can stay healthy. He has good size and speed, and showed pretty good hands as a rookie. He only played about 60 percent of the snaps in 2013, and averaged 0.14 FP (PPR) per snap. Extrapolate the same production to 90 percent of the snaps (which is typical for a starting tight end), and Eifert shouldn't have any problem posting top 15 numbers. With solid improvement, he could very well be this year's Jordan Cameron (2013) or Travis Kelce (2014).

The Kansas City Chiefs announced on Wednesday that the club has signed wide receiver Jeremy Maclin.

Rapoport reported that the deal was worth $11 million per season. Maclin was the #9 wide receiver in both standard and PPR formats last season. However, he did most of his damage in the first eight games (46-801-8, #2 WR) and faded from Week 10 on (40-528-2, #23 WR). His targets dropped from 10.5 per game in the first half of the season to just 7.5 T/G down the stretch, but this decrease basically coincided with Mark Sanchez taking over for Nick Foles at quarterback. Now he’ll have Alex Smith as his quarterback and should see plenty targets alongside up-and-coming TE Travis Kelce. HC Andy Reid is very familiar with Maclin, so we would expect his transition to be a smooth one, though this appears to be a system downgrade. Maclin averaged 4.6 catches for 61 yards and 0.50 TD (solid WR2-type numbers) from 2010-2012, while playing for Reid.

The wild ride of subtraction and addition will apparently continue with the Philadelphia Eagles because receiver Jeremy Maclin plans to reunite with former coach Andy Reid on the Kansas City Chiefs once free agency officially begins on Tuesday, according to league sources.

The Chiefs will need to clear salary-cap space to sign Maclin, whose new contract would project in the range of what Randall Cobb received to stay with the Green Bay Packers at $10 million per year. It's possible Maclin could slightly exceed Cobb's salary when negotiations are finished. Unlike Cobb, who chose to remain with his team, the Green Bay Packers, Maclin is prepared to depart Philadelphia, coming off his best season, in which he had 85 catches for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns. Maclin played on a one-year, $5.25 million contract in 2014 after missing 2013 with an ACL injury.

Update: The deal is reportedly worth around $11 million per season.

Maclin was the #9 wide receiver in both standard and PPR formats last season. However, he did most of his damage in the first eight games (46-801-8, #2 WR) and faded from Week 10 on (40-528-2, #23 WR). His targets dropped from 10.5 per game in the first half of the season to just 7.5 T/G down the stretch, but this decrease basically coincided with Mark Sanchez taking over for Nick Foles at quarterback. If the report turns out to be true, he'll have Alex Smith as his quarterback and could hog targets alongside up-and-coming TE Travis Kelce. Reid is familiar with Maclin, so we would expect his transition to be a smooth one, though this appears to be a system downgrade.

Chiefs will be releasing TE Anthony Fasano later today, source says.

The move will open up starter's snaps for Travis Kelce, who didn't get heavy run until Week 11. Kelce played 54% of the snaps from Week 1 to Week 10, averaging 3.8 catches for 49 yards and 0.44 TD in that span. He played 86% from Week 11 on, posting 4.7 receptions for 61 yards and 0.14 TD over the final seven games of the season. The rise in fantasy points wasn’t as dramatic since his touchdowns didn’t increase with his playing time, but that should rectify itself in 2015. He was the #4 TE in both standard and PPR formats in the final seven weeks of the season and is likely to go in the top 5 at his position in 2015 fantasy drafts.

Bengals.com writer Geoff Hobson on the team's TE situation: It looks like there is a very good possibility they won’t re-sign Jermaine Gresham, but it’s not a pass catcher they need to replace. They’ve got that in Tyler Eifert. They’re going to need a big guy that can block the tall, lean, big pass rushers like Terrell Suggs. Gresham did a good job with that and I suspect they’ll have an easier time finding that guy in free agency rather than the draft. The guy won’t be the target that Gresham is, but they’ll still be able to play double tight end sets.

If Gresham is out of the way, Eifert should be a nice late-round pick provided he can stay healthy. He has good size and speed, and showed pretty good hands as a rookie. He only played about 60 percent of the snaps in 2013, and averaged 0.14 FP (PPR) per snap. Extrapolate the same production to 90 percent of the snaps (which is typical for a starting tight end), and Eifert shouldn't have any problem posting top 15 numbers. With solid improvement, he could very well be this year's Jordan Cameron (2013) or Travis Kelce (2014).

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has a lacerated spleen and will miss Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers, trainer Rick Burkholder said Friday.

Chase Daniel will start in Smith's place against the the Chargers, who can clinch a playoff berth with a victory.

Daniel has one career start, which came last season in Week 17 and also was against the Chargers. The Chiefs lost the game but Daniels played well, throwing for 200 yards and a touchdown, completing 21 of his 30 pass attempts.

Daniel also rushed seven times for 59 yards in his start against the Chargers, so he was the #13 QB that week. We're not expecting Daniel to run the offense as efficiently as Smith does, so we're projecting a reduction in passing yards, which will impact TE Travis Kelce and the other Kansas City receivers.