Quinnen Williams makes for an interesting trade idea for Chiefs

The Jets are reportedly shopping Quinnen Williams and the Chiefs could make a move to trade for him.

It was only two drafts ago that Quinnen Williams was the third overall selection, back in the 2019 NFL Draft, as a franchise defensive tackle who drew comparisons to Warren Sapp. Now the New York Jets are reportedly interested in trading him away as the franchise faces another obvious rebuild under general manager Joe Douglas, and the Kansas City Chiefs should kick the tires on what it would take for a trade.

The New York Daily News reported on Tuesday that the Jets were indeed shopping Williams, as rumored earlier in the NFL season, and the return is supposed to be not so overwhelming. Considering that Williams went so high in the draft only a year ago, it seems outrageous that the team would not want a first-round pick and then some. However, Manish Mehta writes that is not the case:

"The 0-7 Jets, the only winless team in the league, aren’t asking for the moon. In other words, Gang Green won’t require a first-round pick in return, according to sources."

Williams was a beast at the University of Alabama who came into the draft as the most dominant defender in all of college football. Last year, he had 11 pressures and 2.5 sacks for the Jets in 13 games, but this year he already has 3 sacks in the first seven games.

While defensive tackle isn’t exactly the biggest need for the Kansas City Chiefs, the idea of a young impact player available for a “reasonable price,” as Mehta notes in his column, should be a target for every other team in the National Football League—Chiefs included.

The Chiefs have Chris Jones locked up long term up front and they’ve also invested high draft resources in the position in recent years, including two third round picks like Derrick Nnadi and Khalen Saunders. Mike Pennel’s signing as a free agent shows that value can also be found in veteran linemen on the open market, while Tershawn Wharton’s development gives them another young asset as a rookie free agent. In short, the Chiefs are loaded in the present and future at the position.

The difference here, however, is in how the franchise views Chris Jones for the long term. Is Jones going to be worth keeping around for the entirety of his new four-year extension? That might seem like a silly question since the ink is still drying on the deal, but the Chiefs will be paying $20 million annually to both Jones and Frank Clark for the next half-decade. That’s a lot of finances committed up front.

Even more, if Williams is a shadow of Warren Sapp, he could be not only an asset on his own but a potential replacement for Jones down the road if the team knew he could deliver a similarly disruptive impact. That’s not a knock on Jones—in fact, it’s a testament to just how difficult he would be to replace—but it’s just acknowledging potential financial limitations on the part of the Chiefs in years to come due to so many expensive contracts on the books.

Right now, the Jets are reportedly offering one of the NFL’s most valuable assets for a solid value: an impact player on a cost-controlled contract. Any franchise would be foolish not to try to make it work, even one already as loaded as the Kansas City Chiefs.