Kansas City Chiefs fans are justifiably outraged that their team was inactive at the trade deadline. The Chiefs have a legitimate need at running back, and they were also rumored to have interest in defensive linemen. 

At first the running back part of this seems indefensible, but it’s worth taking a solid shot at doing that. Here are three potential reasons they passed on picking up a back, and we should learn more about at least one of them in the coming days and weeks. 

The state of the offensive line. The Chiefs went into this season with a reconfigured offensive line, and they took some gambles. Left tackle Josh Simmons was drafted with an injury history, but the rookie has generally played well, although his absence due to a personal matter has hurt the team in recent weeks. 

Kingsley Suamataia is now at left guard, and he, too, has had a season on transition. He’s a second-year player who’s still learning the position, and his counterpart at right guard, Trey Smith, has been banged up lately as well. 

It’s likely that Coach Andy Reid looked at the film and saw running lanes that simply weren’t open, regardless of the running back. It takes time to build chemistry between a line and a back, and that’s tough to do with some deadline deals. 

The cost was prohibitive. This is one of the items we’ll learn more about soon, but draft day swindles are pulled on teams with a desperate need that are willing to give up an exorbitant amount of capital. Everyone team in the league knew about the Chiefs’ need at running back, and it’s likely that teams like the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints wanted day-one draft picks for running backs Breece Hall and Alvin Kamara, respectively. 

The Chiefs used their draft capital in this year’s draft to rebuild the offensive line, which is one way to justify not making a move, especially since the line rebuild has worked out. It’s a gamble either way, but Reid and GM Brett Veach chose the conservative route, for better or worse. 

Isiah Pacheco’s medicals are better than expected. No one knows the severity of Pacheco’s MCL sprain, but we do know he tried to get back into the game after the Chiefs’ loss to the Washington Commanders a couple of weeks ago. 

It’s entirely possible he’ll be back soon, especially with the Chiefs in their bye week, so the Chiefs chose to elevate Clyde Edwards-Helaire from their practice squad. Most of the Kansas City’s offensive metrics indicate that this is already a unit capable of winning a championship, especially if Pacheco comes back healthy and plays well.