The Kansas City Chiefs have had one of their more active offseasons in recent memory so far. We have seen multiple free agent signings, trades, and big name releases.
The Kansas City Chiefs have made some exciting signings and also made some very tough releases, but how good were these moves? In this article, I will go through and grade each individual offseason move up to this point. First, we will look at the free agent signings, followed by the trades and releases.
Signed Tyrann Mathieu to a three-year $42 million deal
Grade: A
This was my favorite safety on the market coming into the offseason. Mathieu is so versatile and can line up in so many different positions. His PFF Grade from last season was 75.1, but that doesn’t do much justice to the type of impact he can make in every game.
His versatility really adds value to his game. This is displayed in the graphic below with his 300+ snaps at free safety, strong safety, and covering in the slot.
New @Chiefs signing: DB Tyrann Mathieu (@Mathieu_Era)
— PFF KC Chiefs (@PFF_Chiefs) March 11, 2019
-84.6 grade in 2013
-90.7 grade in 2015 (#10 in #PFFTop101)
-2018: 75.1 overall, 83.9 run D, 70.6 coverage, career high 3 sacks
-64+ tackling grade every season
-300+ snaps each at slot, free, and box in 2018#ChiefsKingdom
The only reason why this move isn’t an A+ is that the Chiefs gave him a pretty good deal. Not that he will be overpaid, but he didn’t sign at a bargain price either.
This deal averages out to about $14 million per season, which is a few million over the franchise tag amount for 2019, but Over the Cap projects the 2020 tag to be just over $13 million, so as you can see this contract will look like more of a bargain in years two and three. Also he is only 26 years old and hasn’t missed a game in two seasons!