Marcus Peters trade: What if a great mystery player is part of Chiefs compensation?
By Kody Latham
What if there’s an unexpectedly great player coming back for the Chiefs—just like Kendall Fuller in the Alex Smith trade with Washington.
Friday was very emotional day for Chiefs kingdom. The Chiefs decided to trade the most polarizing player on the team since Jared Allen when they sent Marcus Peters to the Los Angeles Rams. This has split the fan base into to two camps, those that are upset with the trade, and those who are happy to see what they view as a locker room cancer being removed. Whatever camp you happen to fall in, It goes against the idea that the Chiefs retained defensive coordinator Bob Sutton because there was a lack of talent on the defense. The fact that the Chiefs traded one of the best corners in the NFL makes this defense worse.
The fans are not the only people that are upset about the trade either. The Corporate Champ tweeted this out earlier when the trade was announced:
Already hearing some rumblings about some current Chiefs being upset about this potential Marcus Peters trade. Compensation will be interesting
— RIP Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) February 23, 2018
Who can blame the other players on the Chiefs defense for being mad? Peters currently is on a Hall of Fame career track with how he creates turnovers. The Chiefs know that giving up a premium player at a premium position is a tough pill to swallow so they tried to get Robert Quinn in the deal per Ian Rapport:
At one point, the #Chiefs were pushing to trade for DE Robert Quinn, along with a draft pick. But sounds like now it’ll be just draft picks going over to KC for Marcus Peters.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 23, 2018
The problem with this tweet is that it just says the Chiefs are getting picks in the deal. So why has the compensation not been announced? Unless the Chiefs decided to try and get another player from the Rams and are currently working out an extension with him, someone like Aaron Donald?
Now before you start typing furiously at your keyboard that they would never trade Aaron Donald, let me remind you that 24 hours ago most fans thought we would never trade Marcus Peters. Plus you have made it this far so at least let me explain.
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The Rams are in a tough position moving forward. They have Aaron Donald, Rob Havenstein, Ethan Westbrooks, Michael Brockers, Robert Quinn, Todd Gurley, Lamarcus Joyner, Sammy Watkins, Johnathan Sullivan, Connor Barwin, Andrew Whitworth, Rodger Saffold, Kayvon Webster, Nickell Robey Coleman, and Dominique Easley as free agents. All those players are either in this upcoming free agency period or within two years.
When you add Marcus Peters into that mix now and the 40 million dollars they currently have projected in cap space is not enough to be able to pay all of those players accordingly. Some of them will retire (Andrew Whitworth who is 36 most likely will not be back no matter what when his contract is up), or will just not be resigned due to age (Connor Barwin is 31). Most of those players though are currently in their prime and are really good.
With all this talent soon coming up on their contracts the Rams may be looking at this from a view of positional importance. The most important positions in football are quarterback, left tackle, pass rusher and cornerback.
The Rams know that defensive tackle is not a part of that list, and tying up a contract that will most likely be $20 million dollars per year for the reigning Defensive Player of the Year is just not something that they can afford to do. When Peters became available it presented them with an opportunity to be able to move on from Donald and Trumaine Johnson while not committing huge money at either position. The Chiefs also have a clear need at DT since they have no one currently under contract for the position, and they could also use the additional pass rush help, something that they have missed ever since Dontari Poe had back surgery.
When I heard from former Chiefs Defensive Tackle Bill Mass on 610 Sports Radio (give that link a listen if you haven’t, the interview is really good) that fans will be really happy with the trade when we finally learned the final details, it gave me some optimism that the Chiefs won’t get fleeced in this deal. I will readily admit this will most likely not happen, but if the last 24 hours has proven anything it is that anyone can be had in the NFL if the return is good enough.