Chiefs Insider Pete Sweeney breaks down if KC could actually bring back the former receiver, who was recently released by the Miami Dolphins. By Pete Sweeney| Alexa Stone
The Chiefs put their offseason into motion this week, shifting forward some of the Patrick Mahomes cap hit to future years.
That move was inevitable.
The real work comes next week, 500 miles east, and it begins with a far less obvious decision.
What should they do with cornerback Trent McDuffie?
It’s the question — or at least one of the most prominent questions — on which the remainder of the Chiefs’ offseason will pivot. And it should therefore preempt the analysis of who they might add to the team in March.
Will they first subtract a key player?
McDuffie, a 2022 first-round pick and two-time All-Pro, is entering the final year of his rookie deal. He’s up for a richer payday, which presses the Chiefs to soon determine whether he’s part of their long-term future.
Like, now.
It would be easy to say the Chiefs should just trade McDuffie for a collection of draft picks, open up some cap space and use the acquired picks to recoil the roster for the future. It would be easy to argue the inverse — that they should keep their best young defensive player in the building for a while longer.
But the validity of those conclusions rely on a preceding step: What’s the price?
Well, prices. Plural.
As the Chiefs head to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this weekend through next week, where hundreds of the top NFL Draft prospects in the country will converge, the most vital information they will collect is a stack of medical reports.
The next-most important? The McDuffie reports.
Those prices.
How much would it cost to sign McDuffie to a long-term deal?
How much could they get back in a trade if they’re willing to listen to offers?
The reply to those two questions work in conjunction to drive what’s next. In an ideal word, the decision with McDuffie would drive everything after — free agency, the draft, everything.
If we’re still talking about McDuffie’s long-term future in training camp and framing it as a mystery, the Chiefs will be stuck in a far worse spot than they are now, before free agency and the draft. The timing of their decision isn’t as important as the decision itself, but it doesn’t trail far behind.
Best guess? The combination of the two answers — his contract price and his trade market — will suggest trading McDuffie is an uncomfortable but sensible solution. But after spending a week in Indianapolis with their peers, the Chiefs shouldn’t be left guessing.
What made the Tyreek Hill trade necessary, even if similarly uncomfortable, was the return. The Chiefs got five NFL Draft picks from Miami, including immediate first- and second-rounders. They rebuilt their defense into a championship side with those picks.
Heck, this entire column doesn’t exist if the Chiefs hadn’t pulled the trigger on the Hill trade, because they probably don’t have enough assets to trade up in the draft a month later to select McDuffie in the first round.
But at the time, as a Chiefs source told me of the return for Hill, “How can you pass that up? Come on.”
Which is why, whether the Chiefs are inclined to move McDuffie or not, they must at least gather a sense of the market. If they are again blown away by an offer for a player who will soon get a large raise, they don’t even have to make the decision. It will be made for them.
McDuffie is highly unlikely to generate the same return that, say, cornerback Sauce Gardner did just three months ago — the Colts relinquished two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the New York Jets in exchange for Gardner.
But then again, Gardner should’ve been highly unlikely to generate that return. It only took one team to overpay. And plenty of NFL teams need help at cornerback this offseason. Many are no doubt operating with the salary-cap space required to squeeze an extension for McDuffie into their budget.
It’s time to find out if the Chiefs even have a decision to make, even if that means dealing with the consequences of word trickling out. That’s the business.
To that end, look, it would really be a significant loss if the Chiefs part with McDuffie. It was a significant loss when they parted with Hill — before they won back-to-back Super Bowls.
They ought to consider that they develop this position extraordinarily well. Both defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive backs coach Dave Merritt deserve credit for that. The Chiefs turned McDuffie into an All-Pro, undrafted Charvarius Ward into a big-contract player, fourth-rounder L’Jarius Sneed into a big-contract player and seventh-rounder Jaylen Watson into a soon-to-be big-contract player. And third-rounder Nohl Williams already looks like an intriguing prospect whose late-season potential could help facilitate what else the Chiefs are able to do at the position.
That’s not to suggest any of this would be easy. McDuffie is a hard player to replace, and perhaps an even harder personality. When you talk football and practice habits with him in the locker room, it seems as though he wakes up watching film and goes to bed watching it. He has an obsession with staying ahead.
There’s a reason why he’s here, in other words, deserving of a mega-contract extension. There’s a reason why the question is who can afford him, not who wants him, because every team in football would immediately improve with McDuffie on the roster. It’s the beauty and the pain of a salary-cap league, tied into one decision, because otherwise this would be easy.
It’s not only the former — affordability — the Chiefs have to figure out sooner rather than later.
The two go hand-in-hand.
The offseason blueprint should follow.