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Defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga, formerly of the New England Patriots.
The Kansas City Chiefs have made a couple of flashy moves during the opening week of free agency, but perhaps their best addition was one that didn’t receive an overwhelming amount of attention.
Aaron Schatz of ESPN on Friday, March 13 named the Chiefs as one of the five most-improved teams in free agency. As part of his examination of the team’s offseason thus far, Schatz noted the signing of former New England Patriots defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga as Kansas City’s “most underrated” addition.
“This was a player the Patriots wanted to bring back, but they couldn’t get an extension finished during the regular season,” Schatz wrote. “Tonga was an important part of the New England run defense as a nose tackle in 2025. He had a stop rate of 83%; in other words, 83% of his run tackles prevented a successful play for the offense. The league average for interior linemen was around 71% last season.”
Khyiris Tonga Earned First Big NFL Payday From Chiefs This Offseason
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - SEPTEMBER 21: Khyiris Tonga #95 celebrates with Joshua Farmer #92 of the New England Patriots during the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium on September 21, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images)
GettyDefensive tackle Khyiris Tonga, formerly of the New England Patriots.
Tonga will play next season, his sixth in the NFL, at 30 years old. He will do so for Kansas City, which represents the fifth different team Tonga has played with since joining the league as a seventh-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 2021.
He spent the following two campaigns with the Minnesota Vikings before joining the Arizona Cardinals for one season in 2024. Tonga landed with the Patriots last year and got his first major payday from the Chiefs this week when he inked a three-year contract worth $21 million total.
The breakout defensive lineman tallied 24 total tackles, including two tackles for loss, two QB hits and two pass breakups across 14 regular-season games played (two starts) in 2025. The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus credited Tonga with 14 quarterback pressures and 12 hurries while ranking him 38th of 134 interior defensive linemen who saw enough snaps last season to qualify.
Chiefs Will Ask More of Khyiris Tonga Than Any Team Ever Has During 5-Year NFL Career
Khyiris Tonga
GettyFormer New England Patriots defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga.
The kicker for Tonga, and the risk the Chiefs are assuming, is that he played just 337 total snaps for a New England defensive front that wasn’t stellar until it came on late in the year and into the playoffs, which largely coincided with the return of DL Milton Williams to the lineup.
Kansas City’s defensive line was just straight up bad last year, and the team didn’t pay Tonga a $7 million APY through the 2028 campaign to play a limited role.
In his five years of professional football, Tonga has never played a full season. He has watched from the sideline 18 times out of 85 possible regular-season contests, either because of injury or a coach’s decision, appearing in 67 games and earning 15 starts. Eight of those 15 starts came last season with the Patriots.
Kansas City is going to ask Tonga to do more on a consistent basis than any other franchise has at any point in his career. That could mean that Tonga is an even bigger bargain than Schatz suggested Friday, but it could also mean the opposite.