Chiefs expected to sign Jeremy Maclin when free-agency begins Tuesday

It looks like the Chiefs are about to land the deep threat they so desperately need.

A source confirmed to The Star on Sunday evening that former Missouri Tigers star and Philadelphia Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin will sign with the Chiefs when the free-agency period begins on Tuesday.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported the news first.

With the move, Maclin, 26, gets to reunite with Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who selected him in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft when he was in charge of the Eagles.

Maclin is coming off a monster season in which he bounced back from a torn right ACL in 2013 to catch 85 passes for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns in 16 games. Most importantly, Maclin showed no traces of the knee injury, as he still flashed his trademark speed, burst and ability to track the deep ball.

Maclin is considered to be the No. 2 receiver on the market, behind Green Bay’s Randall Cobb, who is expected to sign a four-year, $40 million deal when the free-agency period officially begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday. He will almost certainly give a boost to a sagging wide receiving corps that failed to record a single receiving touchdown all season in 2014.

Nothing can officially be signed until Tuesday, but the Chiefs will need to create cap space by then to accommodate a player of Maclin’s caliber. They are already approximately $1.1 million over the cap — not counting Josh Mauga’s recent extension, the terms of which have not been released — and need to make more roster moves to get down under the cap by league deadline of Tuesday.

The Chiefs can create more room by negotiating a lower salary with safety Eric Berry, who is slated for an $8.3 million cap hit but is currently battling lymphoma, and/or converting quarterback Alex Smith’s base salary to a bonus.

Other players whose release would create a sizable amount of cap space include receiver Dwayne Bowe ($14 million cap hit in 2015), inside linebacker Derrick Johnson ($5.2 million), quarterback Chase Daniel ($3.8 million) and defensive end Mike DeVito ($4 million).

Provided Daniel stays, however, he would get an opportunity to reunite with his favorite target at Mizzou, where they starred together from 2007 to 2008. Both were recently inducted into the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Chiefs expected to sign Jeremy Maclin when free-agency begins Tuesday."