The Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs have swung the first major trade of the NFL offseason.
The Chiefs are trading cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams in exchange for the No. 29 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft, along with fifth- and sixth-round picks this year and a third-round pick in 2027, a person with knowledge of the deal told USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade could not become official until the start of the new league year on March 11.
The deal significantly changes the landscape for two teams desperate to claw back to the front of the pack in their respective conferences. For Los Angeles, it serves as the latest marquee veteran addition – at perhaps the most pressing area of need – for a team seeking to capitalize on NFL MVP Matthew Stafford’s return. The Chiefs, meanwhile, receive more ammunition for resetting a roster that still has several needs and is undergoing some salary cap-related shifts.
But who came out ahead in the deal? Here are grades for each team:
Rams trade grade: B
Turns out Rams general manager Les Snead wasn’t kidding about trying to maximize Stafford’s competitive window.
After the 38-year-old quarterback announced after taking home the league’s top individual award that he would be returning for the 2026 season, Snead later suggested that the team was intent on catering its offseason to ‘make the most of the time we have’ with the passer. On Tuesday, Snead seemed to tease the possibility of using one of his two first-round picks to swing a splashy deal.
“Is there an All-Pro that you could add?” Snead told reporters. “That would be nice.”
Less than 24 hours later, he has one in the former Chiefs standout.
McDuffie’s arrival shores up the back end of a Rams defense that unraveled down the stretch, culminating with Sam Darnold torching the group for 346 yards and three touchdowns in Los Angeles’ NFC championship game defeat. Coverage performance can be volatile, but the four-year veteran has reliably clamped down on opposing receivers. And parting with the latter of the Rams’ two first-rounders and holding onto their payoff from the Atlanta Falcons’ ill-conceived gamble last year was a nice touch from Snead.
Still, this is a fairly considerable compensation package – including the a likely extension that should be costly – for a player not in an elite tier at his position group. And there are at least a couple areas of concern.
At 5-11 and 193, McDuffie doesn’t solve Los Angeles’ lingering problem of matching up with bulkier receivers. Those size limitations led Kansas City to place the 2022 first-round pick in the slot early in his career, and the result was an All-Pro campaign in 2023. Staying there full-time with the Rams might be a non-starter given how much the team gave up to land him, but moving him inside at least occasionally should be a consideration.
McDuffie also struggled last season with the Chiefs tilting more toward zone coverages, allowing a career-worst catch rate of 67.9% and a passer rating of 96.3 when targeted, according to Next Gen Stats. That might seem like a bad fit for defensive coordinator Chris Shula’s scheme, which tends to live in zone looks. Maybe the move indicates the team wants to deploy more man coverage to better combat the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and other top-flight targets capable of burning the secondary.
There’s plenty to like about the configuration the Rams have to make this work, including the presence of Jimmy Lake, McDuffie’s college coach at Washington, as the newly appointed defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator. And perhaps this was merely an overdue investment for Snead, who had largely scoured the bargain bin at cornerback since parting with Jalen Ramsey in 2023.
Still, as Snead somewhat returns to his ‘(expletive) them picks’ roots, it seems clear that the Rams paid a premium to address their most glaring deficiency with a proven entity rather than one of the draft’s top cover men. Whether that apparent overpay will be justified in the end won’t become clear until at least next January.
Chiefs trade grade: A-
The knee-jerk reaction for many in Kansas City might be best summed up by Patrick Mahomes.
‘Damn,’ the Chiefs quarterback wrote after news broke of McDuffie being sent packing.
Some disappointment is only natural for an organization attempting to reclaim its status as the AFC’s alpha after falling to 6-11 last season, the franchise’s worst mark in a decade-plus. Viewed through the proper lens, however, this deal might actually help fast-track a resurgence.
That general manager Brett Veach bailed on paying yet another standout cornerback should come as no surprise. Veach previously walked away from both L’Jarius Sneed and Charvarius Ward rather than pay them top-of-market contracts.
If McDuffie wasn’t in Kansas City’s long-term plans, offloading him before he reaches free agency might simply have been good business. Not only do the Chiefs not have to worry about fitting him into a cap-crunched roster this year and beyond, they can now focus on re-signing fellow cornerback Jaylen Watson, who ranked 13th on Nate Davis’ top 100 free agent rankings and likely would not have been able to return without the secondary’s sea change.
But the big boon here is the draft picks. As Kansas City gets set to make its earliest selection (No. 9) since 2013, the breadth of the team’s needs at premium positions is rather imposing. Yes, a wide receiver to assist Mahomes would be of massive value. Then again, a massively disruptive defensive end or defensive tackle could also be required. And don’t forget about the lackluster outlook at running back, safety and potentially tight end if Travis Kelce retires.
With a second Day 1 selection and additional draft resources in hand, Veach now is well-positioned to build something formidable for the latter half of Mahomes’ career rather than merely cling on to the vestiges of a bygone era. And going this route was necessary given what Kansas City faced with its salary cap.
Pressure on Veach, however, ramps up considerably in April. Describing the general manager’s draft track record as uneven would be charitable, and his various missteps in evaluating young talent have played a central role in Kansas City’s roster becoming so lopsided.
But Veach has also displayed a shrewd sense for when to sell high on his existing veterans, and he might have timed the market correctly again here.