Jake Briningstool had just cracked the Kansas City Chiefs‘ 53-man roster, a hard-earned spot on a team chasing another playoff run. But before he could suit up for a regular-season snap, the tight end’s name showed up elsewhere: an NFL fine sheet.
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The league hit him with a $4,972 penalty for an illegal blindside block against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and just like that, he became the first Chiefs player fined this preseason, according to the NFL website.
It’s one more setback (albeit a relatively minor one) added to what’s already been a tough preseason stretch for Kansas City.
The Chiefs wrapped up the 2026 preseason without a single win, going 0-2-1 after tying the Seattle Seahawks 9-9. Now, the real thing starts. Kansas City opens Week 1 against the Denver Broncos on September 14, hoping to get back into the playoff picture after a preseason that didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Their best shot at a preseason win came against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and even that one slipped away. The Chiefs fell 16-15 after Tampa Bay’s Sean Tucker punched in a late 1-yard touchdown. Earlier in that same game, quarterback Justin Fields lost a fumble after getting sacked by Anthony Nelson, though lineman Kahlil Benson bailed the offense out by recovering it before things got worse.
That wasn’t the only messy moment on that drive, though. Briningstool got flagged for an illegal blindside block on the play. Tampa Bay actually declined the penalty, but the NFL still came after him for it afterward, tagging him with the $4,972 fine for unnecessary roughness.
For context, first-time blindside block offenses, as part of Player Safety Rules and/or Flagrant Personal Foul, can run players up to $17,911 this season, and that number jumps to $23,882 if it happens again. So Briningstool got off relatively light this time around. He remains the only Chiefs player fined so far this preseason, though Week 3 fines are still being sorted out.
The NFL issued 16 fines in Preseason Week 2 of 2026 across several violation categories. For use of the helmet, Karson Sharar, Malik Davis, and Dare Ogunbowale were penalized, while Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and Wydett Williams were fined for hits on a defenseless player.
Facemask violations accounted for the largest group, with Trey Washington, Treyton Welch, Andre Fuller, Aaron Smith, and Oluwafemi Oladejo all fined. Shaka Heyward was fined for a hip-drop tackle, and Ted Hurst for striking, kicking, tripping, or kneeing an opponent. Rounding out the list, Chase Lundt, Jermod McCoy, and Cedric Gray were each fined for taunting.
Head coach Andy Reid didn’t dance around the team’s discipline issues. He made his approach clear just after the 12 penalties in the first preseason game loss against the Rams.
“It’s great to get the young players in, get them moving around a little bit, see how they do under that pressure of playing in a game,” Reid said at training camp. “There are some things we’ve got to clean up. Obviously, the five holding calls and the five illegal procedure penalties, you can’t have those. It’s discipline. You’ve got to be more disciplined than that, and so we go back, and we keep stressing that.”
That comment hits harder when you look at last season’s numbers. Kansas City racked up 119 penalties in 2025, up from 94 the year before. They were averaging seven penalties a game and ended up as the seventh-most penalized team in the league, a big drop from 2024, when they had the fourth-fewest penalties.
As for Briningstool, this is just his second year in the league. He signed with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of Clemson back in 2025, but a hamstring injury cut his rookie season short before it really got going. By the time he was ruled out for the final stretch, the Chiefs had already been eliminated from playoff contention anyway.
Now that he’s healthy and has a roster spot, he’s finally getting his shot at making his actual NFL regular-season debut this season.