KC Chiefs: Could Michael Gallup be a trade target?

Continuing our series of Dallas Cowboys players the K.C. Chiefs should trade for…Okay, but in all seriousness the Cowboys do have a handful of players they need to make decisions on and one of those is of course, wide receiver Michael Gallup. The veteran receiver will be entering the final year of his rookie contract this season after being drafted in the 3rd round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Gallup has been a great weapon for the Cowboys since coming into the league, recording 507 yards and 2 TD’s on just 33 catches as a rookie. Gallup continued to improve as a sophmore as he exploded for 1,107 yards and 6 TD’s on 66 catches. Gallup was quickly becoming one of the most underrated receivers in all of the league playing next to Amari Cooper in the Cowboys offense. However, the Cowboys went on to draft Oklahoma wide receiver prospect CeeDee Lamb in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

Obviously, there’s only so many targets to go around on an NFL team and due to the addition of CeeDee Lamb, Gallup saw his targets go down from 113 in 2019 to 105 in 2020. Not a huge dip, but he did end up with much less yards in 2020 (843) than 2019 and he had one less touchdown.

It’s not just the dip in usage that puts Gallup and Dallas’ future in question, though. It’s the fact that they’ve already thrown out so much money. They’ve already paid guys like DeMarcus Lawrence, Jaylon Smith, Amari Cooper, Ezekiel Elliot, and most recently Dak Prescott just in the past few years. Unfortunately for Dallas, this has set them up to be bottom five in available cap space over the next few years after 2021 according to Over The Cap.

So, they’ve already paid Amari Cooper and they also drafted Lamb just last year who they probably would like to keep long-term. Do they really want to pay Gallup as well? That’s a lot of investment in one position.

The KC Chiefs should target Michael Gallup

If they don’t, the Kansas City Chiefs should definitely check in on the Cowboys receiver. While many were high on the Cornell Powell pick in the NFL Draft for Kansas City and the Chiefs already have quite a few receivers on roster already, the number of receivers that fans can look at beyond Tyreek Hill and say they’re comfortable is pretty low.

That being said, Michael Gallup could be an interesting offseason trade candidate if the Chiefs wanted to get the sure thing at wide receiver. Gallup is a guy that if Tyreek Hill were to go down, you could actually feel pretty comfortable with as your No. 1 wide receiver. Can we really say that about anyone else on the Chiefs roster?

Gallup also has great contested catch ability because of his good size at 6’1″, 200 lbs, and has developed into a pretty good route runner which is the type of receiver Kansas City wants in their WR2 role.

Ultimately, the Kansas City Chiefs will probably stick with what they have at receiver and they do appear to be pretty high on internal candidates, but as fans continue to dream about a potential Julio Jones trade, Gallup is actually more realistic if the Chiefs want to upgrade at receiver and still has upside at just 25 years old and no injury history.