As teams gear up for the impending free agency period, some new blood will be added to the open market. Count the Chiefs as one of the teams freeing up players because on Tuesday, they let go of two wide receivers. Veteran Donnie Avery was released, while A.J. Jenkins was waived. Teams are able to put a claim on Jenkins before he hits the open market, if they choose.
Avery is entering his seventh season and is looking at latching on to his fifth team in that span. He played just six games for Kansas City last year and had just 176 yards receiving on 25 catches. Jenkins was drafted by San Francisco at No. 30 overall in 2012 and basically red-shirted his rookie season. He was sent to the Chiefs for Jon Baldwin in a trade and spent the past two seasons there. He had nine catches for 93 yards in 2014.
The Chiefs' receiving corps is likely to get an overhaul this offseason. Unfortunately for them, they had the dubious distinction of not grabbing a touchdown reception for all of 2014. Yikes.
Paul Dehner, Jr. of The Cincinnati Enquirer said that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis liked Jenkins out of the draft a couple of years ago, the same draft that netted the Bengals Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones. It's possible that Cincinnati takes a look at a guy like Jenkins, who has been a bust thus far in his career. Former first round washout, cheap and possible resurrection of a career? Sounds Bengals-like, right?
Still, the team might prefer to go younger and faster in the draft and the dots that Dehner is trying to connect may not be viable. Either way, Avery and Jenkins will be looking for new homes.