Kansas City Chiefs: De’Anthony Thomas Could Be Traded

NFL free agency doesn’t start until Wednesday, but trade rumors are already beginning to circulate. Could De’Anthony Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs be on the trading block?

KC Chiefs fans are expected to be hit hard when free agency begins on Wednesday. With guys like Tamba Hali, Jaye Howard, Derrick Johnson, Sean Smith, and several others set to hit the free agent market, Wednesday could be another rough day in free agency for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Something that appeared out of left field on Monday, however, was the possibility of offensive weapon De’Anthony Thomas being traded. A tweet from John Middlekauff was sent out on Monday mentioning that the San Francisco 49ers were interested in Thomas.

Could a trade between the Chiefs and the Niners be in the works? It seems like these two teams enjoy doing business together, and maybe this trade could potentially work out.

For one, Chip Kelly is now in San Francisco as their head coach. Kelly was Thomas’ coach in college and appears to be at it again when it comes to acquiring his old players from Oregon. Last year, while still in Philadelphia, Kelly traded LeSean McCoy to the Bills for Kiko Alonso, which just seemed really random.

Second, Thomas hasn’t been all that he was hyped up to be when the Chiefs took him in the fourth round two years ago. He was hurt for a large portion of the 2015 season and there’s just this feeling in the back of my mind that he could be considering retirement.

Some of the cons coming from this potential trade is that if Thomas goes, who really is there to return punts for the Chiefs? Jeremy Maclin sometimes handles that duty, but he needs to stay healthy. Frankie Hammond was the one who mainly took over for Thomas during his absence and he wasn’t the most effective.

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Thomas has four total touchdowns during his time with the KC Chiefs. He’s had two rushing, one receiving, and one punt return touchdown. His ability to be used as both a running back, wide receiver, and return specialist is certainly valuable, but if the 49ers are willing to give up a position of need for the Chiefs, it could be an interesting thought.

There have already been some trades taking place in the NFL with DeMarco Murray headed to Tennessee, and Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell heading to Miami (clearly that Alonso deal was not a good one for the Eagles).

The point being that if there is any truth to this rumor, we could have our answer by as early as Tuesday.

Next: Five Underrated Free Agents to Target

Would you want the Chiefs to trade De’Anthony Thomas or is he too valuable?