Kansas City Chiefs: 2018 is officially a rebuilding year

There isn’t much doubt now that the Kansas City Chiefs probably aren’t going to make a whole lot of noise in 2018. That became abundantly clear when Marcus Peters was traded on Friday.

Usually when a football team trades their quarterback, a “down” year is to be expected. The Kansas City Chiefs weren’t entirely in that category when Alex Smith was dealt to D.C. because we all saw how well Patrick Mahomes played versus the Broncos in week 17.

Sure, it was just one game, but the belief was that Mahomes would be able to start and provide good quarterback play. The Chiefs definitely could have battled for the AFC West division with Mahomes at the helm.

Now, however, the Chiefs defense is an even bigger problem because the team just sent their best player in Marcus Peters to Los Angeles. Peters is going going back back to Cali Cali (R.I.P. Biggie) and now the Chiefs are presented with yet another problem on defense, but they have no one to blame but themselves.

I figured bringing Kendall Fuller in through the Alex Smith trade was to shore up that secondary, but I guess to Brett Veach and company it meant… Let’s now trade our top corner! Okay then.

Look, I’m not anti-trading Peters. The guy clearly didn’t see himself in Kansas City for the rest of his career and the homer in me wants to say, “IF YOU DON’T LIKE MY TOWN THEN GET THE HELL OUT!” The football loving part of me is crying because Marcus Peters was an absolute game changer and the Chiefs just traded that player to another team when they didn’t have to.

The Chiefs had control of Peters for at least two more years (and arguably a third if they franchised him) and now he’s Los Angeles’ “problem”. Peters had his fair share of blowups and that might have led to his dismissal, but now we’re all left wondering who is going to step up on defense.

Peters is gone. Derrick Johnson is gone (and let’s face it – that was the right move). Tamba Hali needs to be gone. The defense was looking old last year and now it’s going to get younger and that means stopping the opposition might be tricky in 2018.