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Could the Chiefs be active once again at the NFL trade deadline?
Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt didn’t rule out the possibility in a conversation with reporters before Kansas City’s 28-7 win against the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“[General Manager] Brett Veach has historically been pretty aggressive at the trade deadline,” Hunt said when asked if the Chiefs would stand pat or make a move before the 3 p.m. CT deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Nationally, a lot of the possible trade conversation swirling around Kansas City involved running backs, but that doesn’t fit Veach’s M.O. historically for midseason roster additions.
He’s only ever added at wide receiver or defensive line in past trade-deadline deals, so shipping draft assets out for a non-premium position seems far-fetched, especially with veteran Elijah Mitchell on the roster and both Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Carson Steele on the practice squad, barring an injury that makes it a necessity.
“If he feels like we have a need, he's not shy about going out and addressing it, and I think that'll be true again this year,” Hunt said.
Perhaps the equation has changed with Isiah Pacheco picking up a minor knee injury against the Commanders.
But Hunt seemed to suggest that running back, where speculation has attempted to link Kansas City to deals with New Orleans for Alvin Kamara or the New York Jets for Breece Hall, wasn’t the position that might need shoring up.
“Obviously, an important part of it is where you stand from an injury standpoint, and we've been pretty fortunate up to this point,” Hunt said. “We were sad to lose [rookie second-round pick Omarr] Norman-Lott last week. That definitely hurt us along the defensive line.”
There doesn’t seem to be a robust market for interior defensive linemen, which is why news Monday that the Cincinnati Bengals had waived veteran former Chiefs defensive tackle Mike Pennel made waves through the Kingdom.
Veach didn’t make a deadline deal during his first three seasons in charge.
His first in-season trade sent DeAndre Washington to Miami in 2020.
The next year, he shipped out guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif at the deadline in a deal that netted tight end Daniel Brown, who never played in a game with the Chiefs.
But 2021 also marked the first time Veach added to the roster at the trade deadline, sending a sixth-round pick to Pittsburgh for Melvin Ingram, and he’s done it every year since.
Kadarius Toney, a New York Giants first-round pick only a year earlier, was Kansas City’s 2022 trade-deadline prize, and he did come up clutch for the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, catching the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter and authoring the longest punt return in Super Bowl history to set up another.
The Chiefs essentially gave Rashad Fenton to Atlanta that season before the trade deadline. The conditional pick involved in the latter deal was never conveyed.
Kansas City added at wide receiver again in 2023, bringing back Mecole Hardman Jr. in mid-October for a seventh-round pick.
Once again, it worked out well as Hardman caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime as the Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions that season.
For the third consecutive season, Veach added a receiver who went on to catch a touchdown in the Super Bowl via midseason trade, though DeAndre Hopkins’ 7-yard TD grab in Super Bowl LIX came in a losing effort.
The Chiefs also added defensive end Josh Uche at last season’s trade deadline, but he struggled to crack the defensive-line rotation.
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