KC Chiefs: Three players with the most trade value before NFL deadline

Derrick Nnadi

If you’re reading this cross-eyed wondering, “There’s no way in hell the Chiefs would trade Derrick Nnadi right now,” you are correct. This isn’t about most plausible trade scenarios. This is about players with the most realistic trade value at the deadline and Nnadi is an ideal match there.

Remember this is the scenario in which Veach decides to be a seller. He’s not going to move a player with multiple years on his deal, because the Chiefs can expect to be right back in the playoff picture again next season. But what is at work here for Derrick Nnadi is a contract that expires after this season. As a draft pick from the 2018 NFL Draft, he’s ready to hit the open market for the first time in his career and that means he could simply walk next March.

Nnadi is a solid lineman for the Chiefs, but he’s one-dimensional as a young run-stuffer (even a good one who is still developing) and the snap counts prove it. Nnadi hasn’t played over 50 percent of snaps in 6 of 8 games so far this season, with some contests as low as 30 percent. That sort of usage isn’t going to yield some great compensatory return in the open market, which means Veach could flip Nnadi now for a draft asset in 2022 instead of waiting for a lower-level one in free agency (for 2023) after he signs with another team.

Again, this is the seller scenario in which the Chiefs decide to hold all draft picks of their own and fish for more by dangling certain players before the deadline in order to make a bigger splash next offseason. That’s not going to happen, but if the Chiefs chose this route, Nnadi would definitely net them something from a team hungry for more depth, experience, and toughness up front.