The Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers had a bad night in their week one loss to the Detroit Lions. After being the focus of conversation all offseason, the wide receiver group fell flat in their first opportunity to prove their worth. When the clocks hit zero in KC's one-point season-opening loss, no other group found themselves shouldering as much of the blame as the wideouts, especially Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney who were both theorized to be KC's #1 wide receiver this season at different points during the offseason.
I've been doing this long enough to know that some of you are already jumping straight to the comments to say something like "It's just one game. Calm down!" or "Why are people overreacting? Give this group some time!" So let me be abundantly clear, I am not predicting that KC's receivers will perform that badly all season. I am not predicting that KC will HAVE to trade for a receiver. I am more than willing to give this group time to develop and for the Chiefs to see if some combination of these wideouts (along with Travis Kelce) can give Patrick Mahomes the targets he needs to win another Super Bowl.
However, as I wrote back in May, the Chiefs are gambling on the wide receiver position this season. There are ZERO proven reliable go-to receivers on this roster. There are lots of guys with potential, lots of guys that could turn into reliable targets, but they are definitely still a gamble at this point. Now, the Chiefs took a risk and won when they traded away Tyreek Hill. Gambles can pay off big when you hit, but sometimes, no matter how good you feel about the odds of your bet, it still loses.
The Chiefs need a backup plan if their wide receivers continue to struggle.
This Chiefs roster is too good to be derailed by poor wide receiver play. On Thursday night, I saw a team with the best player in the NFL at quarterback, the best head coach (even though a few of his decisions still make me crazy), two new tackles that look promising and could give them one of the best offensive lines in football, and a defense that stepped up and played well despite being without their best player. Despite losing on Thursday, I still saw a team that I'm confident can win another Super Bowl if they get Travis Kelce and Chris Jones back and get even decent wide receiver play.
So as a potential precaution in case this group of receivers continues to under perform, I took a look at four very reasonable trade targets that the Chiefs could consider if they need to add someone to ensure that wide receiver play doesn't derail their hopes to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
So how did I come up with what I consider realistic trade targets? I looked at wide receivers that are set to be unrestricted free agents at the end of this season that are on teams that are widely viewed as not being playoff caliber this season. Bad teams with veteran receivers that could be about to hit the open market are often willing to trade at a discount as opposed to losing the player for nothing but a potential comp pick at the end of the year.
So without further ado, here are four wide receivers ranging from solid contributors to big name stars that the Chiefs could consider if their wide receiver play looks like it could be a season-long problem.