Tennessee Titans ideal trade target from the Kansas City Chiefs
By Will Lomas
Could the Tennessee Titans land a star (that they don’t really want) from the Kansas City Chiefs?
The Tennessee Titans are going to make a deal this preseason, but the only question is which team will give them what they want.
One team that surprisingly isn’t afraid to give away assets is the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite being in their championship window, they have traded away the likes of Dee Ford and Marcus Peters in back to back seasons.
It is pretty clear that if they have a good player who isn’t a perfect fit or who is costing too much money, they aren’t afraid to ship him off to get a draft pick. They then flip that pick to land a player they believe will have an impact on their roster.
Titans GM Jon Robinson probably sees this as a great chance to add pro-bowl caliber talent to his roster without having to overpay.
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The way I see it, this is how the Chiefs are building their team in this order:
-Load up on offensive weapons all over the field, the most explosion the better.
-Strengthen the offensive line.
-Play aggressive on defense and value the scheme over the players.
As crazy as it sounds, I think the Chiefs may really be building something similar to the New England Patriots. Don’t forget that the Patriots are just a few years removed from trading Chandler Jones for a 2nd round pick and a little bit farther away from when they traded Richard Seymour for a 1st round pick.
In this salary era, it seems like you really need to pick a side of the ball to invest in and make that side truly dominant. Over the next two years, these offensive players will likely get new contracts from the Chiefs:
–Tyreek Hill (if he stays out of trouble)
The first two especially will be massive contracts that will probably end up around $50 million per year. In fact, I would say that number is a little low after they were committed to making Hill the highest paid WR in the NFL before all of this controversy came out.
So the most important things to take away from this before I discuss my trade target:
-Chiefs entire team is based off of Mahomes and the offense.
-A massive cap hit is coming after this offseason where they already have limited cap space.
-The front office really doesn’t value defensive players outside of maybe EDGEs.
So, I think the Tennessee Titans should call and make a strong offer for Chris Jones, DT.
I think if you call the Kansas City Chiefs today and offer them a 2020 2nd round pick, you could really intrigue Brett Veach to make that deal. If you take away his huge 2018 campaign, Jones only had 8.5 career sacks in 32 games.
Those numbers wouldn’t put him in the top-20 in sacks over from DTs and 3-4 DEs over that stretch. I don’t bring that up to diminish his value, I bring it up to say that he isn’t a consistently elite pass rusher despite his insane year in 2018.
If you are Veach are you going to gamble that he is going to have another elite season in 2019? It is really lose-lose, because if he does you probably won’t pay him what he is asking and if he doesn’t then you probably still won’t pay him what he is asking or franchise tag him.
So why not trade him for a 2nd round pick now?
For the Titans this one is easy. The weakest position on the roster is DT opposite Jurrell Casey and this is a crucial year for all involved. This is the year you need to take that step forward and become a team that makes the playoffs every year, and winning the AFC South this year would go a long way towards that.
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What better way to win the AFC South than to get another interior pass rusher who can play end in your 3-4 looks? The Titans would get Jones and Casey all year and they would have the potential of bringing Jeffery Simmons in if he can get healthy.
If you are even a little bit concerned about Simmons, go ahead and shut him down no big deal because you have your blue-chip players already.
When Jones walks after this season you hope that he gets a massive deal and you get a 2021 3rd round compensatory pick. Let’s face it, the Titans probably won’t have a fun offseason next year anyway and if this happened they would probably lose three starters and spend the rest of their money keeping their other players.
So why not keep who you can and then collect a few 2021 draft picks in the process including a top-100 pick for Jones?
It gives you less flexibility in the 2020 NFL Draft, but you would have your potential playoff run and you would have players who could rise to starting positions in 2020 anyway like Jeffery Simmons, Amani Hooker, Nate Davis, and Corey Levin. Situations like this are why you draft those developmental players/long term options.
Again, the Chiefs get a chance to add some talent next offseason through that extra 2nd round pick if they want to trade it or use it for a cheap starter in the draft.
While it sounds like a move they wouldn’t make because they are in their championship window, they already have Derrick Nnadi and (rookie) Khalen Saunders plus maybe the Titans send them Daquan Jones or Austin Johnson to help their depth.
Quick reminder, the Chiefs were one of the worst defenses in the NFL in points per game despite playing two of the worst offenses in the NFL (Denver and Oakland) four times, and were still one bad call away from the Super Bowl. So how much does defense really matter to them?