Kansas City Chiefs officially in win now mode after Frank Clark trade

Chiefs Kingdom was set on fire Tuesday morning with rumors of the Kansas City Chiefs trading for Patrick Peterson. Just a few hours later, Chiefs Kingdom was set ablaze with word of the Frank Clark trade.

Despite plenty of mixed reviews of the trade, there is one universal truth that all Kansas City Chiefs fans can agree on, the Chiefs are now officially in win now mode. This is exciting to realize even if you don’t love the trade.

This trade has many reasons to be disputed, but what is indisputable is the fact that Brett Veach and company are doing their best to put the Chiefs in position to win a Super Bowl in the coming season.

Instead of focusing on why this trade may be disputable, let’s focus on how this helps the Chiefs in win now mode.

At first glance, trading a first rounder and giving Frank Clark a $105 million contract seems like a little much for Clark, but at pick 29, it was very highly unlikely that the Chiefs were going to get a player that will have as big of an impact during the 2019 season as Clark will. This clearly displays the Chiefs’ commitment to winning now.

In addition to the first round pick, the Chiefs gave the Seahawks their 2020 second round pick that they acquired in the Dee Ford trade. So if the Chiefs are in win now mode and weren’t afraid to pay Clark, why not just give Ford a long-term extension and not worry making these trades and giving up the additional trade asset?

As you can see from the tweet above, Clark is an upgrade over Ford.

In addition to the above comparison of Clark and Ford’s career grades, Pro Football Focus also pointed out that Frank has produced three straight seasons of 56 or more pressures. Dee Ford has reached that number only once (last year) and on top of that, last season’s career year was the only season in which Ford finished with a higher overall grade than Clark’s worst graded season of 66.1 (his rookie season).

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Grades aren’t everything, but this helps to display that Clark is an upgrade over Ford.

Along with having lower grades than Clark, Ford is two years older and injured significantly more than Clark. Ford has missed 13 games in his five-year career and Clark has only missed two games in his four-year career and has played in two straight 16 game seasons.

This is not to say that a freak accident can’t happen to cause Clark to miss games, but Ford’s back injuries could potentially be a very real long-term concern. That was probably a big factor in the decision to trade Ford instead of re-signing him.

FanSided’s Matt Verderame even quoted an anonymous NFL General Manager saying “comparing Dee Ford to Frank Clark is like comparing Joe Flacco to Patrick Mahomes.”

In other words, Clark is a significant upgrade.

Not to get too far into player comparisons, but here’s another interesting one comparing Clark to one of, if not the, best pass rushers in the NFL. There really isn’t a huge gap here, and again Clark is only 25 years old!

Some still may not think that this upgrade warrants giving up a first-round pick and paying a player over $20 million per season versus the under $2 million per year that a rookie salary would amount to, but one more time, the Chiefs are in win now mode. This move makes this fact clearly evident.

This trade makes the first round a little less interesting for Chiefs fans, but the excitement of being in win now mode should make up for it eventually.

Will this move pay off? That is still to be determined, but are the Chiefs correct in putting all their efforts into win now mode? Yep.

Stay tuned to see Clark and the newly retooled Chiefs defense help aid in the Chiefs’ pursuit of the Lombardi Trophy next season.