KC Chiefs: 5 wide receiver trade targets not named DeAndre Hopkins
By Jacob Milham
The Kansas City Chiefs still have some work to do on the offensive end. While everyone and their brother want DeAndre Hopkins, who are some other trade targets?
We are hitting the tiresome point of the Kansas City Chiefs offseason. This middle ground between free agency’s first wave and the NFL Draft, before the endless summer of waiting begins. At least we have the Royals to watch, right?
The most tiring part of this offseason for me has to be the constant speculation about Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Constant fan polls, tweeting trade proposals, researching contract extensions—it is just everywhere Chiefs fans are. It is hard to blame the consistent speculation. After all, the team has a clear hole at WR1 with Juju Smith-Schuster gone, and pairing Hopkins with Patrick Mahomes is a tantalizing prospect. Hopkins once looked like a generational wide receiver talent, and that version with Mahomes is limitless.
Have never seen Chiefs Kingdom want a player as badly as they want DeAndre Hopkins. There’s just no talking y’all out of it 😂
— Adam Best (@Arrowhead_Adam) March 16, 2023
Here is where my pessimism comes in. I do not think that Hopkins would come to Kansas City. I think he is nowhere close to his former glory and on the wrong side of 30 for an NFL player. He just logged a career high in drops, needed the absence of other receivers to succeed in Arizona, and wants a brand new deal with his new team. I do not see Chiefs general manager Brett Veach overpaying for a receiver out of his prime.
“Oh, what about Randy Moss and Tom Brady? They were great together!”
They sure were! Moss had 50 touchdowns and averaged 75 yards per game in New England. It was truly a historic run for Moss’ stat line. But that was it. The Patriots reached one Super Bowl in Moss’ first season on the roster but did not win another playoff game in his remaining time there. Moss and Brady were together, but they still did not win a Super Bowl. Balanced, fiscally responsible rosters win championships. Top-heavy ones rarely do.
Veach giving up draft capital for Hopkins and then handcuffing the payroll for years is a lot of un-Veach-like behavior. I believe there are still viable options for the Chiefs to add via trade this offseason. From least- to most-impactful, who are these five targets and how could the Chiefs acquire their services?