Chiefs news: Tyrann Mathieu fires back at harsh criticism in tweet

Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu silenced the Twitter hater that questioned his value moving forward.

The Kansas City Chiefs are in their first week of the 2022 NFL Offseason. Their season ended in the AFC Championship Game with an overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Despite a largely successful year, there are a few question marks for the Chiefs as they prepare for the 2022 season. One of these question marks is free safety Tyrann Mathieu, who is an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

Wednesday morning, self-proclaimed lifelong Chiefs fan and Twitter user @Lt_TomKazansky responded to a tweet on whether or not they should re-sign Mathieu. He tweeted that the issue with re-signing Mathieu would be that he is declining and would want more money than the Chiefs can give him.

Mathieu responded to the tweet about half an hour after it was posted. He explained that his play isn't declining, but his “role changed” since 2019.

My role changed, I became a post safety…. Why don’t you people tell the truth… I was intentionally moved away from ball… only played post safety & half field… go & watch the tape… still I had 6 turnovers, which led team….

— Tyrann Mathieu (@Mathieu_Era) February 3, 2022

“I was intentionally moved away from ball,” the safety tweeted. Mathieu also noted that he led the Chiefs in turnovers with six, despite only playing post safety and half field.

According to Spotrac, Mathieu signed a 3 year, $42 million contract with the Chiefs in 2019. This included a $14.8 million signing bonus, $26.8 million guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $14 million.

The Chiefs will likely have a $208.2 million cap figure, which is an increase from last year's $182.5 million cap. According to The Kansas City Star, the team “hoped to get a contract extension done with Mathieu before the start of the regular season and have never wavered from their desire to sign him longer-term.”

This narrative aligns with general manager Brett Veach's comment on Mathieu on Tuesday. He told the media that despite any noise on Twitter about or from Mathieu, “it isn't necessarily true” that his time with the Chiefs is over.