Heather Harvey/ESPN Images(NEW YORK) — It’s not often you see a trade occur in the NFL, much less on Super Bowl week. Don’t tell that the Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Redskins, though. Kansas City traded quarterback Alex Smith to the Redskins in exchange for cornerback Kendall Fuller and a third-round pick.
This deal affects multiple players, the biggest of course being Alex Smith. Coming off a year in which he had the best quarterback rating in the league with 104.7, Smith departs from a Chiefs’ team he’s started on for the last five seasons. In those years, he led the Chiefs to the playoffs four times, but only had one victory. The Chiefs are also back to back AFC West champions under Smith.
It also affects now former Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins. Last offseason, the decision on whether or not to give Cousins a long-term contract or franchise tag dragged and could have potentially done so again. Washington cleary did not want to go down that road, and instead moved on from Cousins and selected Smith to be its quarterback of the future. Smith has reportedly signed a four-year extension with the Redskins, averaging $23.5 million per year with $71 million guaranteed.
All hope is not lost for Kirk Cousins, however, as there are plenty of teams that could use a starting quarterback of his caliber (Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and New York Jets just to name a few) that could potentially give him the long-term deal he was looking for in Washington but never received.
The Chiefs will now turn to Patrick Mahomes, their first round pick out of Texas Tech in last year’s draft, to handle quarterback duties. There was talk that the strong-armed Mahomes could possibly take Smith’s job during the season if the opportunity presented itself, but it never came to be. Mahomes did get a chance to show what he was made of in the final game of the regular season, throwing for 284 yards in a 27-24 victory over the Denver Broncos.
Believing in Mahomes, Kansas City was able to receive something in return for Smith in the form of a draft pick and corner in Fuller who the team reportedly thinks very highly of. It’s the end of eras in both Washington and Kansas City, but potentially new ones beginning.
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