The Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins, as you are all aware. It hurts to lose a great player, but it was the right move by the Chiefs.
We are all sad to see Hill leave Kansas City. He is the most dynamic non-quarterback in the NFL. Nobody was as fun to watch the second the ball hit his hands. He is a top-three wideout who could go the distance from anywhere on the field at any time. There is no argument to be made that this does hurt the Chiefs for the 2022 season.
But the Chiefs are not an organization that will risk the future for a one or two-year try. Fans need to understand that this is the NFL, not the MLB, and not the Kansas City Royals. The Chiefs don’t have a small window to win before we lose all our players and have no chance at a title. The Royals window starts this season with only four real seasons worth of time to win a ring. So they should be going all-in for that four years because when it’s over, they’ll be back to 100 losses.
Patrick Mahomes gives the Chiefs at worst ten more years’ worth of a window to win a ring or more. That means you don’t put any of those years at risk by making decisions that only help one or two years.
The Chiefs didn’t have to trade Hill even without a contract extension. This year, he is under contract, and they could have franchised him for the 2023 season. No, he would not have held off games, training game probably, but no games. It would have cost the Chiefs $20 million in cap this year and around $23 million in 2023. He’d have been the same Hill and would have been awesome to watch as the Chiefs competed for Super Bowls in both seasons. But then he’d be gone, and we’d have gotten a compensatory third-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
Instead of that scenario, this trade now gives the Chiefs an extra first, second, and fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft. It also gives them an extra fourth and sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft. It also frees up $43 million in cap space to use on other positions of need versus the keeping him scenario. It saves them $75 million in cap space over the next three years and gets no draft picks if they’d signed him to the monster contract the Dolphins did.
Just as there is no debating that this trade hurts the team for 2022, there is no debating that this helps the team for 2023 and beyond. It gives them the cap flexibility to improve multiple positions in free agency while loading up on picks to bring in young cheap talent. This allows the Chiefs to make the moves needed to continue being the favorite in the league for years to come.
As we advance, fans need to remember who we are. We still have Patrick Mahomes for our quarterback. He is the best quarterback in the NFL and does not need All-Pros weapons at every position. No, he can’t win with 5 Demarcus Robinsons, but he can win with the talent Brett Veach will give him. The Chiefs are not the Green Bay Packers; they draft better and are stronger in free agency. So that Packers fear I hear so often is nonsense.
Andy Reid is still the head coach and offensive genius for the Chiefs. This trade should show fans that Reid is not going anywhere anytime soon. If you think he’s leaving in a year or two, this is not a trade you make. He has shown the ability to mix and match weapons and win games every single year in the NFL. There are zero reasons to think he won’t have an offense ready to go without Hill.
The Chiefs still have weapons on the roster. Travis Kelce is the best tight end in the NFL and is still in his prime and under contract for at least the next four seasons. The Chiefs recently signed Juju Smith-Schuster not long ago. No, he’s not Hill; that’s stupid. But he is a reliable veteran who Mahomes can trust. They have Mecole Hardman, who took a step forward at the end of the 2021 season and has been hungry for a chance to prove he can handle a bigger role.
The biggest thing fans need to remember, though, is that it is March! Apparently, a lot of Chiefs Kingdom has forgotten, but the regular season doesn’t start until September. Seasons are not judged based on what happens in March; if it were, the Los Angeles Chargers would be in the middle of the greatest dynasty of all time. Brett Veach now has the most cap space of any team in the NFL. He has 12 picks in the upcoming draft, including five in the first 103 picks.
The idea that people are already declaring the Chiefs’ Super Bowl hopes dead is insane. Are they the overwhelming favorite in Las Vegas now? Of course not, but that is based on where the league is in March. It is ok to be said a player we all liked and cheered for is gone. Nobody should be mad at Hill; he earned a huge payday after playing on team-friendly deals for six years. I have no problem with Hill wanting his money. Also, nobody should hate the Chiefs or Veach for not signing Hill to that contract. The NFL is a business, and this was part of the business of winning at the highest level.
It’s ok to be sad; it is not ok to be irrational and judge the season or this one move today. On paper, it was the right move for the Chiefs’ long term and hurt them short term. But we won’t know for sure if this was a good trade or not for at least two years. So please take a deep breath, calm down, and wait to see what Veach has planned for us. The sky is not falling, and the clock is nowhere near midnight on the Kansas City Chiefs. The future is still very bright on both the 2022 season in beyond!
Do you think trading Tyreek Hill was the right move by the Chiefs? Leave a comment down below to join the discussion.
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