The Kansas City Chiefs have an unsettled situation in their secondary, and they’re badly in need of draft capital. Slot corner Trent McDuffie has been widely mentioned as a potential trade candidate, and Bill Barnwell of ESPN came up with a trade possibility that could make a lot of sense for both prospective teams.
Barnwell’s potential trade partner for the Chiefs is the Los Angeles Rams, who have a pair of number one picks in the upcoming draft after trading down this past season. Given how close the Rams came to making the Super Bowl, Barnwell thinks GM Les Snead has to be thinking loading up to see if his team can take the next step while 38-year old Matthew Stafford is still playing and competing at an incredibly high level.
The Chiefs would likely do this deal in a heartbeat. McDuffie is a Pro Bowl-caliber player, and they’re unlikely to extend him. But getting a pick this high for their cornerback would be a real coup for GM Brett Veach, and it would allow the Chiefs to address some of their other needs at different positional groups.
As for the rest of the secondary, that’s up in the air, too. Safety Bryan Cook and cornerback Jaylen Watson are both headed into free agency, and the Chiefs have enough depth in the secondary to allow one or both players to walk. That’s typically the way the Chiefs do things, and it makes even more sense this offseason.
The key to this deal is the Rams’ evaluation of McDuffie and whether they think he’s their guy at corner. The Rams have taken a couple of shots at finding a corner, trading a couple of picks to the Chiefs for Marcus Peters, then sending two first-rounders to the Jacksonville Jaguars for Jalen Ramsey. The Peters deal didn’t work out, but Ramsey did, so they’re batting .500 so far.
Barnwell described McDuffie as a feisty, aggressive cornerback with the ability to play near the line of scrimmage, and they would have no trouble absorbing McDuffie’s fifth-year options for $13.6 millions in 2026, or they could choose to extend him instead. The Rams have spent at one of the lowest rates in teh league for the past two years on defense, according to Barnwell, so this would be a good time to make an exception given their occasional defensive inconsistency.
The trade does make a lot of sense, especially since the Rams are a team that once printed up “Eff Them Picks” a few years back when they won the Super Bowl. The Chiefs would gladly take a number one off their hands, and it will be interesting to see where McDuffie ultimately lands.