Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes received a promising solution to the wide receiver injuries with the arrival of DeAndre Hopkins. But the Kansas City Chiefs still have other gaps to fill, and a New England Patriots star could be their guy before the 2024 NFL trade deadline.
With Mike Danna on the sidelines due to a pectoral issue, Seth Walder of ESPN suggests that the Chiefs should make a move for Patriots linebacker Joshua Uche before November 5.
“Kansas City could use Uche to sub in for Mike Danna in passing situations and ought to get a lot more disruption as a result,” Walder wrote. “Danna has a 4.4% pass rush win rate at edge, while Uche is off to a scorching start with a 24.1% pass rush win rate. Back in 2022, Uche had a 18.5% pressure rate — the highest for any player in an entire season in ESPN’s dataset (back to 2017). Uche is also cheap, which helps a lot in this case because Kansas City is tight against the salary cap.”
At 26, Uche is on a one-year, $3 million contract. His deal includes incentives, but he only counts $1.3 million in base salary. Now that Reid and Mahomes have the star pass catcher they needed with Hopkins, the Chiefs can switch their attention to other needs, so targeting Uche would make sense.
Chiefs have cap space to trade for Uche
After getting Hopkins, Kansas City made sure to leave the door open for another potential trade. On Friday, Field Yates of ESPN reported that the Chiefs created $5.3 million in cap space by restructuring right tackle Jawaan Taylor’s contract.
This gives the Chiefs the space they need to get another player on their wage bill. We’ll have to wait and see whether they make the most of it, and if they use it on Uche or another name.
Patriots expected to trade Uche
According to Karen Guregian of MassLive Sports, the Patriots are looking to trade Uche with the expectation of getting a fifth-round draft pick in return, though people around the league reportedly believe the best they’ll get is a sixth-rounder:
“Linebacker Joshua Uche has been dangled by the Patriots with hopes of landing a fifth-rounder in exchange….The feeling in NFL circles is the best Uche will net is a sixth-rounder in return.”
The Patriots listed Uche as inactive for the Week 8 game against the New York Jets, a decision that seems to say a lot about his future as the player is not injured. Maybe it’s a matter of time before we see him on another uniform. Will that team be the Chiefs?