After months of rumors surrounding the highest-profile cornerbacks and even running back Le’Veon Bell, the Chiefs stood pat at the NFL’s trade deadline.
The final bell has been rung. The NFL trade deadline has come and gone. The number of new players on the Kansas City Chiefs roster is, well, zero.
For the last few months, the Chiefs have reportedly been in on every impact cornerback—namely, Patrick Peterson, Jalen Ramsey, Minkah Fitzpatrick—on the open market. They were also linked with running back Le’Veon Bell on the official deadline day and have injuries at a number of significant positions, including major concerns on both the offensive and defensive lines.
No matter, the Chiefs didn’t trade for a single player on Tuesday.
The NFL trade deadline was actually remarkably silent as teams decided to either not sell (or not to pay the price of those who were selling). That means that teams in the basements of several divisions decided to just let veteran assets depreciate without gaining any future returns, including Chris Harris on the Denver Broncos, Janoris Jenkins on the New York Giants and even Bell on the New York Jets.
The lack of moves might seem a bit much, but the reality is that the Chiefs have reasons to feel good about how things are coming together concerning injuries. Patrick Mahomes will be back in two weeks against the Tennessee Titans. In that time they might also get Eric Fisher back at left tackle, Chris Jones back at defensive tackle, and Kendall Fuller at cornerback.
There are still plenty of injuries beyond those guys, but the younger players on the roster have done an admirable job filling in and have shown the Chiefs that the depth is there for a nice postseason run if they can get the roster in order.
For a franchise that hasn’t made a first round pick since 2017 when they moved up to select Patrick Mahomes at No. 10 overall, the idea of saving draft picks is a good idea. That might not be what fans want to hear at the moment, but the Chiefs have plenty of developing talent on both sides the ball and should wait to get healthy and go from there.