The Kansas City Chiefs have a right tackle problem along with a depth issue, so they made a trade with the Giants.
The Kansas City Chiefs have some problems in their offensive line that surfaced in a big way in their 16-15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Saturday, and they’ve traded for Joshua Ezeudu of the New York Giants for a seventh-round pick in 2028, according to a report from Jordan Raanan of ESPN.
It’s a surprising move given that the Chiefs thought they had their offensive line problems solved early in training camp. Undrafted free agent Kahlil Benson has been competing for the right tackle job with Jaylon Moore, and the Chiefs were impressed with his early work.
Until the Bucs game, that is. The plan was to try to move one or both lineman inside to see how they would do as depth pieces with guard Trey Smith out of the lineup with a hip injury, but Benson got exposed in the game as he gave up a pressure and a strip sack.
It’s an alarming development given how close the Chiefs are to their opener on Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 14, especially given that quarterback Patrick Mahomes is still finishing up his rehab from surgery after the devastating knee injury that ended his season last December.
As for Ezeudu, the Giants selected him in the third round back in 2022, and he played ten games for the Giants from 2022-24 at guard and tackle. But the North Carolina product spent last year on injured reserve, and he signed a one-year deal with New York that had him playing at right tackle this summer before he slid over into the guard slot, per Raanan.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid hasn’t been impressed with the team’s depth players so far in camp, and this move could be interpreted as an indictment of Kansas City’s decision to draft primarily for defense back in April.
The Giants, meanwhile, are rebuilding under new coach John Harbaugh, who said that adding picks was a “valuable thing” in his comments about the deal.
"If we could, we'd do it as much as we possibly could," Harbaugh said. "We'd like to take advantage of the opportunities, if they'll come up, as much as we can. We do have some guys. We're kind of deep in a few positions, and maybe that'll happen. It doesn't happen that often, but maybe it will."
Adding players from the Giants just three weeks for Week 1 doesn’t sound like a winning formula, but hopefully Ezeudu will be able to impress Reid and bolster the Chiefs’ depth going forward.
