The Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins in exchange for five draft picks, in some ways signaling the end of an era for the Kansas City offense.
Since quarterback Patrick Mahomes took over as the Chiefs’ QB1 in 2018, Mahomes has used Hill and tight end Travis Kelce as his clear primary targets.
But now that will change. Kansas City has signed JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling at receiver and they’ll help carry the load following Hill’s departure. And the Chiefs have a league-high 12 selections entering this week’s draft, including two picks in each of the first four rounds.
So even as the three other teams in the AFC West have gotten substantially better on paper this offseason, the Chiefs are still expecting to compete at the top of the division.
“When you have Pat Mahomes, we’ll be wired to go after it every year,” General Manager Brett Veach said last week, via Adam Teicher of ESPN. “Even though you may make moves and you may trade really good players, it doesn’t mean [there won’t] be another counterpunch and that we [won’t] try to be aggressive in another way. You just have to be smart and flexible in what you do. What’s needed to do that is draft resources and cap space.
“Just because you trade away a great player doesn’t mean we’re in a rebuilding mode by any means. It just means we’re going to find a new set of resources and we’re going to try to be aggressive.”
The Chiefs have hosted the AFC Championship Game in each of Mahomes’ four seasons as a starter, advancing to two Super Bowls and winning one of them. And with Mahomes still around, Kansas City could very well end up hosting another in 2022.
