Kansas City Cheifs cornerback Trent McDuffie was traded to LA for draft capital, and he commented on his new goals.
The Kansas City Chiefs traded cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams with the future in mind, but McDuffie clapped back a little in his initial comments to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk about joining the Rams that made his new goal clear.
“Like I said, this team is ready to go,” McDuffie said, via the Associated Press. “I don’t think I’m coming in here with a team that doesn’t understand the value that they have.
“So those little nuggets that I feel like I can just pour into guys that can get us over the hump, I’m going to do everything I can because that’s the end goal. And I know it’s the end goal bringing me in is the Lombardi Trophy, so everything we do to bring a ring back to this city is what I’m going to do.”
Intentional or not, those comments are laced with irony. McDuffie has a pair of Super Bowl rings that he earned in his first two seasons in Kansas City, but like the rest of the Chiefs, he suffered through a 6-11 campaign after quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down to a season-ending knee injury.
The cornerback was hoping to reset the market with his old team, but the Chiefs wanted nothing to do with that, so they sent him to LA for a boatload of draft capital. McDuffie supposedly wanted to return to Kansas City, so this could be his passive-aggressive way of throwing some shade at his old team.
McDuffie also made some comments about versatility that were more innocuous, but it seems clear that he wasn’t completely happy about the way this deal went down.
“It don’t matter where you put me,” McDuffie said. “I’ll play safety. I’ll put my hand in the dirt. Like, I hope I don’t have to. But, really, I’m just out here wanting to play ball, you know. And no matter where you put me, I’m going to work, day in and day out, to make sure that I do my job at a very high level, and that’s the guy you’re getting.”
This deal represents a big gamble for the Rams, despite the fact that McDuffie is a top-tier cornerback. While it is true that the Rams just missed making the Super Bowl, they’re also hitching their wagon to aging quarterback Matthew Stafford, which is now an annual adventure.
If Stafford holds up and McDuffie improves the defense enough to get LA over the top, this will become a great deal for the Rams. If not, McDuffie’s big contract will slowly become problematic as the Chiefs use their draft capital, secondary depth and a couple of new signings to help fill in the gaps created by the departure of McDuffie, cornerback Jaylen Watson and safety Bryan Cook.