The offseason is upon us. Let’s take a look back and see how each AFC West team fared this season, beginning with the defending division champions, Kansas City Chiefs.
Free Agents Lost:
CB Charvarious Ward, CB Mike Hughes, S Tyrann Matheiu, WR Byron Pringle, WR Demarcus Robinson, S Dan Sorenson, S Armani Watts, G Austin Blythe and a couple other less notables.
Free Agents Retained:
DT Derek Nnadi, TE Blake Bell, OT Andrew Wylie.
Free Agents Signed:
S Justin Reid, WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, RB Ronald Jones II, LB Jermaine Carter and a couple other less notables.
Traded:
WR Tyreek Hill
Draft Selections Added:
CB Trent McDuffie, DE George Karlaftis, WR Skyy Moore, S Bryan Cook, LB Leo Chenal, CB Joshua Williams, OT Darian Kinnard, DB Jaylen Watson, RB Isaiah Pacheco, S Nazeeh Johnson
Undrafted Free Agents Added:
WR Justyn Ross, RB Jerrion Ealy, LB Jack Cochrane (Former USD Coyote)
Reviewing all of the roster moves made this offseason, it’s obvious that the Chiefs differ greatly in terms of where their roster is at compared to their peers in the AFC West. They are talented, seasoned and have a lot of players that are valuable in this league. That means they have to either find a way to pay them in order to keep them, trade them, or let them walk when they hit free agency.
The Chiefs lost a lot of talent this offseason, highlighted by 3 of their top 4 wide receivers including All-Pro and bona fide game changer, Tyreek Hill. They were able to get some high draft picks back in that trade, but it will be hard to replace a player of that caliber. They also lost starters and other contributors on multiple levels of the defense, most notably the overhaul in the secondary.
They approached free agency with some money to spend, focusing on adding quality players in the wide receiver room and on defense. The Chiefs entered the draft needing to pick up some help at CB and EDGE, but otherwise had a pretty quality roster in place allowing them to be nimble throughout the draft. The Chiefs hit all the right notes throughout the draft. I am not nearly as high on CB McDuffie and WR Moore as many, but I am no draft expert and will defer to the more qualifed experts that widely liked these additions for the Chiefs.
The Chiefs also picked up a few rookies post draft that have a real shot to make this team in WR Ross, RB Ealy, and LB Cochrane as a special teamer.
In review, it’s hard to argue the Chiefs got better this offseason considering all that they lost, but they did about as good of job as one could expect given the circumstances. If they hit on a good number of the many new players they brought in this offseason, they not only very well could have gotten better but given the amount of youth they added on affordable deals, they could have set themselves up for another strong multi-year run in this division/conference.
Fuck the Chiefs.