Breaking down blockbuster Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs trade
The Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks made a blockbuster trade involving DE Frank Clark and a 2019 first-round pick.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks agreed to a blockbuster deal ahead of the 2019 NFL Draft involving the Chiefs’ top draft choice (pick no. 29 overall) and defensive end Frank Clark as the headliners on the move.
The trade has been rumored to be in the works for some time now, but talks obviously really heated up within the last 24 hours. Peter Schrager mentioned on Good Morning Football that the Chiefs and Frank Clark was a situation worth monitoring.
Ian Rapoport said the two teams were progressing towards a possible deal, and then Adam Schefter dropped this:
Seahawks agreed to trade their franchise player, DE Frank Clark, to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2019 first-round pick, a 2020 second-round pick and an exchange of third-round picks this year, per league sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 23, 2019
Let’s take a look at the trade in its entirety.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks traded away a stud defensive end in Frank Clark, who has averaged 11 sacks and 11 tackles for loss per 16 games over the past three seasons. He had a career-high 13 sacks this past season in a contract year.
With that said, I do not believe he was worthy of a first and second-round pick.
The Seahawks got great value here. Clark was a solid player for them but their defense has already been purged beyond the point of recognition, so getting two premium draft picks (they now have two selections in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, obviously) for a guy who could probably be considered a ‘very good’ 4-3 defensive end rather than an elite edge player in the NFL is phenomenal.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs are going to a 4-3 defense under Steve Spagnuolo, so they determined Justin Houston and Dee Ford were no longer fits.
Houston, incidentally, signed on to play in a 4-3 defense with the Colts.
The Chiefs gave up a lot here to get Clark. Not only did they surrender two high draft picks, they also have to pay Clark a long-term contract.
When looking at the Chiefs’ defensive line in its entirety, they have a pretty strong group brewing but it’s their back seven players that are concerning.
Still, this trade doesn’t look good for the Chiefs. They don’t have a first-round pick in this year’s draft and arguably downgraded from Dee Ford, who had a whopping seven forced fumbles last season and was a huge difference maker.
Why not just pay him? Would he really be that much worse just not dropping into coverage?
They only got a second-round pick for Ford, and he’s a better player than Clark in my opinion.
dark. Next. Four teams likely to trade up in the 2019 NFL Draft
I do not love this trade for the Chiefs, and the jury’s out for the Seahawks until we see what they do with the picks they’ve acquired.