Take a step back in time to Tuesday, November 4, 2025: the National Football League’s trade deadline. The stars seemed aligned for the Kansas City Chiefs to make a deal, to take a swing and bring in a key player at arguably their biggest position of need. But strangely, it didn’t happen.
At the time, it felt as if the Chiefs had just wasted the last opportunity to turn their season around. But two months later, maybe that decision not to trade for New York Jets running back Breece Hall turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
By the morning of deadline day, it had become painfully obvious that running back was Kansas City’s biggest weakness on offense. A backfield of Kareem Hunt, Brashard Smith, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire had combined for just 61 yards two days earlier in a loss to the Buffalo Bills, and even the looming return of Isiah Pacheco didn’t offer much hope. The solution seemed obvious: trade for Hall.
The Jets were selling assets, Kansas City desperately needed juice from the run game, and Hall seemed like the perfect fit for the Chiefs’ offense and style. It was a move that made so much sense. So when Kansas City and general manager Brett Veach didn’t pull the trigger over a trivial one-round standoff about Hall’s trade value, it left many in Chiefs Kingdom, including me, frustrated.
The Chiefs were a team chasing history in the form of a trip to a fourth consecutive Super Bowl and a third Lombardi Trophy in four years. New York’s price of a third-round pick for a top-15 running back who could rejuvenate Kansas City’s entire offense seemed like an easy cost to pay.
Kansas City’s decision not to trade for Breece Hall looked like a missed opportunity in November, but that perspective has changed.
But would the move have actually made a difference? Would trading for Hall on deadline day have prevented the train wreck that was about to unfold in Kansas City? I don’t think it would have.
Given what we’ve seen this season, it’s clear the Chiefs had too many deficiencies to overcome. Poor defensive line play, a lack of a pass rush, dropped passes, wide receivers failing to get open, special teams miscues, backbreaking penalties, inaccurate kicking, underperforming stars and coaches, and, of course, a lackluster run game have all been major problems.
There’s no question that Hall would have made the Chiefs better. Barring an injury, he would have almost certainly rejuvenated a lethargic run game and potentially re-sparked a stale offensive scheme. But would that boost have been enough? Would it have been enough to counteract all of Kansas City’s other weaknesses and lift this team to the playoffs? I really don’t think so.
A disclaimer feels appropriate here. Hindsight is 20/20, and the butterfly effect applies here too. Trading for Hall would have significantly altered the way the season unfolded for the Chiefs. But I don’t think it would have changed where they ended up: outside of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. And if that’s the case, Veach’s decision against trading with the Jets was actually a good thing.
Given the Chiefs’ current predicament, that third-round pick has become incredibly important. It gives the team extra flexibility and an additional resource for the overhaul that’s about to come this offseason.
That pick, which is likely to be around 72nd to 75th overall, gives the Chiefs another opportunity to draft a player at a position of need—an opportunity that wouldn’t have existed had the pick been sent to New York. Plus, the Chiefs will have the chance to sign Hall in free agency this offseason as well, meaning they could still end up with the same star running back without giving up an extra draft pick. It’s the best of both worlds.
The draft can be a lottery at times, but the Chiefs have found good value in the third round lately. Nohl Williams (2025), Wanya Morris (2023), and Leo Chenal (2022) were all drafted in the third round and have proven to be important players.
There are other benefits, too. If the Chiefs were to trade Trent McDuffie this offseason or let either Drue Tranquill or Leo Chenal walk, that third-rounder could be used to draft a player who might not replace them entirely but could realistically help fill the void left behind. And if the Chiefs decide they want to move up in the first round and land a top-five pick, that third-rounder could be part of the package that helps get them there.
Crucially, the Chiefs have options when it comes to what they want to do with that third-rounder—options they wouldn’t have had if they’d traded for Hall, a move that, in my opinion, wouldn’t have changed the outcome of their season. The decision not to buy at the trade deadline was a tough one, but it might just work out in Kansas City’s favor in the end.