{"id":680532,"date":"2026-01-16T00:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680532\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:33:16","slug":"rams-trade-idea-sends-chiefs-cb-to-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680532\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams trade idea sends Chiefs CB to LA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> will have a lot of flexibility and avenues to upgrade the roster during the 2026 offseason. They\u2019re armed with two first-round picks, a decent amount of salary cap space and the pedigree of a winning franchise.<\/p>\n

While they could use their draft picks to find developmental talent, Bleacher Report\u2019s Alex Ballentine<\/a> suggested the Rams use one of those early selections to trade for a veteran. His idea: move a first-round pick for Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Rams are still alive in the hunt for the Lombardi Trophy, but giving up a combined 215 yards on 14 catches to Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan on Wild-Card Weekend reveals how desperately the Rams need a shutdown corner.<\/p>\n

Their need for a cover man could be the Achilles heel that keeps them from winning a championship.<\/p>\n

We know that general manager Les Snead is not one to sit on his hands to address a need. Snead has a long track record of trading picks for star players. They also happen to have two first-round picks, which could pave the way for the Rams to deal their late first and use the 13th pick they got from the Falcons.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach isn’t afraid to trade away players if they don’t want to pay up. McDuffie and the Chiefs attempted to negotiate a new contract ahead of the season, but couldn’t come to terms.<\/p>\n

McDuffie is an ideal defensive back to anchor a secondary. His ability to play press-man coverage, combined with his positional versatility, is relatively unique.<\/p>\n

The Rams have $81.5 million in cap space, meaning they could make the trade for McDuffie, then sign him to a deal that would reset the cornerback market.<\/p>\n

That would certainly be a move with ripples across the league for anyone looking to sign or re-sign a cornerback.<\/p>\n

McDuffie, 25, isn\u2019t just young \u2014 he\u2019s been incredibly productive during his career. The cornerback made his first All-Pro team in 2023 and he\u2019s been one of the top shutdown defensive backs over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n

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He’s also cheap right now \u2014 which is good and bad. As Ballentine alluded to, McDuffie will need a new deal once the 2026 season is over. The Rams could afford it, but they’ll also have several other high-profile contracts to look out for soon. That cap space could dry up quickly.<\/p>\n

And while the idea is certainly interesting, it would be pretty surprising to see the Chiefs move on from such a foundational piece of their defense. While McDuffie missed a lot of games this year due to injury, he’s still a top-flight cornerback that any team would love to deploy.<\/p>\n

But if the Chiefs are preparing for a future without Patrick Mahomes for a little while, perhaps they’ll want some cap relief in the meantime. That’s where Snead and McVay could come in to make another push for a Super Bowl in 2026. It would cost them one of their first-round picks, but it would certainly be worth the swing to add a star cornerback to a downtrodden secondary.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams trade idea sends Chiefs CB to LA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams will have a lot of flexibility and avenues to upgrade the roster during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[3334,7,3545,110,3308,1014,58,2444,2611,6,499,424,1453,4223],"class_list":{"0":"post-680532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-cornerback","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jalen-coker","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-les-snead","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-rams","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesrams","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-patrick-mahomes","19":"tag-rams","20":"tag-tetairoa-mcmillan","21":"tag-trent-mcduffie"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}