Kansas City Chiefs: Hopefully Chiefs have been paying attention
By John McCarty
Is Dee Ford, after spending the previous offseason preparing his body for a contract season to be an edge pass rusher, really going to get excited about not only switching sides of the defense? He’d be a right side defensive end in the new alignment.
After spending the past five seasons as a stand-up rush linebacker, he will now be asked to put his hand down, rush the passer, and play the run as a defensive end. It’s hard to imagine that he’d be excited about that prospect.
So what should the Chiefs do with Dee Ford?
It’s really simple and quite honestly, rather obvious. You tag and trade Dee Ford.
Moving Ford would likely return the Chiefs a decent haul of draft picks to build not only the depth of the roster (which was an issue against New England), but also rookie pay scale contracts free up money to spend on younger and perhaps better players (I’m looking at Chris Jones)
More than Amari Cooper's but less than Khalil Mack's. The last time KC traded a pass rusher it had franchised, Minnesota give up a 1st round pick & 2 3rd round picks to get Jared Allen. https://t.co/peXaiNCi6e
— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) January 23, 2019
In a situation, a team like the Indianapolis Colts who have two second round selections and over 100 million in salary cap room, might not be afraid front loading a contract for the pass rusher giving up a second and a fourth. Chiefs avoid paying over 15 million to Ford in 2019 and add two young, cheap players to the roster for the future.
When the 49ers decided to trade Alex Smith, the initial asking price was a third round pick. Teams offered and then upped other teams offers until the Chiefs offered two second round picks. Bidding on a pass rusher could bring back a quality haul.