The Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning champions but they cannot rest on their laurels.
That means remaining aggressive in maintaining quality weapons around franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes and on the defensive side of the ball. Mahomes’ top target, Travis Kelce, turns 34 years old in October, and their options at wide receiver have a lot of potential but are largely unproven. The defense is also on the verge of missing its best player, Chris Jones, for half the year.
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The Chiefs are also not flush with cap space and will need to get creative with any players they wish to add barring a change in some other contracts already on the books. Roster cutdown day may have shaken someone loose. Or they could try to swing a trade for a player a team was planning to release but didn’t due to potential trade interest.
Whatever another team’s reasoning might be, the Chiefs have to keep trying to stack the deck as much as possible, and these five players could be viable trade targets.
5 Trade Targets for the Kansas City Chiefs After Roster Cutdowns
Darnell Mooney – Chicago Bears
Mooney is a former fifth-round pick who is coming off an ankle injury that cut his 2022 season short and required surgery in the offseason. But he was Bears quarterback Justin Fields’ top target last season before getting hurt.
And he recorded his first career 1,000-yard campaign when fully healthy in 2021 with a mix of a rookie Fields and Trevor Siemian at quarterback.
The Bears traded for Chase Claypool from the Pittsburgh Steelers at last year’s deadline and acquired DJ Moore from the Carolina Panthers this offseason. Their additions will no doubt cut into Mooney’s target share as he heads into the final year of his contract leading to some outside speculation that he could be a trade candidate.
Of course, Mooney had a strong rapport with Fields before getting injured last season.
That could make him more valuable to the Bears in the end, keeping him off the trade block and on the team.
Curtis Samuel – Washington Commanders
Samuel has not yet crossed the 1,000-yard mark in receiving yards in a single season in his career, though he has come close, tallying 851 yards in 2020 with the Panthers before bolting for Washington in free agency.
He signed a three-year, $34.5 million contract with Washington in 2021.
Samuel only appeared in five games in 2021 due to injury but caught 64 of 92 targets for 656 yards and four touchdowns.
While Samuel is listed as a starter in Washington’s unofficial depth chart, and teams spend a lot of time in three-wide sets now, he is still behind a healthy Terry McLaurin and possibly even second-year man Jahan Dotson who says he’s expecting to break out this season. McLaurin is dealing with a turf toe injury so perhaps that keeps Samuel in the mix to start the season.
But he could be a nice add if we get to that point of the season and the Chiefs are not satisfied with the production from their receivers.
Marquise Brown – WR – Arizona Cardinals
Brown is heading into his second season with the Arizona Cardinals but their goals have shifted from trying to compete to apparently working to get the best draft pick possible next season, and it could leave Brown available for a discount.
The former No. 25 overall pick is the highest draft pick of our trio of potential trade targets, and he has a 1,000-yard campaign to his credit, coming in 2021 with the Baltimore Ravens.
Last season, he caught 67 passes (on 107 targets) for 709 yards and three touchdowns.
Brown would come cheaper than Samuel in the final year of a four-year, $11.7 million deal. The Chiefs have Skyy Moore who they could argue profiles as a similar style of player. But this is about finding proven production for a team with the ultimate goals in mind and Brown undoubtedly has the advantage there.
Romeo Okwara – Detroit Lions
While the absent Jones recorded 15.5 sacks on his own last season, the next four Chiefs totaled 20.0 with 6.0 of them coming from second-year man George Karlaftis. Finding someone opposite him should be a focus. Especially with Jones’ current situation and their reliance on his pressure.
They do have Mike Danna (10.5 career sacks in three seasons) and Charles Omenihu (11.5 sacks in four seasons) is that high.
Detroit Lions EDGE rusher Romeo Okwara could be a sound option and, as is the case with Brown, could be available at a discount. Okwara, 28, has recorded just 3.0 sacks over the last two seasons as he battled his way back from a torn Achilles.
Before that, though, Okwara led the Lions with 10.0 sacks in 2020. And he recorded 7.5 sacks in 2018. He finished last season healthy but now finds himself behind 2022 No. 2 overall pick Aidan Hutchinson, Charles Harris, James Houston, and others, including his brother, Julian Okwara.
With a $2 million price tag, Okwara could be a lottery ticket.
Emmanuel Ogbah – Miami Dolphins
There was some speculation that the Dolphins could part with EDGE Emmanuel Ogbah who has had to change positions in new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s 3-4 scheme this offseason.
Ogbah is just one year removed from back-to-back 9.0-sack seasons and had 5.5 sacks for the Chiefs in 2019. But the Dolphins also have Bradley Chubb and Jaelen Phillips ahead of him on the depth chart and, with a $17 million cap hit this season, it’s not hard to see why they could move him.
That cap hit also presents a problem, though, since Jones’ contract situation is also keeping the Chiefs from potentially freeing up valuable cap space.
They could try to restructure other players’ contracts like Travis Kelce or Justin Reid.
Jones’ situation is clouding a lot of other things for this team right now, though. That has to be their first order of business. But, after that, they might want to explore some of these trade options to boost their title run.
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