Chiefs bolster pass rush with surprising pre-deadline trade with Patriots

The Kansas City Chiefs were already the envy of most of the NFL with a suffocating defense performing at a championship level under Steve Spagnuolo's leadership. Now the rich get richer, as they say, with the news that the Chiefs have added more talent and depth before the league's trade deadline with the acquisition of Josh Uche.

The news was broken by NFL reporter Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports.

Uche, an edge rusher for the New England Patriots, was kept out of Sunday's game in Week 8 which signaled a deal was coming. That the interested party was the Chiefs is the shocking part of this.

With the trade for Uche, the Chiefs now have some margin to work with in the face of injuries at defensive end, especially given that they've already been through an early bye and face a gauntlet of a schedule in December.

The Chiefs have made sure their pass rush is going to stay deep and effective for a full season.

With the deal for Uche, the Chiefs can breathe a bit easier at defensive end. While it's clear that George Karlaftis and Turk Wharton have shown considerable growth up front, the unit has been missing a primary player all season long as they wait on Charles Omenihu to come back from injury. Then a recent series of injuries to Mike Danna have kept him from playing, and perhaps this is a signal that Danna might be missing more games in the future.

Either way, the presence of Uche will be welcome even if all parties are healthy because the Chiefs love to rotate in defensive linemen and postseason expectations have the Chiefs staring at a 20-game schedule or more. The truth is that the line would be quite lucky to make it through without further injuries as well.

As for Uche, who just turned 26 years old, he now joins the Chiefs mid-way through his fifth NFL season. He has 2 sacks and 5 pressures so far this season but he's had as many as 11.5 sacks in a single year for the Pats back in 2022. Uche has always been a situational pass rusher for the Pats, so no one should expect a new face starting opposite Karlaftis or anything.

One minor note on Uche's deal is that it does seem to signal a lack of hope that Cam Thomas will turn out to provide anything of note for the Chiefs. Brett Veach landed Thomas in a preseason deal before active roster cuts were due from the Arizona Cardinals, but he's either been a healthy scratch or an unused option on game day thus far.