External safety options don’t look that great for KC Chiefs
By Matt Conner
Tre Boston
Earlier this week, Tre Boston’s agent Drew Rosenhaus decided to use the biggest mouthpiece to break NFL news to trump the fact that his client, veteran NFL safety Tre Boston, was healthy and ready to play for someone.
Veteran free-agent safety Tre Boston is now healthy, in shape, vaccinated and willing to sign on with a practice squad, per his agent @DrewJRosenhaus. “Tre’s been a really good player for a long time and I’m shocked he hasn’t been signed yet,” Rosenhaus said.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 8, 2021
That single tweet is a good summation of Tre Boston’s career in recent seasons, as it seems Boston is always somehow available late in the offseason for a very reasonable contract offer—in both cash and length—and then, in turn, provides a solid season for some random team who was able to lean on Boston’s oddly cheap labor.
Boston has been a starting-caliber safety for multiple franchises in each of the last five seasons, including 16 games last year for the Carolina Panthers. He’s done the same for the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers in recent years, which makes us at least wonder why a team like the Chiefs wouldn’t want to add Boston to their practice squad. No offense to the likes of running back Elijah McGuire, but signing Boston for the sake of keeping him around and ready in case of injury or inconsistency makes a lot of sense.
The turn here is that Boston profiles better as a free safety than a strong safety which is perhaps why the Chiefs would ignore this, but given that he’s averaged 14 starts per year since 2016, he’s the kind of talent you stash for cheap if you can do so and figure it out later.